The Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation (“ESPR”) is part of the European Green Deal and aims to set new sustainability requirements across all industries. The objective is to make sustainable products the norm on the internal market, focusing not only on energy efficiency, but also on durability, repairability, and recyclability, enforcing a life-cycle approach for products to be put on the European market. The regulation is to be voted next July and will introduce key concepts for circularity, such as the digital product passport or the ban on the destruction of unsold goods.
To discuss the implications of this new regulation, a workshop was organised by the European Parliament Intergroup on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development and hosted by MEP Maria Spyraki. ACR+ joined a panel discussion bringing together the European Commission as well as representatives from different industries and NGOs. They discussed the current challenges linked with the lack of eco-design of products for local and regional circular economy strategies, as well as the opportunity of the upcoming ESPR. ACR+ recalled the need to shift the efforts from the sole “end-of-life” approach to more upstream actions to effectively tackle the carbon impact of material resources and products, the relevance of the ESPR for helping SMEs and consumers toward more circular choices, and the need of better eco-designed products to support the generalisation of Circular Public Procurement.