🌱 How do products impact the environment?
The mass consumption of products is considered “a major cause of climate change and pollution”. Products can, however, be produced in more sustainable ways. According to the European Commission, a product could be considered more sustainable if it, for example, “[u]ses less energy, [l]asts longer, [c]an be easily repaired, [p]arts can be easily disassembled and put to further use, [c]ontains fewer substances of concern, [c]an be easily recycled, [c]ontains more recycled content, [or] [h]as a lower carbon and environmental footprint over its lifecycle”.
🌱 Why was the ESPR put in place?
The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) is in force as of 18 July 2024 and replaces the EU’s past Ecodesign Directive. It is part of a larger package of new measures aimed at “achieving the objectives of the 2020 Circular Economy Action Plan”. This package of measures has been put in place to help “the EU reach its environmental and climate goals” of “doubling its circularity rate of material use and to achieving its energy efficiency targets by 2030”.
🌱 What is the aim?
The ESPR aims to make products on the EU market “more environmentally sustainable and circular”. It contains measures around digital product passports and green public procurement. The ESPR also includes rules “to address destruction of unsold consumer products”. The goal is to “improve the circularity, energy performance and other environmental sustainability aspects of products placed on the EU market”. The EU hopes the regulation will create incentives for “protecting our planet, fostering more sustainable business models and strengthening the overall competitiveness and resilience of the EU economy”.
🌱 What standards does it set out?
The ESPR is a so-called “framework legislation”. This means that “concrete product rules will be decided progressively over time, on a product-by-product basis, or horizontally, on the basis of groups of products with similar characteristics”. The regulation applies to almost all categories of physical goods – with several exceptions, like food and feed. It will establish performance and information conditions or so-called “ecodesign requirements” for different product groups. Concretely, the ESPR will set out requirements to: “[i]mprove product durability, reusability, upgradability and reparability, [m]ake products more energy and resource-efficient, [a]ddress the presence of substances that inhibit circularity, [i]ncrease recycled content, [m]ake products easier to remanufacture and recycle, [s]et rules on carbon and environmental footprints, [and] [i]mprove the availability of information on product sustainability”. Under the regulation, similar requirements will be set on product groups that have similar characteristics.
🌱 How will it be implemented?
The implementation of the ESPR will start with “a prioritisation exercise, followed by [the] publication of a working plan [that] sets out the products and measures to be addressed” over time. This will be followed by an “Ecodesign Forum”. The forum’s goal is the “[d]evelopment of product rules”, that are to be “based on inclusive planning, detailed impact assessments and regular stakeholder consultation”.
Read more about the ESPR here:
- https://green-business.ec.europa.eu/implementing-ecodesign-sustainable-products-regulation_en
- https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1781/oj
- https://environment.ec.europa.eu/strategy/circular-economy-action-plan_en