A Steering Committee discussed a proposed voluntary agreement for imaging equipment on 7 December 2011 . A GPP meeting on Imaging Equipment will be held on 19 January 2012.

Digital Europe has presented a revised proposal for a Voluntary Agreement on Imaging Equipment on 15 February 2011 (verion 3.5).

In July 2011, ERA was appointed as Independent Inspector to oversee compliance and report on the agreement. In January 2012, ERA presented a document covering the first reporting period of the agreement.

The agreement from February 2011 includes improvements such as:

• Raised Energy Star compliance target for January 2012.
• Inclusion of  Duplex printing in the primary target.
• Tightening of the language on the other environmental impacts .
• Clarification of the reporting obligations and information requirements.

Draft guidelines for Voluntary Agreements in general were discussed in Consultation Forum 26 March 2010. For more information, view the section on Voluntary Agreements.

Background

The scope of this Lot covers printers, copiers, faxes and multifunctional devices (MFDs).The preparatory study  concluded that these devices have large sales volumes and a significant environmental impact which could be improved by design.Energy in the use phase and paper utilisation was considered as the main impact categories for this product group.

It was estimated  that no sufficient evidence was available to develop policy proposals at this stage, and that some of the environmental impacts are already addressed under the Energy Star Programme. A voluntary agreement has therefore been suggested, although the Commission states that regulation would also be taken into consideration.

Proposed agreements in 2009 and 2010

The first proposed voluntary agreement for this product group was discussed in Consultation Forum in October 2009. A revised proposal for a voluntary agreement on imaging equipment was presented in February 2010. It includes:

• Strengthening of the commitments related to compliance with ENERGY STAR v 1.1 (in terms of percentage of compliant products and aspects covered):
  Target for Tier (Jan 2011) is raised from 50 to 60% and (BaU compliance estimated to 50%).
  Tier 2 has been introduced from January 2012, with a target of 80% of equipment placed on the market (BaU compliance estimated to 60%).
• Reinforcement of provisions on duplexing.
• Reformulation of provisions related to use of paper and waste treatment.
• Developing and clarifications of the provisions linked to reporting, voting rules and penalties for non-compliance.

eceee's views on the proposals

eceee considers the 2009 proposal as weak and that i should be much stricter. In its current form it is far from an adequate alternative to an implementing measure.The proposed agreement from 2009 is not ambitious enough: With 80 % market coverage and a 50 % compliance rate, the effective coverage is only 40 % of products on the market.The proposal of  February 2010 has some improvements compared to the first proposal, but is still not sufficient to satisfy the requirements for a solid and reliable voluntary agreement as a replacement for regulation.

Ecolabel and Green Procurement

A  study on developing EU Ecolabel and Green Public Procurement criteria for imaging equipment will be carried out for the EU Environment Directorate General - DG-Env .The purpose of the project is to create a joint evidence base from which EU policy making in the area of imaging equipment can be developed. Criteria proposals were issued in November 2011. For more information, please view the imaging equipment web site.