The Corporate Knights Sustainable Economy Taxonomy started with a focus on sustainable revenue – revenue from sales of goods and services that contribute to an efficient, renewable, low-carbon energy system, or to a circular economy, or to sustainable production generally, and in a limited number of well-defined cases, to social benefits. In 2020 (Version 3.0), the scope was expanded to include sustainable capital expenditures, sustainable R&D (research and development) expenditures, and sustainable acquisitions.
This 2024 revision of the Sustainable Economy Taxonomy is Version 8.0. It maintains the same scope and two-tier organization of Version 7.0. Changes from previous versions are detailed in the “Revisions Log” tab. The most significant developments since Version 7.0 are updates to the quantification of sustainable revenues and investments in:
– The semiconductor industry (Sustainable Economy Taxonomy Tier 1: Green Products; Tier 2: Semiconductors and Chips),
– Vehicle manufacturing (Tier 1: Vehicles; Tier 2: ZEV – Zero Emission Vehicles), and
– Finance (Tier 1: Finance and Insurance; Tier 2: Sustainable Loans and Mortgages; Sustainable Bond Underwriting and Advisory Services)
Additionally, the CK Sustainable Economy Taxonomy can now be used to quantify commitments (sustainable revenue commitments, sustainable investment commitments and sustainable finance commitments).
The same definitions of “sustainable” are used for all seven types of data that can be tracked using the Sustainable Economy Taxonomy – sustainable revenue, sustainable capital expenditures, sustainable R&D, sustainable acquisitions, sustainable revenue commitments, sustainable investment commitments and sustainable finance commitments. Any company that sells goods or services anywhere along the supply chain for the activities and products identified in the Sustainable Economy Taxonomy can claim the revenue from those sales as sustainable revenue. The same principle applies to sustainable capital expenditures, sustainable R&D expenditures, and sustainable acquisitions – if the expenditure is directed at expanding the production of any of the activities in the Sustainable Economy Taxonomy, it qualifies as “sustainable” in the Corporate Knights system.
