The EU Taxonomy is the bloc’s classification system for environmentally sustainable economic activities. Investors, large companies, and financial-market participants must report what share of their turnover, capex, and opex is Taxonomy-aligned. This checker helps you find where your activity sits and what you must prove.
Why eligible is not the same as aligned
Many companies discover this distinction the hard way: they assume that because an activity appears somewhere in the Taxonomy it automatically counts as sustainable for disclosure purposes. It does not.
Eligible means only that the Delegated Acts have a section describing your type of activity. You can report an eligibility ratio without further assessment.
Aligned is the harder test — and the only one that genuinely counts as “sustainable” for SFDR product disclosure and CSRD reporting. It requires all three of the following at once:
- Substantial contribution to at least one of the six environmental objectives.
- Do No Significant Harm (DNSH) to each of the other five objectives, tested against specific technical criteria.
- Compliance with the Minimum Safeguards on labour rights and human rights.
A company that reports a high eligibility share alongside a low alignment share is telling a story that is technically correct but easy to misread as greenwashing. Know which number you are computing.
How it works
The Taxonomy applies a layered test. An activity is first checked for eligibility, then for the three alignment conditions:
eligible = activity is described in a Delegated Act
aligned = substantial contribution to ≥1 of 6 objectives
AND do no significant harm (DNSH) to the other 5
AND meets the Minimum SafeguardsThis tool maps your selected sector to the objective(s) it can substantially contribute to, then lists exactly which DNSH objectives remain to be assessed — that is, the five objectives you are not contributing to but must avoid harming.
The six environmental objectives
| Objective | What “substantially contributing” looks like |
|---|---|
| Climate change mitigation | Reducing or avoiding greenhouse gas emissions |
| Climate change adaptation | Adapting physical infrastructure to climate risk |
| Water and marine resources | Sustainable water use, marine ecosystem protection |
| Circular economy | Waste prevention, reuse, repair, recycling |
| Pollution prevention | Reducing pollutants in air, water, and soil |
| Biodiversity and ecosystems | Protecting and restoring habitats and species |
Practical example
Renewable electricity generation (onshore wind, solar PV) is eligible and substantially contributes to climate change mitigation. To reach alignment it must also:
- Pass DNSH on water use (turbine cooling, land drainage for solar arrays)
- Pass DNSH on biodiversity (flight path risk for birds, habitat disruption during construction)
- Meet Minimum Safeguards (ILO core labour standards in the supply chain, OECD guidelines)
Coal electricity is not eligible — no amount of supplementary investment makes it Taxonomy-compliant. This matters for banks and asset managers reporting to SFDR who need to exclude non-eligible activities from their “green” KPIs.
Treat the objective mapping here as a planning tool: the binding technical screening criteria live in the relevant Climate or Environmental Delegated Act and are updated periodically.