23.05.2024

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5 min read

What is the Construction Products Regulation (CPR) really about?

Key Summary

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  • Unified EU Standards: The CPR revision aims to create unified EU regulatory standards to eliminate trade barriers and facilitate free movement of goods by enhancing standardization.

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  • Sustainability Focus: The update emphasizes sustainability, requiring construction products to have a longer lifespan, be repairable, and recyclable, alongside mandatory sustainability declarations from manufacturers.
    

  • Sector Digitalization: Introduces a construction products database with sustainability criteria, requiring manufacturers to provide environmental lifecycle information and electronic declarations for products.

Navigating through the changes

The revision aims to address some of the deficiencies observed in the previous legislation, with a primary goal of establishing a singular market for construction products in Europe, ultimately promoting efficient and sustainable construction practices. Key areas of focus in the revision include:

1: Enhanced Emphasis on Standardization:

Ensuring a unified EU regulatory standard with precise definitions of product categorizations to eliminate impediments to free movement. Presently, the absence of updated harmonized standards within the CPR framework creates significant trade barriers, imposes additional costs, and amplifies administrative burdens. Variances in the quality and efficacy of market surveillance activities across Member States have undermined trust in the regulatory framework and deterred compliance. Consequently, Member States resort to employing national marks, certifications, and approvals, contravening the CPR and European Court of Justice jurisprudence. The new regulation aims to tackle these challenges through intensified standardization efforts and delineation of principles and conditions.

2. Promotion of Sustainability:

By ensuring that construction products exhibit prolonged lifespan, are easily repairable, and can be recycled at the end of their utility. The proposal mandates environmental obligations for manufacturers, including mandatory declaration of sustainability characteristics and design considerations for environmental sustainability and durability. This aligns with the revision of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, as well as pressure from companies that have intensified for more ambitious environmental provisions within current regulations. Currently, construction products account for a significant portion of the EU market’s energy consumption and carbon emissions, with an average carbon footprint of 250 million tonnes annually.

3. Digitalization of the Construction Sector:

Implementation of a construction products database with sustainability criteria necessitates manufacturers to furnish environmental information about their products’ lifecycle and comply with additional obligations such as technical documentation. Furthermore, manufacturers will be required to provide electronic copies of the declaration of performance and declaration of conformity for each product introduced to the market. These declarations must be presented in a universally readable, unalterable electronic format or via a permalink meeting equivalent criteria (Art. 15).

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Sustainability Focus: The update emphasizes sustainability, requiring construction products to have a longer lifespan, be repairable, and recyclable, alongside mandatory sustainability declarations from manufacturers.


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