Taxono-what?

Economy and ecology have more in common than sharing the same first letter. When it comes to climate change, sustainable business practices are now the basis for all business. But what does sustainability in business mean? This is now something that is regulated by the EU via its Taxonomy Regulation, which has outlined binding standards for large businesses since 2022. At its core are six environmental targets that companies are to support: climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources, transition to a circular economy, pollution prevention and control, and protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems. A company can be said to engage in taxonomy-aligned business practices if it makes a significant contribution towards one of these environmental targets without having a negative impact on any of the others. It must also comply with international standards in terms of human rights and social issues, for example.

The idea behind the EU Taxonomy is that transparency with regard to companies’ commitment to environmentally friendly practices makes it easier for investors to identify sustainable capital investments. This should then result in more investments being diverted to sustainable companies and green technologies, while supporting the EU Green Deal. Consistent standards also help to prevent the risk of greenwashing by companies.

Using the clear evaluation criteria in the EU Taxonomy, HHLA is able to prove that it takes climate protection seriously. For example, 79 percent of its 2023 revenue is taxonomy-aligned, while for capital expenditure (CapEx), this figure rises to 87 percent. “These figures far outstrip the industry average in the transport sector. They show that the HHLA business model is very sustainable and that we don’t just apply these principles to individual pilot projects,” says Jan Hendrik Pietsch, Head of Sustainability at HHLA. “The high percentage of taxonomy-aligned capital expenditure shows that we will be investing in protecting the climate in future, too.”

The above-average values are also the result of transporting freight by rail, which is something that HHLA subsidiary Metrans does almost entirely with electric multi-system locomotives. Because shipping results in relatively low carbon emissions, “infrastructure for low-carbon shipping” is also classed by the EU as being advantageous for climate change mitigation. Here, the HHLA business model really shows off its advantages by dovetailing maritime shipping and rail transport, thus making a major contribution towards protecting the climate. “In applying the EU Taxonomy, we conducted a climate risk analysis and looked at how extreme weather events and climate models will affect our operational processes in 2050 at various locations,” says Pietsch. “The results showed that our existing infrastructure and suprastructure is very resilient.”