In the past, standardization work related to energy efficiency mainly focused on the energy efficiency of products during their use phase. After the publication of the Circular Economy Action Plan in 2015, the European Commission requested the three European Standardization Organizations – CEN, CENELEC and ETSI – to develop standards on material efficiency that would establish future ecodesign requirements on, amongst others, durability, reparability and recyclability of products, thus introducing a new focus on material efficiency during the design phase.
In this context, CEN-CENELEC Joint Technical Committee 10 on Energy-related products - Material Efficiency Aspects for Ecodesign (CEN-CLC/JTC 10) developed a group of eight standards containing generic principles to consider when addressing the material efficiency of energy-related products, such as extending product lifetime, ability to reuse components or recycle materials from products at end-of-life, and use of reused components and/or recycled materials in products.
These horizontal standards developed by CEN-CLC/JTC 10 can be used by product-specific Technical Committees when developing product-specific or product group standards addressing material efficiency aspects.
