Design for Circularity
Design is where the circular economy is won or lost
Up to 80% of a product's environmental impact is determined at the design stage. Once a product is manufactured and on the market, the options for improving its circularity shrink dramatically. The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR, 2024/1781) operationalises this insight through the most comprehensive product design regulation ever adopted in the EU.
What Design for Circularity Means
Design for circularity (DfC) is the deliberate practice of integrating circular economy requirements into the product design process. It goes far beyond the earlier discipline of "design for environment" (which focused mainly on reducing toxicity and energy use) to encompass the full lifecycle of a product from initial specification to end-of-life recovery.
A product designed for circularity is built to last longer, be maintained more easily, be repaired with standard tools and available spare parts, be upgraded as technology improves, be disassembled at end of life without destroying components, and have its materials recovered at the highest quality. Each of these requirements imposes new constraints on the design brief, often pushing back against the historical default of designing for lowest manufacturing cost.
The ESPR Framework: From Energy to Sustainability
The Ecodesign Directive of 2009 focused narrowly on energy-related products, setting energy efficiency standards that drove significant improvements in appliances, lighting, and electronics. The ESPR (Regulation 2024/1781), adopted in June 2024, transforms this into a comprehensive sustainability framework applying to virtually all physical goods placed on the EU market.
The ESPR's scope is vast. It excludes only food and feed, medicinal and veterinary products, living organisms, and vehicles covered by separate sector regulations. Everything else, from furniture to textiles to industrial machinery, falls within its reach. The regulation enables the European Commission to set binding ecodesign requirements through delegated acts, working through multi-year working plans that prioritise product categories by climate and environmental impact.
| ESPR Sustainability Parameter | What Designers Must Address |
|---|---|
| Durability and reliability | Minimum lifespan under standard conditions; resistance to wear, failure, and obsolescence |
| Reusability | Whether parts, packaging, or the whole product can be reused without reprocessing |
| Upgradability | Whether performance can be improved through software or hardware updates |
| Repairability | Harmonised repairability scores; spare parts availability; access for independent repairers |
| Recycled content | Minimum share of secondary materials in production |
| Recyclability | Whether materials can be effectively separated and recovered at end of life |
| Hazardous substances | Restrictions on substances that hinder reusability or recyclability |
| Carbon and environmental footprint | Lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts |
The Digital Product Passport
One of the most innovative elements of the ESPR is the mandatory Digital Product Passport (DPP). The DPP is a digital record, accessible via QR code or similar technology on the product, that carries key information about the product's environmental performance, material composition, repairability, and instructions for disassembly.
The DPP serves multiple stakeholders simultaneously. Consumers can check a product's repairability score before purchase. Independent repairers can access disassembly instructions. Waste managers can identify materials and hazardous substances. Customs authorities can verify compliance at borders. Businesses in secondary markets can assess the quality and provenance of recovered materials. This information infrastructure is essential for scaling circular economy practices beyond company boundaries, enabling the whole supply chain to make circular decisions.
Analogy: The Digital Product Passport as a Lifecycle CV
Think of the Digital Product Passport as a CV that travels with a product throughout its life. Just as a human CV records education, skills, and work history, the DPP records where materials came from, what the product is made of, how it performed, and what should be done with it at end of life. Any future employer (or recycler, or repairer) can access this record and make informed decisions. Without this information, each party in the chain must guess, and guessing leads to lost value.
Priority Product Categories
The ESPR's working plan prioritises product groups for early regulation based on their climate impact potential, environmental benefits, and cost proportionality. The initial priority categories include:
- Iron, steel, and aluminium: Together among the highest industrial GHG emitters; recycled content requirements and design-for-recycling standards are the primary levers.
- Textiles: High material turnover with low circularity rates; durability standards and recycled content requirements are expected to reshape the fast fashion sector.
- Furniture: Long use phase but poor end-of-life recyclability due to composite materials; disassembly design requirements are the key intervention.
- Information and communication technology (ICT) products: Short replacement cycles and complex material composition; repairability scoring and spare parts mandates are priorities.
- Tyres: Safety-critical with high wear particle emissions; durability and retreading requirements are the focus.
Combating Premature Obsolescence
The ESPR specifically targets "premature obsolescence practices," the deliberate design of products to fail or become outdated before their functional life is exhausted. This includes planned obsolescence (components designed to fail at a specific point), software-driven obsolescence (updates that degrade older devices), and aesthetic obsolescence (annual style changes that make functional products appear outdated).
The regulation prohibits economic operators from destroying unsold consumer apparel, clothing accessories, and footwear, a practice widespread in the fashion industry where brands incinerate or landfill unsold stock to protect brand value. Transparency obligations require disclosure of quantities destroyed, and phased compliance timelines allow smaller enterprises to adjust.
Example: Interface's Mission Zero and Net-Works
Interface, the modular carpet manufacturer, pioneered circular design in the commercial flooring industry. Its carpet tiles are designed so that individual worn tiles can be replaced without removing the entire floor, dramatically extending the useful life of the installation. The company's Net-Works programme collects discarded fishing nets from coastal communities in the Philippines and converts them into yarn for carpet backing, simultaneously cleaning oceans and using a recovered material. Interface has reduced its greenhouse gas intensity by over 90% since 1996, demonstrating that circular design can be both commercially viable and deeply transformative.
Practical Design Principles
Beyond regulatory compliance, practitioners in design for circularity apply a consistent set of design principles:
- Minimum material complexity: Reduce the number of different materials in a product to simplify disassembly and sorting at end of life.
- Reversible joining: Use screws, clips, and snaps rather than glues and welds where disassembly is desirable; reserve permanent joining only for safety-critical structural applications.
- Material identification: Mark materials clearly so that sorters and recyclers can identify them without costly testing.
- Design for maintenance access: Make wear components such as batteries, filters, and seals accessible with standard tools and without specialist knowledge.
- Functional separation: Separate high-value electronic components from bulk structural materials so that each can be recovered through its optimal pathway.
The ESPR establishes an Ecodesign Forum, a permanent multi-stakeholder consultation body that the European Commission must consult when developing product-specific requirements. The Forum includes Member State experts, industry representatives (including small and medium-sized enterprises), trade unions, consumer organisations, environmental NGOs, and independent researchers.
This governance structure reflects the complexity of setting design requirements that are technically achievable, commercially viable, and environmentally beneficial simultaneously. The Forum's involvement is intended to ensure that requirements are based on best available evidence rather than regulatory ambition alone, and that smaller companies receive adequate support in transitioning to compliant product designs.
Key Takeaways
- 1Up to 80% of a product's environmental impact is determined at the design stage, making design the highest-leverage point for circular economy intervention
- 2The ESPR (Regulation 2024/1781) transforms ecodesign from an energy-efficiency framework into a comprehensive sustainability framework covering durability, repairability, recycled content, recyclability, and more
- 3The Digital Product Passport travels with each product and makes lifecycle information accessible to consumers, repairers, recyclers, and customs authorities
- 4Priority ESPR product categories include iron, steel, aluminium, textiles, furniture, ICT products, and tyres
- 5Premature obsolescence practices including planned obsolescence and destruction of unsold stock are prohibited under ESPR
- 6Circular design principles include minimum material complexity, reversible joining, material identification, maintenance access, and functional separation of high-value components