The European Green Pact, its actions for the climate, its aim to protect the environment and the oceans, its incentives for the circular economy… have many repercussions that will translate into new obligations for the cosmetics industry. One of them, the environmental performance rating, was presented by Sybille Millet, Regulatory Watch Officer, during the JEST held on 23 September 2022.
The Green Pact for Europe aims to mobilise different economic sectors in favour of a clean and circular economy. It also states that reliable, comparable and verifiable information must be available to enable consumers to make more sustainable decisions and to reduce the risk of ‘greenwashing’.
The environmental rating thus comes into play in the context of several regulations in preparation, and in particular:
• The obligation to substantiate claims that are related to the environmental performance of products and companies: the draft text clearly mentions the use of the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method
• The draft Regulation on ecodesign
• The draft Directive “as regards empowering consumers for the green transition through better protection against unfair practices and better information”, part of which targets environmental claims.
The draft Regulation on ecodesign
It was published in March 2022, and introduces several new concepts such as:
• The product passport, a digital passport providing dematerialised information on the characteristics of the product
• The unique identification number, linking the product to this digital passport
The draft Regulation also provides for:
• Information requirements for the consumer on the environmental characteristics of the product, so as to enable them to make …
