From Product Design to Market Governance: The ESPR and the Regulation of Sustainability
From Product Design to Market Governance: The ESPR and the Regulation of
Sustainability
Environmental sustainability has traditionally been addressed at the end of a product’s life
cycle, through emission controls, recycling obligations, and waste management. However,
many of the environmental impacts associated with usage and consumption are determined at
a much earlier stage, when products are designed. Decisions on materials, repairability,
durability, and modularity shape the product’s lifetime, but also how the resources are
extracted, used, and eventually discarded. The Ecodesign for Sustainable Product Regulation
(ESPR) in this context constitutes a key shift in the European Union’s policymaking, casting
light on product design at the center of sustainable governance.
The inclusion of the ESPR within the EU’s yearly Commission Work Programme for 2026
confirms the political importance of this regulatory shift. The Work Programme presents the
concept of sustainability not only as an environmental concern but also as a strategic tool
linked to innovation, competitiveness, and market transformation. In this context, the EU
moves away from relying solely on downstream corrective measures, increasingly using
regulatory tools to shape upstream market behavior. Consequently, the ESPR can be
understood as a key part of a broader effort by the EU to govern sustainability by influencing
how products are developed before they reach the consumer.
Primarily, the ESPR establishes a framework that sets sustainability requirements that must be
met by products to be placed on the European market. This is a change from earlier ecodesign
rules, which focused on energy efficiency and end-of-life management, whereas now the
ESPR implements a comprehensive life-cycle approach, rooting sustainability considerations
in the entire production process.
Specifically, Article 5 of the regulation establishes certain aspects of a product that may be
subject to the ecodesign requirements. These include aspects such as repairability, durability,
upgradability, reusability, resource and energy efficiency, recyclability, and the overall
footprint of products. The approach does not create standardized guidelines for how a good
must be made, but it establishes a flexible regulatory framework that sets boundaries on how
innovation and production must occur, converting design choices made by producers into
regulatory concerns. For example, product groups such as household appliances and
electronic devices may be subject to requirements on the enhancement of reparability,
extending product longevity, or allowing the replacement of key components.
The new requirements also have implications for users and consumers. The criteria on
repairability and durability challenge common practices of planned obsolescence and support
extended product lifetime. This may be a factor for fostering local repair economies,
empowering consumers to maintain and reuse products, and reducing overall long-term cost
for the single user. Fundamentally, sustainability governance intersects with issues of
affordability, access, and consumer rights.
By shifting to an upstream model of regulations, the ESPR marks an advance from a reactive
model of environmental regulation. Now, instead of dealing with the significant consequences
of unsustainable production, the EU seeks to prevent harm by fixing responsibility in the
design of the product itself.
In addition to environmental aims, the ESPR transforms the dynamic between regulation and
innovation. By making sustainability a prerequisite for market access, the regulation preserves
producer flexibility and rights, but redirects innovation towards better durability, resource
efficiency, and modularity. This means that a company retains the right to determine how its
product meets the ecodesign requirements, yet design approaches that result in unwanted
waste or premature obsolescence are gradually being phased out of the internal market of the
EU. In this sense, looking at the interplay between regulation and innovation, the ESPR
illustrates how regulatory constraints can, in fact, stimulate sustainable innovation, aligning
long-term environmental objectives with industrial competitiveness.
Beyond requirements on material design, the ESPR increasingly concerns the role of
information and data in sustainable governance, most notably addressed with the introduction
of the Digital Product Passport (DPP). The DPP is an EU-driven digital record that contains a
structured collection of product-related data, with clear data management protocols and
defined access rights. Each passport is linked to a unique identifier and is accessible digitally,
allowing information to accompany the product throughout its life cycle. The scope of the
DPP extends beyond enabling basic product characteristics, focusing more on sustainability,
value retention, and circularity, including crucial information about reusability,
remanufacturing, and recycling. Through this standardized data infrastructure, the ESPR
introduces a new mode of governance that complements design requirements with
information-based regulation.
The objective of the DPP highlights a meaningful impact on sustainability governance. By
promoting sustainable production, the passport incentivizes producers to consider
environmental aspects at the earliest stages of product design. It maximizes usage and extends
product lifespan, supporting circular value retention and enabling new business prospects in
remanufacturing, repair, and refurbishment. The availability of comparable and reliable
product information accessed with the DPP empowers consumers to make sustainable
choices, reinforcing the ESPR´s market-shaping goal by aligning regulatory objectives with
consumer behavior.
Altogether, the ESPR exemplifies a key shift in how sustainability is managed within the
European Union. By embedding environmental requirements directly into product design and
production and reinforcing it through the data-based Digital Product Passport, sustainability
becomes a precondition for accessing the market. Design choices are consequently
transformed into regulatory sites, enabling the EU to guide consumption, production, and
innovation towards longer product circularity, lifespans, and resource efficiency.