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(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.
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.
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.
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.
Improving the energy efficiency of products was identified as the most important short-term opportunity to decrease energy consumption and therefore CO2-emission worldwide. More efficient products are created due to technical innovation. Restricting market access to efficient products only and making the most efficient products stand out by energy labelling are legislative approaches to encourage this development. Market surveillance authorities’ checks are fundamental to protect the consumer from wrongly declared goods on the market and ensure fair competition between manufacturers. However, the activities of market surveillance authorities are limited by their financial resources. Testing all product efficiency parameters in an accredited laboratory is very time consuming and cost intensive. In this article, a theoretical concept is presented which can be used to develop screening tests enabling market surveillance authorities to perform product tests with less financial resources. The concept identifies components which lead to non-compliance or make a product less energy efficient with minimum effort. The principle is based on a combination of random product tests, disassembling specific products and comparing components. This represents a new approach in product testing procedures beyond the current market surveillance activities. The concept is being tested within a research project funded by the German government.
Improving the energy efficiency of products was identified as the most important short-term opportunity to decrease energy consumption and therefore CO2-emission worldwide. More efficient products are created due to technical innovation. Restricting market access to efficient products only and making the most efficient products stand out by energy labelling are legislative tools to encourage this development. Market surveillance authorities’ checks are fundamental to protect the consumer from wrongly declared goods on the market and ensure fair competition between manufacturers. However, the activities of market surveillance authorities are limited by their financial resources. Testing all product efficiency parameters in an accredited laboratory is very time consuming and cost intensive. In this study, a theoretical concept is presented which can be used to develop screening tests in order to perform product tests by market surveillance authorities with less financial resources. The method identifies components which lead to non-compliance or make a product less energy efficient with minimum effort. The concept is based on a combination of random product tests, dismantling specific products and comparing components. This represents a new approach in product testing procedures beyond the current market surveillance activities. The concept is being tested within a research project funded by the German government.