ECOS | Environmental Coalition on Standards

02 March 2020

EN 45554: A standard that works for the environment

The much awaited standard EN 45554 for the assessment of repairability, reusability and upgradeability (RRU) of ecodesign products has finally been published. A major step towards better design and waste reduction, its methodology identifies criteria to determine how easy it is to repair, reuse or upgrade products ranging from household appliances to consumer electronics.

Policy discussions on ways to make ecodesign products more repairable are only expected to intensify. In an effort to identify which parameters determine how easy it is to repair, reuse or upgrade such products, a common methodology was a crucial first step.

ECOS represented European environmental NGOs throughout the standard’s development process and actively contributed to its structure and content, ensuring that the final result works for the environment and consumers. Our Policy Director, Christoforos Spiliotopoulos, acted as convenor of CEN-CLC/JTC10/WG3, the group of experts in charge of the process.

The standard was published after several years of intensive discussions within the European standardisation bodies CEN and CENELEC, and it has the potential to give policy-makers and future standardisers a powerful tool towards understanding which design interventions and service provisions could help extend product lifetime.

EN 45554 not only considers key criteria for this assessment, such as the availability of spare parts and repair information, but also offers a method to aggregate all relevant criteria into one repairability score. Such score would provide a methodological basis in the discussions on a European repairability scoring system – to which we have also contributed with a highly popular infographic entitled “The Energy Label should go circular”.

The standard is now available for purchase, and we very much hope that it will pave the way for better, more durable and repairable products.

ECOS is co-funded by the European Commission and EFTA Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EISMEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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