On July 18, 2024, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) will come into force as a new piece of EU legislation, approximately seven months after it had been provisionally agreed by the European Commission. The ESPR is viewed as the cornerstone in the EU’s ambitions to make industry greener and cleaner as part of the EU Green Deal and will play a vital part in the bloc achieving its environmental objectives, which include greater circularity of materials use and the reaching of its energy efficiency targets. From the consumer angle, ESPR compliance will become the yardstick for seeing that sustainable products become the norm, thereby reducing environmental and climatic impacts and helping to make a cleaner, greener Europe.
Implementing a New Framework
ESPR is a framework legislation which will slowly be implemented over time. It replaces the Ecodesign Directive 2009/125/EC and sets out the ecodesign requirements for almost all tangible consumer goods (excluding foods for human consumption and animal feeds). The framework will seek to do the following:
• Improve product durability, reusability, upgradability and reparability
• Make products more energy and resource-efficient
• Address the presence of substances that inhibit circularity
• Increase recycled content
• Make products easier to remanufacture and recycle
• Set rules on carbon and environmental footprints
• Improve the availability of information on product sustainability
Where there are broad similarities in product groups, this should allow for across-the-board regulation.
Some industries and segments are being prioritized ahead of others as far as implementation is concerned and as part of the working plan with agreement between the European Council and the European Parliament, the prioritized industry segments are as follows: iron and steel, aluminium, textiles, furniture (including mattresses), tyres, detergents, paints, lubricants, chemicals, energy-related products (including new measures and revisions of existing ones) and ICT products, as well as other electronics.
Implementation will commence with the prioritization exercise that will be followed by the laying out of a working plan for the products and their required measures and timescales in which those affected will have to comply. This will then be followed by the drawing up of product rules, taking into account planning, impact assessments and consultation with stakeholders. An Ecodesign Forum will be established in order to accomplish this. The setting up of the Ecodesign Forum is imminent (planned for Q3 2024) with a first meeting of the forum taking place in the last quarter of the year.
Digital Product Passports Update
The original target for the introduction of digital product passports was late 2024, but their future adoption and mandatory use is now expected to be implemented between 2026 and 2030. It will come into effect in all 27 EU member countries. There has been a relentless targeting of high-environmental-impact products since this idea was conceived, so some industry sectors are being prioritized for that reason. Paints and coatings are among them once more. The list of prioritized sectors this is broadly the same as that already mentioned (q.v.)
More information has now become available on what a digital product passport should include. The concept has progressed towards what appears to be a comprehensive document of environmental responsibility. The following elements have now been set out as requirements, although some products may not need all of them:
• A unique product identifier (UID)
• A global trade identification number as provided for in standard ISO/IEC or equivalent of products or their parts
• A TARIC code and any other relevant commodity codes
• Compliance documentation, including declaration of conformity, technical documentation, and conformity certificates
• Requirements related to any substances of concern
• User manuals, instructions, warnings, or safety information
Relevant information will also be required on the following topics:
• Importers, operators and manufacturers
• Unique facility identifiers
• Installation, maintenance and repair guides so that long-term durability is achieved, thereby reducing environmental impact
• How to dispose of (or return) the product at the end of a product's serviceable life
• Dismantling, recycling and disposal at the end of a product's serviceable life
• Product handling by those other than the manufacturer
• Other relevant information that may influence the way the product is handled by parties other than the manufacturer
Other Parts of the ESPR Framework
Two other measures are being included for the first time as part of the ESPR framework. The first of these relates to unsold consumer goods. Hitherto many unsold consumer items, if unsold, are ultimately destroyed – an act of material vandalism, one might say, and a downright waste of resources. The EU is targeting a ban on certain items being destroyed, namely unsold footwear and textiles and this may open the way for similar bans on other products being destroyed, if evidence came to show that such bans were needed. As part of this area, the ESPR would also compel companies to announce on their websites how many of their unsold products they destroy and the reasons for their doing so, which in the eyes of the eco-conscious consumer will be something of a shaming exercise.
The second measure is aimed at steering public authorities towards the purchasing of more sustainable products by enabling Green Public Procurement criteria, which will support further public spending on environmentally compliant products and suppliers. This itself is seen as a major incentive for industry to develop greener products, and for major companies involved in e.g. construction, paints and furniture that are supplied routinely through contracts for municipal buildings etc., a long-term goal to behold for the coming years. Public works alone in EU countries see the annual sales of materials and goods amounting to €1.8 trillion, which shows the enormity of the potential for industry across all of the bloc’s markets.
For Suppliers Outside the EU
The ESPR framework will apply to all products placed in EU markets, not necessarily those just produced within the EU. Suppliers from so-called third countries will be expected to demonstrate an interesting in making their products more sustainably and responsibly within the guidelines of what the framework sets out. The EU expects to support those countries or the business in those third countries in order to understand what impacts its requirements will have locally. For the digital product passports (which, incidentally will be known as PPDs and not DPPs), dialogue will be necessary to help reduce trade barriers, facilitating easier movement of sustainable products into the EU, and for helping to reduce sustainable investment, compliance and marketing costs.