The EcoDesign Directive is requiring many, many companies to redesign their products so as to reduce their environmental impact. The scope is much wider than the WEEE or RoHS directives requiring ecodesign to become an integral part of a company's design and business processes including certification in most cases. Cobham Technical Services (the trading name of ERA Technology Ltd) provides expert advice on what the implications are and how to respond.

The EcoDesign Directive - a brief guide
How can Cobham Technical Services help?
Cobham Technical Services' credentials

The EcoDesign Directive - a brief guide

What is the EcoDesign Directive?
The EcoDesign of Energy using Products (EuP) Directive (2005/32/EC) was adopted on 11 August 2005 and was widened to include Energy related Products (ErP) on 20 November 2009 (2009/125/EC). This framework Directive has set up procedures for adopting new legislation and in a few cases voluntary agreements that require electrical equipment manufacturers to consider energy efficiency and other ecodesign issues in product designs. The Directive seeks to reduce the environmental impact of a wide variety of energy using products throughout their life cycles.

What products does the EcoDesign Directive cover?
The scope of the Directive is huge. It applies to products that use any form of energy including electricity, fossil fuels or renewable energy sources during the use stage of their life cycle and also includes (potentially) products that are used for generation, transfer or measurement of energy. It can also have implications for parts supplied to end-users and component and sub-assemblies. The scope has been widened to include products that affect energy consumption in use such as double glazed windows, taps and construction products. It does not however apply to transport (cars, planes, ships etc.).

Which products will be affected?
So far, over 40 categories of product are being considered. Studies have been carried out or are under way on most of these. Regulations are already in force covering several product groups with mandatory requirements arising from September 2009.

A summary of product categories being scrutinised and the status of studies and legislation is provided here.

More products are being considered. The focus has been on large volume products but increasingly the emphasis is towards other large energy users in industry such as power transformers.

What are the implications for producers?
There are several main themes that form the basis of most regulatory measures. These include maximum energy consumption in use and maximum standby energy consumption. These are often based on “benchmark products” that are the best performing available in EU. Some measures require energy management functions and others have obligations relating to reliability and product life.

Many business sectors, and countries are already taking unilateral voluntary/compulsory measures to respond to the growing demand for “greener” products. This is happening in all sectors including aerospace, military, industrial - not just consumer and domestic products.

As changes to individual product designs, product design procedures and company systems can take a long a long time to implement, it is prudent to considering ecodesign sooner rather than later. Most manufacturers that adopt ecodesign as company policy find that this not only enables easier legal compliance but can also reduce production costs and boost sales of “green” products.

	expert opinions to support your due diligence with respect to enforcement or client requirements,
	advice on scope, how and whether you need to comply and gap analysis,
	consultancy on specific issues, business review, audit of new product design process and recommended action reports,
	provision of bespoke electrical/electronic design services, new product design review including eco-design,
	public training courses from Cobham Technical Services and industry experts,
	bespoke in-house training courses,
	Cobham Technical Services' bimonthly newsletter RE4view covering all environmental regulation worldwide pertaining to the electrical products sector,
	environmental product compliance conference.

All of these can be carried out on an individual or call off contract basis or through our subscriber scheme, AccessERA.

Cobham Technical Services credentials
The RFA group has been helping industry solve product related problems for over 40 years. Over this period Cobham Technical Services has developed extensive knowledge of component and sub system design, materials and processing. Cobham Technical Services is a also a longstanding provider of regulatory compliance support (e.g. RoHS, WEEE, EMC, safety) to government, the European Commission and industry and specialist leading-edge design services to industry. Cobham Technical Services is currently a contractor on three ecodesign preparatory studies for the European Commission on domestic/commercial ovens, hobs and grills, and industrial & laboratory furnaces and ovens.

It is Cobham Technical Services' experience that best practice engineering design coupled with a sound approach to regulatory requirements is a recipe for fast low cost product development.