Invitation to tender for project on How do companies respond to the EU Taxonomy

The EU Taxonomy is a cornerstone of the Union’s sustainable finance framework and an important tool for market transparency. One of its functions will be to help direct investments towards economic activities that are in line with the EU’s long-term climate and environmental goals. This will be done by a classification system with criteria for economic activity. The EU Taxonomy paves the way for financial and non-financial companies to share a definition of the economic activities that are considered environmentally sustainable. This will allow the taxonomy to play an important role in scaling up sustainable investments, creating investor confidence, preventing greenwashing and helping companies be more climate and environmentally friendly.

The main purpose of this project is to develop a knowledge base that tells us something about how well the EU Taxonomy will work in the Nordic countries and how companies will relate to and implement/operationalise the regulations in the market/in practice.

The project aims to shed light on the following questions, which have been limited to non-financial companies:

1. How important is it for companies to be classified as sustainable? What might explain differences between  companies?
2. To what extent are the taxonomy definitions taken into account in companies’ restructuring plans?
3. To what extent have companies understood and possibly acquired the competencies they need within their own organisation about the taxonomy rules and reporting criteria?
4. To what extent have companies prepared for the upcoming reporting/documentation at the end of 2023?
5. Are common challenges faced in all of the Nordic countries when it comes to relevant issues related to reporting and understanding the criteria?

The budget framework for the project is DKK 400,000 (incl. VAT) to cover standard project expenses and any travel costs and expenses related to outreach work presenting the findings.

NME at the Nordic Council of Ministers must receive tenders no later than 5 December 2023 at 15:00 CET. All documents must be submitted by this deadline. Material received after this date will not be taken into consideration. A decision will be made in December, and any entity that has submitted a project proposal will be notified of this decision. The date for reporting will be set in the project contract.

Applications must be e-mailed to NME’s administrative body (registratur.sodraosterbotten@ntm-centralen.fi). The project description/application form and compulsory budget schedule must all be in one of the Nordic languages or English. Applications must cite the journal number EPOELY/2780/2023.

Attach additional appendices describing in more detail the factors we take into consideration, e.g. an independent project description and CVs as separate files.

In assessing submissions, emphasis will be placed on:

• the structure and planning of the work, including methodology and how relevant data will be collected and processed
• the allocation of responsibilities, use of time, general skills and qualifications of those managing and implementing the project
• the expenditure for the proposed project period, including hourly rates per person and other expenses
• the tenderer’s previous experience in the area
• the Nordic contacts and networks that will be used in the project and fluency in the Nordic languages
• the timetable
• plans to communicate the project findings.

As per the Nordic Council of Ministers’ funding scheme, the project must be of benefit to the Nordic Region and include actors from at least three of Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland.

NME will assess the applications and choose the successful one. However, the working group reserves the right to reject all applications.

For further information about project content and funding requirements, please refer to the appendices: “Anbudsinbjudan_EU_taxonomin_final.pdf” and ”Application template DK-ENG NME_EU_taxonomin_aktorernas_respons.docx”