CEN与CENELEC制定有助于企业与组织提升环保成效的标准
良好环境的维持与自然资源的保护对地球至关重要。在使能源与自然资源得到更有效的利用、制止不利环境影响的过程中,标准起到了关键作用。CEN)与 CENELEC与其成员及相关利益方共同制定标准,旨在帮助公司和组织提高环保成效。许多由CEN与CENELEC制定的欧洲标准是为了支持欧盟指令与政策的实施,比如与建筑产品、饮用水、生态设计和资源利用率有关的标准。CEN与CENELEC还鼓励其所属的技术委员会和工作组在为不同的产品、服务、过程和系统制定标准时要考虑到环境层面,采用横向方法。标准编制人可运用一系列工具、指导和支持的帮助来理解并融合一些主题,比如环境可持续、资源利用率和气候顺应。
- 通过采用环境保护标准,企业和组织可获得更高水平的公众信赖度和顾客满意度。
- 通过消耗更少的能源和资源,他们会因成本更低、废物更少而获益。
多亏标准使可持续与竞争力携手并进!
一、原材料与资源的使用
源自周围环境的原材料是有限资源,它们使生态设计在将来成为可持续、可循环全球经济的关键部分。
标准化是个重要工具,它不仅确保材料与产品的性能规格符合规定,并且给革新组织的灵活性一定的空间,开发满足规格的材料与产品。
未来的经济需要在环保方面更高效,消耗更少的原材料来提供产品与服务。未来的产业需要在循环经济中运作,材料和产物的再利用与循环以及资源的有效利用司空见惯。
随着原材料的数量变少、价格变高,替代品会随之产生与发展。在生产中使用更少的自然资源会增加收益,改善可持续的长期前景。
实例包括:
欧盟建筑部门是自然资源的主要消耗部门,EN 15804:2012 标准为环保产品声明(EPDs)之建筑产品的发展规定了规则、要求与指南(产品种类规则),从而符合符合ISO 14025:2006标准与ISO 21930:2007标准的要求。
通过在环境产品声明中引用EN 15804:2012标准,所有涉及建筑产业供应链的声明即可作为相同的规则判定楼房与其他建筑产物带来的环境影响。此外,一系列环境指标也适用于制成品,比如建筑产品的EN 15978:2012标准。
EN 50242:2008标准提供了评定洗碗机操作特点的方法,EN 50440:2015标准列出了生产家用洁净热水的电热水器的评定方法,两者都是为支持生态设计指令而设立。这些标准都考虑到了水资源与能源的消耗。
二、废弃物与循环经济
废弃物对经济是有害的,因为它代表着我们之前购买的产品或者原材料,我们花了钱却丢弃它们。生产废弃物会减少收益,在这样一个资源逐渐匮乏的全球市场,废弃物的制造会使我们维持经济活动的能力面临风险。
我们通常依据废弃物的处理成本考虑废物成本。但我们忘记了真正的成本还包括购买原料的花费。我们丢弃或加工、处理、转化和操作这些原料,而废弃物却消耗昂贵的能源、水资源和其他资源,而这些资源节省下来用在生产产品与服务上可能更好。
同样地,废弃物对环境也是有害的。我们丢在地上的废弃物,或者向水中、空气中排放的有害物质,常常要靠大自然自净能力为我们收拾烂摊子。这为早已身负重担的自然系统增加了压力。在一个有更好循环性的经济体制中,需要防止废弃物的产生,且以往被认为是“废物”的物质也可以通过再利用、修复、翻新和回收转化为资源。
实例包括:
为了将不同种类的废弃物恰当地处理,正确地识别、收集和处理它们很重要。EN 50574与EN 50625系列标准提供了如何收集、转化、分类和处理电子电器废弃物的细节,这样使废弃物得到最好的归宿:修复、回收或再利用。
使用废弃物作为其他过程的二级材料或替代材料使减少废弃物的总体影响成为可能。技术说明书CEN/TS 14243重点强调从废弃轮胎产出的材料的类别。此分类使得这些材料的潜在“用户”可以依靠一个对这些二级材料的统一说明。
塑料产业是如今这个瞬息万变的世界的奠基石,而多种多样的标准为塑料回收物说明了界定方法。这些标准使得废弃塑料作为替代材料重新进入生产圈,努力实现经济循环。
三、能源与碳管理
能源使食物生产、制造业、供热制冷及水与废水处理得以实现。然而,它也深深影响着经济与环境。发电与工业能源的使用带来温室气体的排放,造成气候变化,影响着我们生活和工作的环境。温度变化与可用水影响我们生产食品与货物的能力,而极端天气又中断了货物与资源的运输。建筑物与基础设施不得不断被调整,以适应变化的环境。寻求缩减能源需求、在造成更小环境影响的前提下生产能源的方法在短期至长期都能够降低经济成本。
标准化帮助我们控制能源消耗与制造中的排放量,同时加强高效的配置性基础设施的发展,使我们能够持续地测量能源数据。标准条例支持可再生能源生产,比如太阳能的光硫化系统与风力发电系统。
在未来,标准化将在诸如智能测量、系统互用、更高效的生产及节能产品和服务的发展上产生更深的影响。
实例包括:
过去的几年中, CEN、ENELEC与ETSI合作建立了开放式体系结构,支持智能测量系统的实现,帮助消费者积极参与能源市场;制定了技术报告(CEN-CLC-ETSI TR 50572),旨在解决技术或数据通信标准关注的技术问题。EN 13757-1:2014标准为仪表解决通信系统。
2015年,CEN与CENELEC 发布了一系列欧洲标准,为如何执行能源审核抽出要求和指导。EN 1627系列标准旨在帮助欧洲企业遵守欧盟能源效率指令的要求。
European Standards respecting the environment
CEN and CENELEC developing standards that help companies and organizations improve their environmental performance.
Maintaining a healthy environment and taking care of natural resources is essential to our world. Standards play a key role in enabling more efficient use of energy and natural resources, as well as preventing unfavourable environmental impacts. CEN and CENELEC work with their members and stakeholders to develop standards that help companies and organizations improve their environmental performance. Many of the European Standards developed by CEN and CENELEC aim at supporting the implementation of EU Directives and Policies, for example those in relation to construction products, drinking water, ecodesign, and energy efficiency. CEN and CENELEC also promote a horizontal approach by encouraging their Technical Committees and Working Groups to consider environmental aspects when developing standards for diverse products, services, processes and systems. A range of tools, guidance and support is available to help standard writers understand and integrate objectives such as environmental sustainability, resource efficiency, and climate resilience.
- By making use of environmentally respectful standards, businesses and organizations can benefit from higher levels of public trust and customer satisfaction.
- By using less energy and resources, they can also gain in terms of less waste and lower cost
Thanks to standards, sustainability and competitiveness can go hand-in-hand!
- USE OF RAW MATERIALS AND RESOURCES
Our raw materials, from the environment surrounding us, are limited resources making ecodesign a future core component of a sustainable, circular global economy.
Standardization is a key tool, ensuring the performance specifications of materials and products are compliant while allowing the flexibility of innovative organizations to develop materials and products which meet those specifications.
Economies of the future will need to become increasingly eco-efficient, delivering products and services while utilising fewer virgin materials. Industries of the future will need to work within a circular economy where re-use and recycling of materials and products as well as efficient use of resources is common practice.
As virgin materials become increasingly scarce and expensive, alternatives will be innovated and developed. Using less natural resources in production increases profitability and improves our long term prospects to remain sustainable.
Examples include:
The EU construction sector is a major user of natural resources. EN 15804:2012 sets out horizontal rules, requirements and guidelines (Product Category Rules) for developing environmental product declarations (EPDs) of construction products which meet the requirements of ISO 14025:2006 and ISO 21930:2007.
By applying EN 15804:2012 within EPDs, all those involved in the construction supply chain can make decisions on environmental impacts of buildings and other construction works as the same rules and a set of environmental indicators are also employed at the level of the end product, i.e. for buildings EN 15978:2012.
EN 50242:2008 (as amended 2012) provides methods for measuring performance characteristics of electric dishwashers and EN 50440:2015 specifies methods for measuring the performance of electric storage water heaters for the production of sanitary hot water for household use. Both were developed in support of the Ecodesign Directive. These standards take into account water and energy consumption.
- WASTE AND THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Waste can be economically harmful as it represents a product or raw material that we have paid for and are paying to discard. Producing waste reduces profitability and, in a global market where resources are increasingly scarce, it risks our ability to sustain our economic activity.
We usually think of the cost of waste in terms of the cost of disposal. We forget that the true cost of waste also includes the cost of purchasing the materials which we are now discarding or processing, treating, converting and handling as waste using costly energy, water and other resources which might be better reserved for producing products and delivering services.
Similarly, waste is environmentally harmful. We deposit waste on land or discharge emissions to water or air, often relying on natural processes to clean it up for us. This puts pressure on already burdened natural systems. In a more circular economy waste needs to be prevented and what used to be regarded as ‘waste’ can be turned into a resource by re-using, repairing, refurbishing and recycling.
Examples include:
In order to properly handle different types of waste at the end of life as a product, it is important to correctly identify, collect and treat it. EN 50574 and EN 50625 series provide details on how to collect, transport, sort and treat waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) so that it can be routed to the best end of life option for recovery, recycling or re-use.
Reduction of the overall impact of waste is possible by using it as secondary or alternative material in other processes. The technical specification CEN/TS 14243 highlights categories for materials produced from end of life tyres. This categorization enables potential users of these materials to rely on the consistent specification of these secondary materials.
The plastics industry is a cornerstone in today’s fast changing world and a variety of standards address the characterization of plastic recyclates. These standards enable end of life plastics to re-enter the production cycle as alternative materials and work towards a circular economy.
- ENERGY AND CARBON MANAGEMENT
Energy enables food production, manufacturing, heating and cooling, water and wastewater treatment, however, it significantly impacts the economy and the environment. Emissions of greenhouse gases from energy production and energy use in industry result in climate change, affecting the environmental conditions in which we live and work. Changes in temperature and water availability impact our ability to produce food and goods while weather extremes interrupt the transport of goods and resources. Buildings and infrastructure must be modified to adapt to changing conditions. Finding ways to reduce our energy demand and to produce energy with a lower environmental impact results in lower economic costs, in both the short and long terms.
Standardization helps us control emissions arising from fuel consumption and manufacturing while strengthening the development of efficient distribution infrastructures and enabling us to consistently measure energy data. Standards support renewable energy production such as systems for photovoltaic conversion of solar energy and wind turbine systems.
In the future, standardization will have an even greater impact in areas such as smart metering, interoperability across systems, more efficient generation, and the development of energy efficient products and services.
Examples include:
Over the past years, CEN, CENELEC and ETSI have collaborated to develop an open architecture that would support the implementation of ‘intelligent metering systems’ to assist active participation of consumers in the energy market, and produced a technical report (CEN-CLC-ETSI TR 50572) to address some of the technical issues that technical / data communication standards should focus on. EN 13757-1:2014 addresses the communication systems for meters.
In 2015, CEN and CENELEC published a series of European Standards that set out requirements and provide guidance on how to carry out energy audits. The EN 16247 series of standards are intended to help companies throughout Europe comply with the requirements of the European Union’s Energy Efficiency Directive (2012/27/EU).
In 2012 CEN published EN 16258, a ‘Methodology for calculation and declaration of energy consumption and GHG emissions of transport services (freight and passengers)’. This standard sets a harmonized methodology and requirements for calculating and reporting energy consumption and GHG emissions in transport services.