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Organisationseinheit der BAM
The European Commission adopted an EU
Energy Label for smartphones and tablets in June 2023. For the
first time, the EU Energy Label will depict, among energy
efficiency, also a reparability score, battery endurance, battery
lifetime, drop resistance and dust and water ingress protection.
However, does the multitude of parameters bear the risk to
confuse consumers instead of triggering environmentally
sustainable purchase decisions? In a survey in Germany,
consumers were asked to make a choice when the label does not
clearly identify the environmentally better product. Instead,
energy efficiency has to be valued against reparability,
reliability against energy efficiency, and reparability against
reliability. The sustainability lever of the different aspects is not
the same, as e.g. lifetime extension has a much more positive
environmental impact than energy efficiency in case of mobile
devices. Therefore, the question remains, whether consumers
intuitively make the right choice. Results of the survey indicate
that consumers interpret the complex label in the desired
manner and value those aspects higher, which indeed have a
more positive effect on the environment.
Next to primary functions, energy-related products have an increasing number of additional functions. This affects the overall environmental footprint, but the question is how? A number of European policy strategies, initiatives and measures, such as the Green Deal, the Circular Economy Action Plan,the Ecodesign Directive and the EU Energy Labelling, aim to ensure that the environmental impact of the overall product is better determined, communicated and finally reduced. A core element of these efforts is the DIN EN 4555x series of standards. However, there is currently no comprehensive and systematic classification of the additional product functions or an approach to assess the associated positive and negative environmental impacts.
Therefore, we present in this study an environmental assessment approach for additional product functions and illustrate its application in the case of fridge-freezers.
A key element of the life-cycle-oriented methodology is an assessment matrix to categorize and evaluate the direct, indirect and systemic impacts of products’ functions. Based on semiquantitative assessments of experts, the matrix provides an indication of how the additional function affects the overall environmental product impact as well as specific product aspects such as durability or reparability. Based on the results experts can discuss and better understand how specific functions can influence various stages of the product life cycle and how intended systemic changes or rebound effects could occur. As part of the approach, a representative survey was conducted to analyze consumers’ knowledge and information needs. Based on the results, recommendations for purchasing decisions and the consumer information were developed. This paper presents the results from the assessment of the additional functions of fridge-freezers.