Project team

Fraunhofer ISI - technical project lead of this study - is part of the Fraunhofer Society for Applied Research in Germany, a non-profit corporation, which promotes applied research and assures the link between fundamental and industrial research. The Fraunhofer Society is mostly financed through contract work for public bodies at European, national and regional level as well as for industrial companies. The research society has about 59 research institutes all over Germany. The Fraunhofer ISI complements the scientific and technological spectrum of the Fraunhofer Institutes through interdisciplinary research on the interdependence between technology, economy and society. Fraunhofer ISI has been involved over the last years in various ecodesign projects, as well as in the impact assessment of the Sustainable Product Initiative.

Oeko-Institut e.V. is a leading independent European research and consultancy institute working for a sustainable future. Founded in 1977, the institute develops principles and strategies for realising the vision of sustainable development globally, nationally and locally. Based on value-oriented research, the institute provides consultancy for decision-makers in politics, industry and civil society. For many years, Oeko-Institut has been actively involved in the design, evaluation and review of product policy instruments like Ecodesign, Energy label, Ecolabel and Green Public Procurement as well as substance and waste related instruments like REACH, RoHS, ELV, WEEE or Batteries Directives/Regulations at national, European and international level with respect to implementing environmental and sustainability, Circular Economy principles and SDGs. It has up-to-date methodological expertise on MEErP, LCA and PEF, hazardous substances and knowledge of regulatory processes at both European and national level.

WSEE (Waide Strategic Efficiency Europe) is an Ireland-based consultancy founded in August 2018 that offers extensive European and wider international experience in product energy and environmental policy development and implementation. Its staff have been intimately involved in EU policy development/implementation since 1990 to the current time and globally have supported over 80 countries to develop and implement sustainable energy and environmental policies for products including all the world’s major economies. Within Europe this has included: Ecodesign preparatory/review studies; impact assessments; GPP; ecolabelling; codes of conduct; standardisation and monitoring progress with EU standardisation mandates; conformity/market surveillance; consumer research; digital data conformity and tracking for a large array of technologies and products. WSEE’s staff were involved in the development of the first energy labelling, ecolabelling and Ecodesign regulations; the design and review of the energy labelling and Ecodesign framework Directives and associated evaluations/impact.

Ecomatters is a sustainability consultancy firm specialised in life cycle thinking and focusing on sustainability throughout the value chain. They perform quantitative analyses evaluating environmental impact of products and processes. Additionally, they assist their clients in preparing product claims, and support organisations in developing and implementing sustainability strategies and setting concrete sustainability goals. Ecomatters has over 10 years of experience in conducting LCA studies for industrial clients, industry associations and PEF related studies for the European Commission. This includes the execution of LCA studies and LCA screening studies according to ISO14040/44, creating Environmental Product Declarations according to EN15804 and developing life cycle inventory (LCI) datasets. Ecomatters has been active in PEF development since 2013. Their expertise on LCA and PEF is supported by work on chemical safety covering REACH, SVHC, Restriction of Microplastics, WFD, and SCIP.

Fraunhofer IZM (Institute for Reliability and Microintegration) and its department Environmental and Reliability Engineering provides key expertise on essential technologies and processes including infrastructure networks (Digital Product Passport), teardown analysis of electronics products, reliability testing and environmental assessment (LCA) of electronics, assessment, circular economy concepts and solutions for electronic devices. Fraunhofer IZM has more than 15 years of experience in supporting the Commission on different aspects of product policies (in particular ecodesign and energy labelling) and other relevant policies (RoHS, waste policies), solid expertise for assessing technical and environmental characteristics of electrical and electronic products, and mastery in conducting environmental assessment (LCA). In recent years, Fraunhofer IZM carried out various ecodesign related studies applying the MEErP with various CE measures such as on mobile phones, smartphones and tablets, battery chargers and external power supplies and computers. Further, Fraunhofer IZM takes a leading role in the development of the digital product passport for the European Commission.

VITO (framework contract manager) the Flemish Institute for Technological research (Belgium), a renowned non–profit European research centre in the field of environment, energy, and materials, that has an extensive track record in methodologic studies, preparatory studies, and impact assessment under the Ecodesign Directive, Energy Labelling Regulation and the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation. These studies dealt with for example: street lighting and photovoltaic systems (subcontract to JRC), indoor lighting, power and distribution transformers building automation and control systems, batteries, power cables, lifts, smart appliances, etc. Also, VITO has coordinated many of the related framework contracts for both DG GROW and DG ENER.