Imagine if you could find information on every single energy efficient product available in the EU market? Imagine the potential possibilities for retailers, public procurement officers, consumers and policy makers if this valuable data was held in one place?

The great news is that an EU-wide database for energy labelled products already exists. EPREL was established in 2019, with a consumer facing website launched in 2022.  

EPREL: an essential energy efficiency information source for products

The idea behind the database is to be “a one-stop-shop of information on energy efficient products targeted at different stakeholders”. 

The homepage groups together products like washing machines, lighting and heating. Information about performance, energy use, water use, noise levels and manufacturer guarantees is given for each product. 

EPREL is a fantastic and comprehensive resource but at the moment, a significant number of target stakeholders are either unaware of what EPREL offers, or rely on other sources for their information.

There’s great potential to tap into EPREL’s data to make it work much harder for its core target audiences of consumers, producers, retailers, policy makers and procurers and make choices for sustainability easier. 

Tapping into EPREL’s potential 

This is where a new project involving Euroconsumers’ members OCU in Spain, Altroconsumo in Italy and Testachats/Testaankoop in Belgium comes in. EPREL Services is a 2.5 million euro programme that will last 3 and a half years.

Our members are joining forces in a network of qualified partners from across Europe, combining their expertise to get maximum usage and value from EPREL through new tools and linked services. 

The overall goal is to promote the purchase of sustainable, energy-efficient products by providing consumers and other stakeholders with the information they need to make informed decisions. The aims for each target group are:

1. Consumers: providing easy to access comprehensive information on  energy-efficient products, enabling comparison on multiple features and becoming empowered to make more sustainable and cost-effective purchasing decisions. 
2. Retailers: businesses that sell energy-efficient products can use EPREL to improve sales strategies, and to give consumers’ better information on products in store or by building that information into websites. 
3. Public institution procurers: can use EPREL to support sustainable procurement decisions, by accessing tailored data that can meet very specific procurement criteria. 
4. Policymakers: Government bodies and decision-makers who can leverage the data for developing and enforcing energy efficiency policies and regulations, using the database to help evaluate the impact of policy or to help design incentives and subsidies. 
5. Suppliers: manufacturers or importers of products who are bound by energy labelling legislation can be kept up to date with alerts if their products are missing from the register, or if any data is missing or needs correcting. 
6. Market Surveillance authorities: the project will help to create a smooth communication channel to report data quality problems to market surveillance authorities.

EPREL Services: making information useful and usable

The first job of the EPREL Services project is to make the information as familiar, useful and as usable as possible for all stakeholders.

This starts with developing software to automate the detection of any data gaps or inconsistencies, backed up by reaching out to stakeholders to crowdsource their feedback on data quality.

After ensuring the best data quality, the project will develop and promote a new web app. This will provide essential product information drawn from EPREL to target groups and will deliver it through their regular channels, supplemented with the other relevant information they might need. 

EPREL Services: putting the consumer at the centre

With a strong legacy of testing, labelling and providing engaging information to consumers, our members will bring their in depth knowledge of designing the most effective consumer-centered communication and involvement. 

The consumer-facing element of the web app will complement the EPREL data with other sources including price, operating costs, product availability etc to create a full picture of the product.

They will lead the development and promotion of the consumer element of the web app. Using surveys, citizen workshops and existing online collaborative platforms, they will gather insights and requirements that will then inform the web app development. 

OCU, Altroconsumo, Testachats and Deco Proteste (in Portugal) will also pull in information from EPREL to improve the existing ‘Product Selector’ tool that millions of consumers across the four Euroconsumers countries use.  This platform guides users to the best purchasing decisions for them by evaluating prices, quality and reviews. 

At the moment, Energy Label information is included wherever possible, but this will be enriched by a plan to integrate EPREL data, getting precise energy information out to many more people than at present.     

This comprehensive view will give buyers the very best sense of its costs, performance and quality. Over the project lifetime, the aim is to reach 54 million consumers with the app.

Unlocking EPREL data power

All the project partners have long-term experience in the EU-energy labelling scheme and in building tools for stakeholder information.  

The consumer-facing information will work alongside information services for retailers, producers and procurers to strengthen support for purchasing energy efficient, sustainable products, and have a broader impact in things like green procurement strategies or national subsidies.