Recommendation 2013/179 - 2013/179/EU: Commission Recommendation of 9 April 2013 on the use of common methods to measure and communicate the life cycle environmental performance of products and organisations - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 124/1

Reliable and correct measurement and information on the environmental performance of products and organisations is an essential element in the environmental decision-making of a wide range of actors.

The current proliferation of different methods and initiatives to assess and communicate environmental performance is leading to confusion and mistrust in environmental performance information. It also may lead to additional costs for business if they are requested to measure the environmental performance of the product or the organisation based on different methods by public authorities, business partners, private initiatives and investors. Such costs reduce the opportunities for cross-border trading of green products. There is a risk that these failures on the market of green products will continue to deepen (1).

The Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on "Integrated Product Policy - Building on Environmental Life-Cycle Thinking" (2) recognised the importance of addressing environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of a product in an integrated way.

The Conclusions of the Council on "Sustainable materials management and sustainable production and consumption" of 20 December 2010 (3) invited the Commission to develop a common methodology on the quantitative assessment of the environmental impacts of products, throughout their life cycle, in order to support the assessment and labelling of products.

The Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions "Towards a Single Market Act - For a highly competitive social market economy. 50 proposals for improving our work, business and exchanges with one another" (4) outlined that possibilities would be explored for establishing a common European methodology to assess and label products, to address the issue of their environmental impact, including carbon emissions. The need for such an initiative was re-iterated in the two follow-up Single Market Acts (5).

The Communication on “A European Consumer Agenda - Boosting confidence and growth” stressed that consumers have the right to know the environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of the products they intend to buy and they should be supported in easily identifying the truly sustainable choice. It stated that the Commission will develop harmonised methodologies to assess the life cycle environmental performance of products and companies as a basis for providing reliable information to consumers.

The Communication on "A Stronger European Industry for Growth and Economic Recovery - Industrial Policy Communication Update" (6) mentioned that the Commission is studying the best possible ways to integrate green products and services in the Internal Market, including environmental footprinting.

In the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions "Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe" (7), the European Commission pledged to establish a common methodological approach to enable Member States and the private sector to assess, display and benchmark the environmental performance of products, services and companies based on a...