Citizens, campaigners, and EU policy makers are taking steps to improve product design. The Coolproducts and European Right to Repair campaigns aim to raise the bar on ecological design, saving energy and resources as well as cutting consumer bills – but what role can designers play?
In the summer of 2019, the EU will adopt new measures, which will call on designers to make household appliances more energy efficient, more repairable and sometimes less toxic. Basically, more eco-designed.
Once adopted, these ecodesign measures will set minimum requirements on how easy these products are to disassemble, as well as what spare parts and repair information should be available. They will apply to products placed on the EU market as of 2021.