S.3 Ökodesign und Energieverbrauchskennzeichnung
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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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Im Rahmen des Vortrages wurde ein kurzer kurzer Einstieg in die Circular Economy und die Schnittmenge zur Politik, speziell der nationalen und europäischen Rechtssetzung gegeben. Weiter wurde an praktischen Beispielen gezeigt, wie Circular Economy bereits heute durch Normung gelingen kann und wo es Verbesserungsbedarf gibt. Außerdem wurde ein Überblick über bestehende und zukünftige Legislativvorgaben gegeben.
The individual willingness to pay for sustainable products is significantly influenced by the climate crisis, but is also affected due to additional international crises as the still ongoing pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The better a product labelling is designed, the more likely consumers are to make a well-considered purchase decision at the point-of-sale, which in turn increases the product lifetime of the devices.
The results of this study are based on two consumer surveys with a total of 590 participants. Consumers were asked to make a simulated purchase decision based on the upcoming EU Energy Label for smartphones. Each consumer was presented comparison labels showing different aspects concerning durability (meaning charging cycles, robustness and IP class), repairability, energy efficiency and product price. In addition, there was a question on energy consumption, which was displayed either in Wh/h or in battery endurance per charge in hours.
The analysis of the survey shows a clear ranking of the preferred properties: 1. Durability as best option, Energy efficiency and Repairability as second and third choice. In all categories, a higher price was accepted in favor of a more environmentally friendly product design. When presenting the energy consumption in Wh/h, no reliable distinguishing between higher or lower values was observed. In contrast, higher values were clearly preferred when choosing between different battery runtimes.
Recommendations will be developed for adjustments to the upcoming EU Energy Label for smartphones and other product labels in the future showing circular economy aspects, such as the durability, repairability, recycled content used during production, recyclability or the total footprint of the product.
As consequence of the European Green Deal and the European Commission's Circular Economy Action Plan, the product landscape in the EU will undergo fundamental changes. The legal requirements for products are being expanded, not least through the Proposal for an Ecodesign Regulation for Sustainable Products published by the European Commission in 2022. Following the current developments, requirements for the circularity of products will be increased next to the already existing minimum requirements for products’ energy efficiency. Following this development, the lead question has to be: Is the market, in particular small- and medium-sized enterprises, well prepared for this planned green transformation of our economy? The answer is: No, not yet.
What is needed are suitable standards for the implementation of these requirements to reduce additional burdens to an appropriate level and to support fair competition between all market actors concerned. The German Institute for Standardization, the German Commission for Electro-technical, Electronic & Information Technologies and the Association of German Engineers have conducted a review study with the aim of identifying fundamental needs for revising existing standards and for creating new standards - both of which are intended to support and accelerate the transformation of the current economy towards a Circular Economy. More than 700.000 normative documents were analyzed, and the results were discussed and consolidated with more than 1000 experts from manufacturers (organizations), consumer- and environmental organizations as well as from the public sector. As a result, more than 200 gaps in the standardization landscape were identified. In this study, we highlight and analyze the most important needs for standardization activities in the field of electrotechnical-, electronic- and ICT-products. In the discussion with the experts for electrotechnical-, electronic- and ICT products, it has been confirmed that a timely implementation of ambitious political decisions of a circular economy requires a normative basis to ensure its consistency. Furthermore, consensus between experts was that legislation in product regulation would be key and should not be extended to the area of waste legislation. As most important standardization activities accompanying product legislation, the following were identified: (i) creation of a set of indicators enabling a holistic assessment of product circularity, (ii) quality assurance of secondary raw materials and consumers awareness of the product circularity both enabled by appropriate analytics and (iii) clear regulation concerning product liability of repaired, refurbished or remanufactured products. One issue of relevance to all experts concerns the product safety, which must not, under any circumstances, decrease when changing product design to reach a higher degree of circularity. The mentioned and further standardization activities would be essential to kick the can down the circular economy road and are analyzed and summarized in this study.
Eines haben die Krisen dieses Jahrzehnts gemeinsam: Sie motivieren zum Handeln. Bezüglich der Klimakrise wird eine grundlegende Änderung unseres Wirtschaftens als wesentlicher Lösungsweg gesehen. Die aktuell praktizierte lineare Wertschöpfung führte zu Ressourcenknappheit und -abhängigkeit und trug aktiv zur Verstärkung des Klimawandels bei. Wie wir in diesem Jahrzehnt unseren Absprung von gewohnten Produktions-, Konsum- und Verwertungsmustern gestalten, wird entscheidend für die nächsten Jahrzehnte sein. Die Frage, wie bis 2030 die Transformation hin zu einer zirkulären Wirtschaft gelingen kann, wurde u.a. von der Circular Economy Initiative Deutschland beantwortet. Sie nennt zehn Handlungsschwerpunkte, wobei „Standardisierung“ mit an wichtigster Stelle steht. Dieses beruht auf Gegenseitigkeit. Auf der diesjährigen G7 Standardisation High-level Conference wurde Circular Economy zu dem Themabereich mit dem größten Potential für Klimaschutzmaßnahmen gesehen.
In 2022 haben DIN, DKE und VDI mit über 500 Fachexperten aus Wirtschaft, Wissenschaft und Politik an einer Normungsroadmap Circular Economy gearbeitet. Die BAM war in fünf von sieben Schwerpunktthemen beteiligt. Ziel der Roadmap ist es, einen Handlungsrahmen für die Normung und Standardisierung zu schaffen, der die Transformation hin zu einer Circular Economy fördert. Normen und Standards bilden den untergesetzlichen und technischen Rahmen, auf denen eine zirkuläre Wirtschaft aufwachsen kann. Sie definieren Schnittstellen und stellen eine klare Kommunikation zwischen den verschiedenen Phasen des zirkulären Kreislaufes sicher – sie machen einen Kreislauf erst möglich.
In der Präsentation sind die Highlights der Normungsroadmap Circular Economy dargestellt. Die Roadmap liefert einen Überblick über die aktuelle Normungslandschaft sowie die An- und Herausforderungen zu Schwerpunktthemen wie Elektrotechnik, Kunststoffe, Verpackungen, Textilien, Bauwerke, etc. Mit >250 Normungs- und Standardisierungsbedarfen zeigt die Roadmap konkrete Handlungsfelder auf, ebenfalls mit Überschneidungen zum Geschäftsfeld der BAM.
Der Vortrag umfasst eine Einsortierung der Circular Economy in der Normung, skizziert die Inhalte der DIN/DKE/VDI-Normungsroadmap Circular Economy bezüglich Digitalisierung, Elektrotechnik und IKT sowie Batterien und zeigt Schnittstellen zur Politik. Zum Schluss zeigt der Vortrag erste Ansätze zur Umsetzung der in der Normungsroadmap beschriebenen Normungsbedarfe.
Energy efficient products often have a higher purchase price than less efficient alternatives. However, the life cycle costs are often lower due to the lower operating costs. From a purely economic point of view, efficient appliances are not only more ecological but often also more economical and, accordingly, should be purchased more frequently than less efficient appliances. However, this is not always the case. Information deficits are one of the major reasons of this discrepancy: the purchase price is visible during the purchasing process, but the follow-up costs are not, at least not in their exact amount. The EU Energy Label can be considered as a solution to close this gap. During the past decades, there has been a discussion on whether it would be better to communicate the monetary costs associated with energy consumption, since their calculation by the consumer is difficult or needs a high level of cognitive effort.
In this study, experiments and field studies on a total of 19 product groups were evaluated with regard to the question of whether the indication of costs instead of physical units affects the decision-making process of the consumer. It has been assessed under which circumstances it might positively influence the purchase decision of the customer, i.e. helping him or her to arrive at a more “energy efficient” decision. Overall, the results indicate that monetary claims possibly exceed the effect of claims on a physical basis when the costs or the differences between the alternatives available seem “relevant” to the consumer.
Der Vortrag fasst die Schnittmenge zwischen Normung und Politik bezüglich einer zirkulären Wirtschaft (Circular Economy) zusammen. Es wird an konkreten Schlüsselgremien und praktischen Beispielen gezeigt, wie Circular Economy bereits heute durch Normung gelingen kann und welche Zuarbeit durch die Politik von den Normungsgremien erbeten wird.
Sustainable product policy is one pillar of the European Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan. The European Commission is to begin to address recycling, recycled content and repair under the Ecodesign Directive and very likely in the announced European Sustainable Products Regulation. In addition, initiatives on recyclability and other aspects of sustainable products can be observed in France under the Ecomodulation Approach for some electrical and electronic products. Neither the Commission's ambitions nor the Ecomodulation Approach have so far led to a crucially better ecodesign of products.
Therefore, at the EU level, indices for reparability (already developed for smartphones and tablets), recyclability and recycled content of products are being discussed within the Ecodesign legislative framework in an attempt to achieve better ecodesign through advanced consumer purchasing decisions. The product standards requested by the European Commission to assess the recyclability (EN4555) and recycled content (EN4557) of energy-related products have already been published, but are purely based on a mass-based approach. Material-specific aspects such as the environmental impact or the financial, technical and redesign efforts required by manufacturers to facilitate the recycling and use of recycled materials are not addressed. Materials that are easy to recycle and use and have a high recycled content, such as copper, are treated in the same way as plastics that are difficult to recycle and use in products as post-consumer recycled plastics. Including such aspects would be essential to trigger environmentally relevant and significant improvements in product design.
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.
(i) Überblick zum aktuellen Stand der Normung und aktuellen Normungsvorhaben im Bereich Ökodesign.
(ii) Vorstellung des Forschungsprojektes (Steigerung der produktbezogenen Energie- und Ressourceneffizienz) vor allem in Hinblick auf Vorhaben die sich auf die Langlebigkeit, Reparierbarkeit und Recyclingfähigkeit.
Deutschland befindet sich inmitten eines umfassenden Transformationsprozesses hin zu einer klimaneutralen und nachhaltigen Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Sowohl das Erreichen der Klimaziele als auch die Anpassung an die Folgen des Klimawandels fordern ein rasches, bestimmtes und gleichzeitiges Handeln in vielen Sektoren und Lebensbereichen.
Normen und Standards können einen wichtigen Beitrag zum Erreichen dieser Ziele leisten. So haben Normungsorganisationen weltweit mit der ISO London Declarationeinen Pakt zur Unterstützung des Klimas geschlossen. Das bestehende Normenwerk muss auf Klimawandel-Tauglichkeit überprüft und eine Überarbeitung angestoßen werden.
Der Klimawandel als Querschnittsthema betrifft alle Wirtschaftszweige, und daher bieten DIN, DKE und VDI mit dieser durch Impulsvorträge eingeleiteten Diskussionsreihe eine Plattform zum Austausch über Normung als Werkzeug zum Thema Klima mit allen Akteuren.
„Getränkekühler optimal einsetzen“: So sparen Sie die Energiekosten und schonen das Klima.
Wussten Sie, dass Sie durch den Einsatz eines effizienten Getränkekühlers (Energieeffizienzklasse B) ca. 114 € pro Jahr sparen im Vergleich zu einem weniger effizienten Gerät (Energieeffizienzklasse D)? Aber nicht immer gibt es die Möglichkeit ein Neugerät anzuschaffen. Oft werden die Kühlgeräte von Getränkeherstellern zur Präsentation ihrer Waren zur Verfügung gestellt. Trotzdem tragen am Ende die Betreiber:innen die Betriebskosten der Geräte.
Aber auch beim Einsatz Ihres weniger effizienten Getränkekühler gibt es verschiedene Möglichkeiten, die Energiekosten zu senken. Beispielsweise kann schon der Einsatz einer Zeitschaltuhr zu einer Stromreduzierung von bis zu 50 Prozent oder auch die richtige Platzierung der Geräte an kühlen Orten ohne Zugluft zu einem geringeren Strombedarf von bis zu 30% führen.
In unserer Checkliste für die Aufstellung und das Betreiben von Getränkekühlgeräten zeigen wir Ihnen einfache Schritte, um den Energieverbrauch schnell zu senken.
In 2020, the European Commission has announced to propose a Sustainable Product Policy for the EU which shall ensure that the performance of front-runners in sustainability progressively becomes the norm. In addition, the European Commission has re-emphasised the necessity to significantly improve the effectiveness of the current Ecodesign framework for energy-related products.
With this paper, we present an initial outline of a policy approach which we call the “EU frontrunner approach”. The approach aims at installing a regulatory framework which enables a semi-automated, progressive adaptation of ecodesign minimum requirements for products. It builds on performance levels of the best products available on the market by aggregating information in a database.
The “front-runner approach” could first be applied to progressively adapt product-related minimum energy-efficiency requirements. This way it would serve as a starting point to introduce this conceptto the EU policy arena.
While the approach can be applied for energy efficiency, it is neither limited to energy-related products nor to energy-related requirements. It can be applied to the wide range of nonenergy related products within the scope of the upcoming Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) as well as to non-energy-related requirements, such as minimum requirements for durability, reparability, recyclability and recycled content.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has brought far-reaching changes for our society. Suddenly, millions of people spent the majority of their time at home - either due to a lock down or by switching from office to working remotely. This paper offers a literature review regarding pandemic-related behavioural changes and a first mapping of likely consequences for EU Ecodesign regulations. These impacts are considered for product groups that are already regulated by EU Ecodesign or are under discussion for future regulation. Furthermore, potential for smart home applications are analysed exemplarily. We identified which behavioural changes have the potential to become established in the long-term. This might need to result in adaptions for regulations under the Ecodesign Directive and EU-Energy Labelling regulations to better reflect the recently appeared usage profiles. It might require different priority settings regarding the product groups to be regulated and communicated to users, due to online shopping proliferation, to be updated. Changed behaviour can be observed in product groups such as ICT, consumer electronics and household appliances. Examples include the increased use of laptops and tablets for digital teaching, use of gaming devices and office equipment in private households (IT, printing and network devices) and changed cooking behaviour. This resulted in increased sales of some product types. Online sales became even more important than in-store sales, which also means that consumers are increasingly informed online about energy efficiency. More do-it-yourself (DIY) home projects result in more frequent - not yet regulated - DIY power tool use and over the long run might stimulate the need for (semi-)professional tools. The changes in behaviour patterns also offer the opportunity to optimize consumption by means of smart homes and smart products. However, the control of networked household appliances requires additional energy for standby states and data exchange. As an illustrative example, we discuss the conflict between higher energy consumption for smart system components and the possible optimization of consumption in private households.
Smart Products Enable Smart Regulations—Optimal Durability Requirements Facilitated by the IoT
(2021)
The challenges and opportunities linked with IoT have been intensively discussed in recent years. The connectivity of things over their entire life cycle and the smart properties associated with it provide new functionalities and unprecedented availability of (usage) data. This offers huge opportunities for manufacturers, service providers, users, and also policymakers. The latter May impact policy areas such as the regulations on resource and materials efficiency under the Ecodesign Directive 2009/125/EC. With the general approach as it is practiced today, legal requirements are usually set for entire product groups without considering the products individually, including user behavior and environmental conditions. The increasing number of smart products and the growing availability of product data are sparking a discussion on whether these requirements could be more product and application-specific. This paper presents a method for calculating the economically and ecologically optimal durability of a product. It allows determining the point in time when a product should be replaced by combining consumer data with product design data. This novel Approach could contribute to making product regulation more flexible and possibly more efficient. In this context, fundamental challenges associated with smart products in policymaking are also discussed.
Die Kreislaufwirtschaftsinitiative der Europäischen Kommission fordert eine grundlegende Erweiterung bestehender Rechtsrahmen. Anforderungen zu einer gesetzlich vorgeschriebenen Lebensdauer, Reparierbarkeit, Recyclingfähigkeit, etc. von Produkten sollen unter der Ökodesign-Richtlinie geregelt werden. Bei diesem Vorhaben steht der Normungsauftrag M/543 im Zentrum. Es wurde 2015 von der Europäischen Kommission vergeben und bislang sind acht horizontale bzw. generische EN-Normen geplant. Trotz der zu erwartenden hohen Reichweite dieses Vorhabens scheinen die Inhalte und der eigentliche Zweck der zu erarbeitenden Normen vielen Marktakteuren noch nicht vollständig bekannt zu sein, daher sollen im Rahmen des Webinars diese Inhalte kurz vorgestellt werden.
Highly ordered and highly cooperative water with properties of both solid and liquid states has been observed by means of neutron scattering in hydrophobic one-dimensional channels with van der Waals diameter of 0.78 nm. We have found that in the initial stages of adsorption water molecules occupy niches close to pore walls, followed later by the filling of the central pore area. Intensified by confinement, intermolecular water interactions lead to the formation of well-ordered hydrogen-bonded water chains and to the onset of cooperative vibrations. On the other hand, the same intermolecular interactions lead to two relaxation processes, the faster of which is the spontaneous position exchange between two water molecules placed 3.2-4 A from each other. Self-diffusion in an axial pore direction is the result of those spontaneous random exchanges and is substantially slower than the self-diffusion in bulk water.
Whilst the concept of ecodesign is intended to account for the environmental impacts of the product across its whole lifecycle, European ecodesign policy to date has been heavily focused upon energy efficiency in the use phase. The Ecodesign Directive and Energy Labelling Regulation have achieved substantial energy savings since their inception. For many products, the magnitude of savings available from further tightening existing energy efficiency requirements is now often outweighed by savings that can be achieved by material efficiency requirements. Further, there are some products such as smartphones for which there are limited gains to be made in energy efficiency but for material efficiency. In the Commission’s Circular Economy Action Plan from 2015, a new direction was defined for ecodesign policy, to systematically examine considerations such as reparability, durability, upgradability, recyclability, or the identification of certain materials or substances. The Commission consequently issued a standardisation request (M/543, 2015) to the European Standardization Organisations (CEN / CENELEC / ETSI) to develop generic/horizontal standards relevant to energy-related products that address these major aspects of material efficiency. In this study we evaluate the potential contribution of these new standards (with specific focus on the standards for repair, durability and recyclability) to future developments under the European Ecodesign Directive. Opportunities for the impact of these standards to be enhanced by future work are highlighted.
Resource efficiency is a much discussed topic in terms of improving the sustainability of energy related and energy non-related products. Resource efficiency aspects such as the availability of spare parts, the ability to dismantle, etc. have been included in draft working documents in the revision of several already existing Ecodesign regulations as a first step. However, often these aspects are not consistent with the current technology and design of these products. A possible reason could be a lack of sufficient consultation or of a methodology which is sufficiently tailored for this topic. The established strategies and tools, used by policymakers, such as the Methodology for the Ecodesign of Energy-related Products (MEErP), do not seem to deal with these aspects appropriately. Draft requirements need to be very well developed before being discussed with member states and other related stakeholders, because including resource efficiency parameters could lead to additional, very wide-ranging effects on society. This topic cannot be covered well with legislative tools developed primarily for energy aspects. In this paper, a method is presented which can be used to combine products’ properties with crucial resource efficiency indicators. The method can be used to develop a set of draft legislative requirements and to pre-evaluate these requirements by target groups which would be affected by additional legal requirements. These include: market surveillance authorities, standardization organizations, manufacturers and their associations, environmental organizations and research facilities. The method incorporates stakeholders’ feedback to identify potential resource efficiency measures for materials and/or products, their impact on the European ecology, economy and society. Based on this it would help to develop legislative requirements which are feasible and desirable. The results can then be fed into the formal legislative process, probably speeding it up.
Several models of range hoods were tested by independent and accredited testing institutes. The results have been compared to the information declared by the manufacturer on the energy efficiency label and the product fiche. The measured electric power input of the lighting System and the measured grease absorption factor often differed significantly from the declared values.
The reasons for these observations and the necessary steps to ensure accurate measurements and a meaningful EU energy efficiency label are elucidated. It is suggested that the ranges of the lighting efficiency classes are readjusted to fit the nowadays prevalent LED technology.
Furthermore the tolerance in the regulation for the nominal electric power input of the lighting could be extended by a minimum absolute tolerance. The grease absorption test method may need a rework to achieve a satisfying accuracy.
Die Kreislaufwirtschaftsinitiative der Europäischen Kommission fordert klar grundlegende Aspekte der Kreislaufwirtschaft in bereits bestehende Rechtsrahmen einzubetten. Anforderungen zur gesetzlich vorgeschriebenen Lebensdauer, Reparierbarkeit und Recyclingfähigkeit von Produkten sollen zukünftig auf europäischer Ebene ins Leben gerufen werden. Ein geeignetes Spielfeld ist die Ökodesign-Richtlinie. Momentan regelt sie primär die Energieeffizienz von energieverbrauchsrelevanten Produkten, doch der Fokus wird aktuell um Anforderungen an den nachhaltigen Einsatz von Ressourcen erweitert. Bei den gegenwärtigen Aktivitäten im Ökodesign steht der Normungsauftrag M/543 im Zentrum. Es wurde 2015 von der Europäischen Kommission an CEN/CENELEC vergeben und später stieß auch ETSI dazu. Bislang sind acht generische EN-Normen und zwei Fachberichte (Technical Report (TR)) geplant. Sie sollen grundlegende Aspekte der Nachhaltigkeit von energieverbrauchsrelevanten Produkten, die von der Ökodesign-Richtlinie betroffen sind, abdecken. Trotz der zu erwartenden hohen Reichweite dieses Vorhabens scheinen die Inhalte und der eigentliche Zweck der zu erarbeitenden Normen vielen Marktakteuren noch nicht vollständig bekannt zu sein. Daher hat ein nationaler Zentralverband eingeladen zu berichten. In dem Vortrag werden Antworten auf folgende Fragen gegeben: Warum im Ökodesign? Was ist geplant? Was ist betroffen? Worum geht es in den Normen?
Die Ressourcen der Erde sind nicht nur endlich, sondern werden zudem ineffizient genutzt. Mit dem im Dezember 2015 verabschiedeten Aktionsplan zur Kreislaufwirtschaft fördert die Europäische Kommission den Übergang zur stärker kreislauforientierten Wirtschaft. So werden Anforderungen an Reparaturfähigkeit, Lebensdauer und Recyclingfähigkeit von Produkten zukünftig in der Ökodesign-Richtlinie gesetzt. Die Ökodesign-Richtlinie regelt momentan die Energieeffizienz von energieverbrauchsrelevanten Produkten. Um Anforderungen an den nachhaltigen Einsatz von Ressourcen zu formulieren, fehlen jedoch Normen und Definitionen. Diese Normen werden Momentan geschaffen - erst danach können gesetzliche Anforderungen folgerichtig umgesetzt werden.
The adsorption of water in one-dimensional channels in porous aluminophosphate material AlPO4-5 has been studied by a combination of gravimetric Analysis techniques, neutron and X-ray diffraction and Neutron spectroscopy. Molecular structure of AlPO4-5 consists of 12-membered rings of alternating, corner-sharing AlO4 and PO4 tetrahedra connected by oxygen bridges into sheets in the (a, b) plane. The sheets are connected by oxygen bridges along the c crystal axis and form onedimensional channels of which the largest, formed by the 12-membered rings, have a van der Waals Diameter of about 8.3 Å. Gradually increasing the amount of adsorbed water we could follow the evolution of the confined water mobility in a systematic way and identify the molecular mechanism of water adsorption. We focused particularly on the range of low and medium relative pressures up to p/p0=0.32, where a Change from a hydrophobic behavior to a steep, capillary condensation like water intake has been observed. At the Initial adsorption stages water occupies positions close to the pore walls causing the contraction of channels in the (a, b) plane and the prolongation of the channels along c axis in AlPO4-5. With the progressing intake water molecules form chains along the main channels. The cooperative interactions between water molecules lead to the onset of phonon-like cooperative modes and, surprisingly, to the increase of diffusive-like motion, which slow down only in the final adsorption stages when AlPO4-5 channels are completely filled.
Elektro"älter"geräte
(2018)