EU Taxonomy Update — What’s New

The European Commission released the latest delegated acts for the EU Taxonomy, expanding its scope to additional sectors. While intended to guide sustainable finance, the taxonomy remains binary and complex to apply. PI advocates for a graded approach reflecting real impact contributions rather than pass/fail classifications.

• Binary eligibility replaced with impact-based scoring in PI’s model.
• Improved clarity on “Do No Significant Harm” (DNSH) criteria.
• Application challenges persist for SMEs and service sectors.

Materiality Clarified — Avoiding the Chicken-and-Egg Problem

Materiality assessments often start with stakeholder opinions instead of factual impact data. Our approach reverses this logic: start with measured or evidenced impacts, then validate with stakeholders. This ensures completeness and credibility.

• Step 1 — Identify and quantify real impacts.
• Step 2 — Map related financial effects, risks, and opportunities.
• Step 3 — Use stakeholder dialogue to prioritize, not define, topics.

This method avoids circular reasoning and supports defensible double materiality.

PI Frameworks in Action

Organizations are piloting our Impact Accounting, Value & Risk, and Strategy Frameworks to align sustainability data with decision-making. Early adopters report better board engagement and clearer linkages between ESG performance and profitability.

We are open for additional pilot partnerships and would be happy to discuss opportunities.

Events & Resources

• Webinar: “Double Materiality Made Practical” — September 23 · Online.
• Workshop: “Connecting Impacts and Strategy” — September 30 · Cologne.
• New publication: “How to Quantify Positive and Negative Impacts” — available in our Resources section.