The European Union’s New “Ecodesign” Framework Sets a High Bar for the Future of Product Design
Overview:
The Europen Union recently enacted a new deal that will make sustainable products the norm. These new sets of rules will establish sustainability requirements for nearly all products across the EU, and it will improve upfront information to consumers about a product’s sustainability.
Background
The EU decided to enact actions around product waste as there is a projected 70% increase in waste generation foreseen by 2025, over 90% of biodiversity loss and water stress caused by resource extraction and processing, and 80% of a product's environmental impact is determined at its design phase. The goal of the Ecodesign framework is to improve its circular economy. The EU wants to ensure that a significant amount of the products on the market are designed to be energy/ resource efficient as consumers are demanding better access to information to make well informed decisions around purchasing.
Framework Design
The “Ecodesign” framework will establish sustainability targets for nearly all products across industries in the EU. The framework will set a wide range of requirements including in the areas of product durability, reusability, reparability, presence of substances that inhibit circularity, energy/resource efficiency, recycled content, remanufacturing, and carbon footprints. By 2030, the framework is expected to reduce roughly 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas- equivalent to the import size of Russian gas; it will also lead to 10% lower annual energy consumption.
Source: Cleveland Public Library
Digital Passport
Another aspect of the Ecodesign framework is to introduce a “Digital Product Passport” across a product’s environmental sustainability. This information will be easily accessible by being able to scan a data carrier and information about the product’s durability, reparability, the recycled content or the availability of spare parts of a product will appear. This information will help consumers and businesses make better-informed decisions when purchasing products, creating repairs, and recycling to improve transparency about a product’s life cycle impacts, it will also help public authorities to better perform routine checks and controls.
Timeline
Ecodesign’s development began four years ago with the adoption of the European Green Deal. Since then there has been pressure to install public-facing sustainability for products. From September to June 2022 there was public consultation and roadmaps developed for the product, and from January to May 2023 there was an open public consultation with key stakeholders. As of early December, the EU decided to adopt these rules and companies have two years to adopt these new programs.
As these initiatives are set in stone, it will be imperative to follow in the EU’s footsteps as developed countries continue to raise the bar for ESG initiatives.
Sources:
https://www.esgtoday.com/eu-lawmakers-reach-deal-on-sustainable-product-rules/
