IATE Term of the Week: Ecodesign

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Ecodesign: this is a term which recalls many meanings, from interior design to environmental engineering. In English, our IATE database refers to it as the “reduction of environmental impacts throughout entire life cycles by improved product design”.  In 2016, the European Commission has established a precise framework for improving the energy efficiency of products, in order to make the Union save more energy and have the production of domestic items under control.


Always attentive to our planet and its resources, this week we chose to give focus to ecodesign and to select it for our Term of the Week.

The requirements of the ecodesign framework directive are complemented by the new energy labelling rules, the A to G class label which accompanies every domestic tool, and that are applied to buildings too.

The EU legislation on ecodesign and energy labelling improves the energy efficiency of products. With this initiative, consumers are able to find in shops the products of their everyday life (like kettles, boilers, coffee machines, TVs, washing machines) with the certainty that their performance is as good as always, but with less energy consumption. Energy labels are, therefore, a useful help and a precious guide during the purchase.

A curious fact about the ecodesign policy are numbers: since their establishment until 2020, the first measures will have helped to save around  12% of the electricity that the EU consumed in 2009. More measures are being planned: their implementation will make Europe’s consumers save around €490 per year on their energy bills, and generate revenues of €55 billion for industry. As a matter of fact, new energy labels are not only good for the environment, but they boost industrial production too: industries and producers are encouraged to create more eco-friendly electrical appliances, benefitting both the planet and the commerce.

Ecodesign is  widely covered in IATE, where corresponding terms can be found in 23 different languages:

We hope you enjoyed our terminology feature! Don’t forget to join us for the next Term of the Week, which will be online on November 3rd.

 


Sources:

  • European Commission official website, available here (Accessed 25 October 2017)
  • Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009, Eur-Lex – Access to European Union law, available here (Accessed 25 October 2017)
  • European Commission, Factsheet on the benefits of Ecodesign and Energy Labelling policies, 08 November 2016, available here (Accessed 26 October 2017)

 

Written by Carolina Quaranta – Schuman Trainee at the Terminology Coordination Unit of the European Parliament. Student of Master in Public and Political Communication in the University of Torino, Italy; freelance journalist.