According to ENDS, the European Commission is due to extend the scope and depth of the ecodesign legislation already in place within the EU. It will increase the range of products to include clothing, cleaning products, waste water, furniture and buildings components. This is expected to strengthen the ability of the member states to tackle those products with the highest environmental impacts.

These development are coming through the European Commissions latest work on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) and Sustainable Industrial Policy. DEFRA are making worthwhile progress on the development of specific product roadmaps for SCP policies and mechanisms.

One of the weaker elements of all these developments is the the lack of convincing policy frameworks and mechanisms for sustainable consumption. There is still much work to be done in this area as was seen in the open debates at the final SCORE conference in March of this year.