This initiative, which will revise the Ecodesign Directive and propose additional legislative measures as appropriate, aims to make products placed on the EU market more sustainable.

Consumers, the environment and the climate will benefit from products that are more durable, reusable, repairable, recyclable, and energy-efficient. The initiative will also address the presence of harmful chemicals in products.

The European Union has announced a new bundle of sustainability-focused policy proposals that will expand existing ecodesign rules on energy efficiency by encouraging longer product lifespans, supporting the growth of circular economy business models and helping consumers combat greenwashing and make more environmentally friendly purchasing choices.

Over the last several years, European policymakers have established the goal of achieving the complete green transition of the European economy. One of the targets is to solely allow circular and sustainable products within the EU’s internal market by the year 2030– to this end, the EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan, produced in 2020, analyses products’ and materials’ life cycles in order to create a framework in which the final outcome results in no waste, all in support of the European Green Deal.

The European Commission recently launched phase two of the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure, EBSI, which intends to use distributed ledger technology to meet the EU’s climate targets. The project’s latest phase targets a convergence of EU digital and green initiatives with the creation of digital product passports, viewed as critical for developing and sustaining the circular economy.

The European Commission plans to introduce a “digital product passport” early next year that would contain information about the composition of goods on the European market to help boost their chances of being reused and recycled.

One hurdle in achieving the circular economy is the lack of trustworthy, verifiable information about the product reuse, its content and recycling potential. A digital product passport can close this information gap.