Different shades of green: CPR or ESPR
A debate seems to take place between different stakeholders supporting the idea of covering construction products through the CPR or the ESPR. Both legal acts are being looked at by the European Parliament and the European Council.
Does this question only concern how green construction in the Union is going to be or should other issues be taken into?consideration?
The European Commission adopted its proposal for a revision of Regulation (EU) N° 305/2011, the Construction Products Regulation (CPR), on 30 March 2022. The aims of the European Commission’s proposal were to improve the functioning of the internal market for construction products, address the implementation challenges that still exist at national level, simplify the legal framework and support the green and digital transition in the sector. Since, the European Parliament and the European Council have been examining the proposal. The European Council, the authorities from the member states, adopted its negotiating position on the construction products regulation (CPR) on 30 June 2023, the last day of the Swedish presidency. The Council’s negotiating position may be found?here. In the European Parliament, the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) has been responsible for the file. IMCO adopted its report on 23 May 2023, including 496 amendments to the Commission proposal. On 11 July 2023 the plenary voted the European Parliament's position for trilogue negotiations with the Council. That text may be found?here. It is anticipated that the tripartite negotiations between the European Parliament, the European Council and the European Commission on the legislative proposal will start in July 2023.
When CE marking of construction products first started, the harmonised specifications were an integral part of already existing European product standards.
Being able to start from existing specifications was convenient to achieve internal market results quickly, but also because this way of working would fit perfectly with the needs of the sector.
European standards are part of the coherent and complementary set of documents that the sector uses. These standards address the needs of all stakeholders.
?
By adding the characteristics that member states need, European product standards continue to serve all?stakeholders and in addition serve as the basis for CE marking, i.e. the means of communication between manufacturers and the national regulators regarding product characteristics that are regulated at the level of the works. The European standards provide the set of characteristics and the corresponding evaluation methods, ways of expressing performance and - for characteristics relevant for CE marking - the conformity assessment methods. The criteria set by member states (or the EU) were (and are being) specified in other legal acts.
In the framework of the CPR, member states identify the characteristics that they wish to regulate and those are being referred to in the annexes ZA of European product standards. This permits member states to take into consideration all product aspects that member states are interested in and to specify criteria (at EU and/or at national level) taking into account the intended use.
As such, the Construction Products Directive recognised that it is essential to have an internal market in which products can circulate without barriers to trade through CE marking, but also that it is at least equally important to continue allowing all other stakeholders to specify and select products in accordance with their specific needs using the same specifications. The many stakeholders in the construction sector have different product information needs, different reliability needs and the format in which they need the information will also be different.
By serving both objectives, European product standards ensure that CE marked construction products are not just a pile of products on a construction site, but that these products may be used to become the works that respond to all European Union citizens’ needs.
European product standards are being adapted to address environmental performance in addition to all other performance, such as mechanical strength, fire behaviour, energy efficiency and acoustic characteristics.
The product standards bear in mind the intended use of products and provide potentially all users with potentially all the product information that they need.
Using European product standards as a means to CE mark products while serving the needs of the sector prevents duplication of efforts.
In case products are power-driven and/or comprise electronic components (‘smart products’), requirements from the Machinery Regulation and Low Voltage directive may be referred to from European product standards as well.
After all, power-driven and/or products comprising electronic components also need to be specified as part of the complete design and installed, incorporated or assembled into the construction works.
These products also need to satisfy other performance, such as mechanical strength, fire behaviour, energy efficiency and acoustic characteristics.
领英推荐
The ESPR permits member states to specify characteristics and criteria through implementing acts and seems an excellent tool if member states' interest is limited to energy and environment related aspects.
Consequently, ESPR seems a good tool to consider products in isolation, products for which the environment in which they operate is irrelevant or not essential and that do not need to function as part of a construction, like mobile phones, heaters, boilers, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, ...
The construction industry will progressively use design for disassembly to reduce and/or prevent waste and increase the importance of reuse (and recycling) and the application of adaptability principles will minimize the need for unnecessary removal and new construction, by giving constructions other uses. The information used in Environmental Product Declarations should be used as the core environmental information on construction products, combined with other data, to evaluate the construction works. It will be rare that criteria may be imposed on individual indicators for product(s) (families), whereas it may be expected that over-time, regulatory environmental criteria will be imposed at the level of the works.
This is important, because ‘the most sustainable’ choice of product may be different for each construction: the screw does not know - when being placed on the market - which construction it will become part of and the function it will have and how long it is supposed to fulfil this role.
The added value of the ESPR as a means to set criteria at the level of the product at European level, is probably less useful for the majority of construction products and of environmental indicators.
?
As far as energy and environment related aspects is concerned, both the revised ESPR and revised CPR foresee aspects such as durability, reusability, upgradability and reparability, regulated substances, energy and resource efficiency, recycled content, remanufacturing and recycling, environmental footprints and information requirements, including a Digital Product Passport. The proposal for a revised CPR also foresees the possibility for member states to specify criteria.
Consequently, content-wise - as far as energy and environment related characteristics are concerned - differences between the CPR and ESPR seem very minor.
Some stakeholders seem to argue in favour of the ESPR as being the greener choice. I do not think there is or should be a difference as regards environmental or energy efficiency aspects is concerned.
Both the ESPR and the CPR provide tools for the European Union to become more sustainable.
Probably the most important difference is that the ESPR treats products in isolation, whereas the CPR uses European product standards as a basis to specify evaluation methods and ways to express performances and that these standards serve other users’ needs as well. Hence, internal market and sector needs are dealt with simultaneously by the product specifications used in the framework of the CPR.
The ESPR may be a suitable tool to consider energy and environmental aspects for products that function in isolation and may be appropriate for some construction products.
For most construction products it seems preferable that harmonised technical specifications in the framework of the CPR are used and that these continue to be part of the coherent and complementary set of technical specifications that all other stakeholders use in their daily work. This provides for clarity for all stakeholders and avoids duplication of efforts for manufacturers.