‘Avalanche’ of green regs to hit lighting industry

The industry is Europe is facing an ‘avalanche’ of environmental legislation, the outgoing chief of LightingEurope has warned.

Orania Georgoutsakou, secretary general of the manufacturers’ organisation, says that these are currently at least nine proposals, either new or revisions of existing EU laws, making their way through the EU rule-making process, each covering various aspects of sustainability.

All will have an impact on the lighting industry is various ways. The impending regulations include:

•  Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR)
  Georgoutsakou points out that the latter proposal has an extended scope covering products intended for permanent incorporation. And following the edict of ‘nothing is more permanent than the temporary’, permanent is defined as two years or more.
• Empowering consumers
  Among the legislation coming will be obligations to provide information to consumers to help them make green choices. The regulations are complemented by restrictions on what green information suppliers can provide to consumers, the so-called ‘substantiating green claims’ initiative.
• Right to Repair
  A consumer right to repair and clarifications on who can repair, what information should be made available and when not to repair
• Green packaging
  There will be restrictions on how much packaging can be used and obligations to recycle and reuse it.
• Sustainability information
  There will be obligations on companies and on products that impact companies’ to provide sustainability information should they wish to access finance (green taxonomy) and enter publicly-quoted markets

• Chemicals
  There is a revision of EU chemicals legislation still in the pipeline but there will be new obligations for companies to track thousands of substances across a global supply chain are in the ESPR

• Waste
  There will be a revision of waste legislation. And with products lasting longer and more actors across the value chain involved in repair, reuse and remanufacturing of products and components, authorities will set out waste collection targets and how they can allocate responsibility for collection and the cost of recycling across suppliers

‘What we are trying to achieve is ambitious, it is complicated and there are many occasions to make mistakes, despite the best of intentions,’ says Georgoutsakou. ‘Making rules that are easy to understand, apply and enforce is the bottom line of how we are going to achieve our green vision. It’s a combination of vision and pragmatism.’

Georgoutsakou is leaving her role in LightingEurope in June to become managing director of Airlines for Europe (A4E), Europe’s largest airline trade association.

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