Ecodesign

Sustainable products will become the norm and this poses new requirements for manufacturers’ design processes and supply chain. Nemko can help your business meet these new requirements!

Ecodesign can lead to a greener future

Ecodesign is not a new concept but has gained more importance and relevance in recent years. Ecodesign is the process of designing products to minimize their environmental impacts throughout their life cycle, from raw material extraction to end-of-life disposal. Ecodesign is a dynamic concept that has broadened its scope from energy efficiency to circularity. Nowadays, Ecodesign considers not only the energy consumption of products but also their material efficiency, durability, reparability, reusability, recyclability, and environmental footprint.

One of the most important regulations that will shape the future of Ecodesign in Europe is the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), proposed by the European Commission in March 2022. This regulation is part of the Sustainable Products Initiative, which aims to make sustainable products the norm in Europe. It builds on the existing Ecodesign Directive, which currently only covers a limited product category of energy-related products.

The Ecodesign for Sustainable Product Regulation ESPR establishes a framework to set Ecodesign requirements for specific product groups to significantly improve their circularity, energy performance and other environmental sustainability aspects. It will enable setting performance and information requirements for almost all categories of physical goods placed on the EU market (with some exceptions). For groups of products that share sufficient common characteristics, the framework will also allow the setting of horizontal rules.

The framework will allow for the setting of a wide range of requirements, including on:

Presence of substances that inhibit circularity
Product durability, reusability, upgradability, and reparability
Energy and resource efficiency
Recycled content
Remanufacturing and recycling
Carbon and environmental footprints

The Digital Product Passport will provide information about products’ environmental sustainability. It will help consumers and businesses make informed choices when purchasing products, facilitate repairs and recycling and improve transparency about products’ life cycle impacts on the environment. The product passport will also help public authorities perform better controls.

Nemko's Ecodesign services

Nemko Ecodesign

Nemko's services are aligned with the circular economy, cover all the different life stages of the product and utilizes latest international standards. It supports businesses in establishing system, product methods and standards into the design process. The techniques and specific approaches can be adjusted to fit the specific industry, product category and organization.

Why is Ecodesign important?

Most businesses today need to comply with ESG (Environment, Social, & Governance) and regulatory reporting obligations. The expectations to comply with reporting requirements and meeting due diligence standards in the sustainability space is moving from voluntary to mandatory.

In the western world manufacturers see that prices for energy, raw materials and transport have raised up to 1000% and above. Due to the geopolitical situation industries need to establish a completely new supply chain. Reporting ESG data will then be a daunting task from a supply chain which is wildly unknown.

A systematic approach has never been more needed and tools for reducing the new high priced factors as energy and material must be used.