New water label scheme for Europe

Europe’s bathroom industry has streamlined schemes to improve energy-saving awareness, it has been announced.

Four existing labels designed to show how much energy products use have been incorporated into a new Unified Water Label.

The creation of the single voluntary scheme was welcomed by the EU Commission’s lead for green initiatives, DG Environment, as a significant step on the road to achieving 80% representation of units sold in the EU. But DG Environment stressed the importance of achieving this goal, with a stern warning that the Commission has already mandated that in the event of the industry not achieving a full voluntary agreement then a mandatory eco-design energy label would be enforced.

Yvonne Orgill, chief executive of the Bathroom Manufacturers Association, welcomed the EU announcement: “Significant consideration and activity have been undertaken in the technical and marketing working groups to ensure harmonisation has been achieved. I urge all registered brands to commit to the initiative.”