Today, the European Commission has presented its Sustainable Products Initiative (SPI), an ambitious legislative agenda that could transform the way products are designed, produced, reused and repaired in the EU. [1] 

ECOS welcomes the initiative. Building on the success of the Ecodesign Directive and extending the ecodesign principle to all products on the market is a long-held demand of the organisation.  

The framework seeks to make sustainable products the norm in sectors such as electronics & ICT, furniture and textiles, as well as for intermediary products, including iron, steel and certain chemicals.  —

Ioana Popescu, Senior Programme Manager at Environmental Coalition on Standards, said:
 
Today, the European Commission is taking a leap towards a true circular economy, finally addressing negative environmental impacts embedded in product design. This initiative has real potential to make all products placed on the EU market repairable, durable, reusable, energy-efficient and free of hazardous chemicals. However, the success of the initiative will depend on how ambitious future product requirements are, as well as on how swiftly they are adopted.  

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Minimum requirements are meant to reduce waste and allow resources to be kept in the EU economy for as long as possible, boosting its overall circularity. Setting such minimum expectations  helps to gradually remove the worst performers from the market. 
 

The framework also introduces product passports, which centralise all relevant product information, including its composition, origin of materials, as well as reusability and repairability. 
 

Another key part of the proposal relates to the destruction of unsold goods, which includes provisions for declaring and even banning such practices. Unfortunately, SMEs, which make up a large part of the EU economy, are by default exempt from this measure.  
 

ECOS warns that the true impact of the initiative will depend on its implementation via the product-specific delegated acts needed to translate text into action. This includes, for example, the exact requirements for design and product passports for specific products such as furniture, clothes or laptops. 
 

Creating product-specific legislation is a demanding enterprise in terms of resources. In the past, ecodesign and energy labelling rules have been repeatedly delayed due to administrative bottlenecks. [2] As it is, today’s plan for action seems way too slow.
 

Finally, it is regrettable that industry voluntary agreements have not been eliminated. They have proven ineffective to drive meaningful change, for example in the case of printers.  [3] 

For more details, join our press briefing tomorrow, Thursday 31st March at 1.15pm, with MEP Anna Cavazzini (Greens/EFA), chair of the European Parliament Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO).  

Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0scOGtpz8jH9USC3mDBaDgbm97lVJ7dz7D

Our experts at ECOS have prepared a Q&A briefing for journalistson what the SPI will entail, along with its anticipated impact. Please, find it here: https://ecostandard.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/ECOS_QA-on-the-Sustainable-Products-Initiative-SPI_25032022.pdf 

[1] European Commission – Green Deal: New proposals to make sustainable products the norm and boost Europe’s resource independence

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_2013 

[2] ECOS – Delays in ecodesign threaten EU climate targets and cost citizens billions – Analysis  – https://ecostandard.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/EEB_ECOS-Delays-in-ecodesign-report.pdf

[3] ECOS – When Empty Promises Won’t Do – Why regulation is needed to end built-in obsolescence of printers  – https://ecostandard.org/news_events/when-empty-promises-wont-do-why-regulation-is-needed-to-end-built-in-obsolescence-of-printers/

Ivo Cabral, press manager at ECOS – ivo.cabral@ecostandard.org