Environmental sustainability is an important pillar in the European Commission’s strategic plans to implement the transition to a circular economy.
It is precisely with the proposed Sustainable Products Initiative regulation dating back to March 2022 that the scope of the already existing Ecodesign directive has been extended both in terms of the types of products involved and through the integration of new requirements, setting criteria not only on energy efficiency, but also on circularity and the overall reduction of the environmental and climate footprint of products. The proposal sets new prerogatives to make products more durable, reliable, reusable, upgradeable, repairable, easier to maintain, refurbish and recycle, and energy and resource efficient.
This new product-specific focus aims to steer the market towards a demand and supply of sustainable goods through environmentally friendly production processes. It also stipulates that these products must be accompanied, in the not too distant future, by a Digital Product Passport. This document will have to contain important information on the supply chain, the recycled content, the product’s environmental footprint, and useful indications on reparability and encouraging the recycling of the materials of which it is made.
In a second phase, the draft regulation foresees the definition of rules at product level or for groups of products through delegated acts.
Since last July, the revision of the individual articles of the regulation has been ongoing in Brussels through contributions and proposals for amendments from all EU countries. The meeting schedule is very tight and a first version of the revised document is expected by the end of the year.
On the basis of these premises, it has become more and more necessary and stringent for companies to define a reference model to support the production of products in compliance with the new criteria and requirements of the standards.
Matrec, which has been guiding companies towards the planning and design of products that look towards sustainability since 2002, has developed CircularTool, a tool that is useful for measuring the circularity of products and projects that it makes available to its customers. CircularTool has been verified by Bureau Veritas and enables the implementation of the strategies set out in the EU Action Plan on Circular Economy and the Ecodesign Directive with the above-mentioned updates.

Source and image: Matrec