de Gier, A; Gottlieb, S C; Koch, C and Frederiksen, N (2022) EU taxonomy for sustainable activities: A source of decoupling or a pathway for greening the construction industry? In: Tutesigensi, A and Neilson, C J (eds.) Proceedings of 38th Annual ARCOM Conference, 5-7 September 2022, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK.
Abstract
The European Action Plan on financing sustainable growth sets new legislative demands to meet the Paris agreement obligations and fulfil the ambition to make Europe CO2 neutral by 2050. An important element in this respect is the EU taxonomy. In this paper, we ask the question how a construction organisation implements strategies in relation to the EU taxonomy and analyse the strategic responses throughout the organisation. The study builds on qualitative data from a large Danish construction company. Through an institutional theory perspective, we explore how and with what effects the regulation is received and implemented at different levels of the organisation. The preliminary results show that the taxonomy is a source of decoupling and that different levels of the organisation respond differently to the regulation with focus shifting from ensuring compliance at a strategic level to a more practice-orientated approach on the project level. In conclusion, it is argued that the taxonomy as a policy tool to greening the construction industry is still underdeveloped and immature as displayed by the observed decoupling between policy instrument and project practice.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction industry; EU taxonomy; institutional theory; organisational response; sustainability |
| Index terms: | strategy, decoupling, construction company, institutional theory, construction organization, compliance, Europe, greening, taxonomy, construction industry, financing, policy instrument, Paris, regulation |
| Subjects: | management, physical geography and landforms, health safety and environment, sustainable design, Geography, sociology, industry analysis, political science, systems engineering, organization, policy studies, data analysis and analytics, economic analysis |
| Topics: | Governance, Sustainability, Health and Safety, Business Strategy, Engineering Principles, Geographical Context, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here