EU Ecolabel criteria for hard covering products

This report presents criteria for EU Ecolabel hard covering products, as adopted in Commission Decision (EU) 2021/76 of 16 March 2021. The criteria are presented together with supporting rationale, which was derived from a combination of scientific research and stakeholder consultation.The final criteria are the culmination of 3+ year process, which started with a scoping questionnaire released in October 2017. This was followed by the publication of a draft preliminary report and initial criteria proposals in November 2018 and subsequent revisions following two stakeholder meetings (in December 2018 and October 2019) and a final round of modifications made in July 2020. The draft documents can be consulted at the JRC project website: https://susproc.jrc.ec.europa.eu/product-bureau//product-groups/413/documentsThe product group applies to four main types of product sectors: natural stone, agglomerated stone, ceramics and precast concrete. A number of horizontally applicable criteria have been defined as well as sector specific criteria.Since a significant portion of environmental impacts are associated with some of the intermediate products (quarry blocks for natural stone products and cement for precast concrete products), the possibility for awarding the EU Ecolabel to these business-to-business products has been enabled.The criteria presented include mandatory requirements as well as optional requirements which can result in the awarding of points. If enough points are gained and all mandatory requirements are met, the product can be awarded the EU Ecolabel. The scoring approach allows for greater weighting to be applied to criteria associated with larger environmental impacts and also encourages continuous environmental improvement for license holders.Broadly speaking for all four product sectors, the criteria predominantly focus on:- Improving energy efficiency (setting benchmarks where possible and requiring specific energy consumption reduction plans in other cases).- Reducing emissions that contribute to Global Warming Potential (via CO2 emission limits for combustion-dominated or the incentivisation of renewables for electricity-dominated processes).- Reducing emissions from combustion processes that contribute to acidification (SOx and NOx).- Reducing dust emissions, both to the wider environment and in production facilities.- Improving water efficiency via recycling of process water and reducing contamination of local watercourses via requirements on wastewater treatment.- Improving material efficiency via the incentivisation of recycled content, the reuse/resale of by-products and improved extraction efficiencies.The importance of choosing the correct performance class and dimensions of hard covering products for a given use is addressed by setting requirements on fitness for use. The importance of correct installation and maintenance of hard covering products on life cycle impacts is also addressed by setting requirements on user information.