S.3 Ökodesign und Energieverbrauchskennzeichnung
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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.
Pioneering durability in electronics - The role of standardisation in policymaking and vice versa
(2024)
This paper highlights the role of standardisation in enabling greener electronics in the EU. It presents an analysis of the evolving landscape of material efficiency standardization, the majority of which has been undertaken in the framework of the European Ecodesign Directive, soon to be repealed by the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation. The impending policy shift will include a very broad extension of product scope, a strengthening of the way in which material efficiency aspects are addressed, and wider potential for product labelling. During the stakeholder consultation process, the European Commission announced that the durability of products would be one of the major topics in the new regulatory approach - hence the specific focus of this paper on durability scoring.
The paper first examines the policy and standardization context, and then provides an overview of material efficiency indexes and scoring systems currently in place or being developed. It highlights where standardization is following policymaking, and where standardization is paving the way for more circular products. Scoring systems and indexes could potentially be used for both (i) setting minimum requirements for products entering the EU market, and (ii) consumer labels on material efficiency aspects such as product durability that could trigger environmentally sustainable purchase decisions. Subsequently, a methodological framework for a comprehensive durability scoring system that could be developed in standards is proposed, and the potential for these to be used as a basis for product legislation is explored. Potential durability criteria are listed, divided into technical, servicerelated and further aspects. Technical aspects include external factors that influence the durability of products such as drop/shock resistance. Service-related aspects include, for example, pre-purchase information provision on battery replaceability or availability of software updates. Other aspects include for example pro.
Übersicht über den Aktuellen Stand der Durchführungsmaßnahmen der EU zur Ökodesign-Richtlinie sowie der delegierten Rechtsakte zum EU Energielabel. Der Fokus liegt auf die Änderungen bzgl. gesetzlicher Anforderungen, die Überwachung durch die Vollzugsbehörden und mögliche diesbezügliche Informationsquellen.
Übersicht über die Umsetzung des EU Green New Deal, des Circular Economy Action Plan sowie der Sustainable Product Initiative. Ebenfalls erfolgt eine Zusammenfassung der Auswirkungen der Änderungen im EU-Produktrecht auf die Revision des geltenden Rechts und das Zusammenspiel zwischen Rechtssetzung und Normung.
Überblick über den Paradigmenwechsel der EU-Rechtsetzung zu Produkten, sowie die Erweiterung des Geltungsbereiches auf Zirkularitätsaspekte (Circular Economy). Der Überblick wird anhand des Beispieles Produktlebensdauer erklärt und die Vorteile eines Zusammenspiels zwischen der Legislative und Normungsarbeit erörtert.
The energy demand of private households contributes globally to 36.5% of the total CO2 emissions. To analyze the emissions reduction potential, we conducted a comparative life cycle assessment of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell in a residential application and a conventional system with a stand-alone gas condensing boiler and electricity from a grid mix. The period under review was referred to as the service life of the PEMFC and is assumed to be 10 years (83,038 h of PEMFC). The applicability of this in a single-family house built between 1991 and 2000 under German climatic conditions was investigated. The functional unit is set to the thermal energy demand of 16,244 kWh/a and electricity demand of 4919 kWh/a of a single-family house. The impact assessment method “CML 2001–August 2016” was used in this investigation. The manufacturing phase of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell showed disadvantages, whereby the use phase had significant advantages in most of the environmental impact categories as compared to the conventional energy supply system. Considering the whole life cycle, the advantages from the use phase could outperform the disadvantages from the manufacturing phase in most of the impact categories, except for ADP elements and TETP.
The European Commission has recently announced two guiding principles for EU product policy: First, product policy shall ensure that the performance of front-runner products in terms of sustainability becomes the norm, and second, the effectiveness of the current Ecodesign legislative framework is going to be significantly improved. Within this paper, already existing front-runner approaches and recent and ongoing product policy-making processes were reviewed. Based on the results, an EU front-runner approach is outlined. The presented approach (i) refers to performance levels of the best products already available on the market, (ii) aggregates information in existing databases, and (iii) works semi-automated. Together, all three attributes have a high potential to facilitate and accelerate the specification of appropriate minimum requirements for products at the EU level. This way, EU policymakers can deliver on the core objectives of the Ecodesign legislative framework much better. The basic mechanism and its legal entrenchment of the approach are illustrated for the energy efficiency of energy-related products. In addition, the Front-Runner Approach can be applied to any product group in the scope of the upcoming Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation and to a wide range of product-related minimum requirements, such as durability, reparability, or recycled content. The study’s objective is to suggest a tailor-made and dynamic approach to keep the EU product legislation up to date using innovative technology based on the investigation of current regulations and identify the gap. Experiences from three international case studies suggest that a front-runner approach to setting energy-performance standards can drive innovation and reduce energy consumption via promoting energy-efficient products; transparency about available products is one of the key factors and can be established by a database. The EU front-runner approach comprises extending the existing energy label database (or making use of the digital product passport) and introducing a legislative procedure that triggers changes in the energy efficiency requirements in the specific EU regulations if the database shows that a certain threshold value is reached. Challenges such as limited EU staff capacities and opportunities such as increased dynamic are discussed.
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.