European Commission Energy Efficiency - Eco-design of Energy-Using Products

This website is a section of the EC Energy Efficiency Portal. It indicates how Ecodesign aims at reducing the environmental impact of products, including the energy consumption throughout their entire life cycle. It includes links to relevant legislation that indicates that ecodesign is a new concept aimed at reducing energy consumption by products such as household electrical appliances. Information concerning the product's environmental performance and energy efficiency must be visible if possible on the product itself, thus allowing consumers to compare before purchasing.

Summary

View the Website [EN - English]

The eco-design section of the EC Energy Efficiency website provides information under the following sub-sections: Working Plan, Regulatory Committee, Consultation Forum, Lamps and Legislation. 

It indicates that apart from the user's behaviour, there are two complementary ways of reducing the energy consumed by products: labelling to raise awareness of consumers on the real energy use in order to influence their buying decisions (such as labelling schemes for domestic appliances), and energy efficiency requirements imposed to products from the early stage on the design phase.

The production, distribution, use and end-of-life management of energy-using products (EuPs) is associated with a considerable number of important impacts on the environment, namely the consequences of energy consumption, consumption of other materials/resources, waste generation and release of hazardous substances to the environment.  It is estimated that over 80% of all product-related environmental impacts are determined during the design phase of a product. Against this background, Eco-design aims to improve the environmental performance of products throughout the life-cycle by systematic integration of environmental aspects at a very early stage in the product design.

A proposal for a Directive  establishing a framework for setting Eco-design requirements (such as energy efficiency requirements) for all energy using products in the residential, tertiary and industrial sectors has been proposed. Coherent EU-wide rules for eco-design will ensure that disparities among national regulations do not become obstacles to intra-EU trade. The directive does not introduce directly binding requirements for specific products, but does define conditions and criteria for setting requirements regarding environmentally relevant product characteristics (such as energy consumption) and allows them to be improved quickly and efficiently. It will be followed by implementing measures which will establish the eco-design requirements. In principle, the Directive applies to all energy using products (except vehicles for transport) and covers all energy sources.

Related Information on the Regions 202020 Website:

• Sustainable Energy Theme(s): Energy Efficient Products

Last updated: 08/03/2012 10:20am - Contact: Katy HALL -