Building materials are today a major climate challenge. In the EU alone, buildings with an annual emission of 1424 Mt CO2 account for 36 percent of the EU's total CO2 emissions and 40 percent of the EU's total energy consumption.

On 30 March 2022, the EU Commission presented the first part of their so-called Circular Economy Action Package. An important leg in that package is a proposal for revision of the so-called Construction Products Regulation (CPR), which has been applicable to the EU member states since 2013 and which sets up common and harmonized standards for pre-construction products sold on the internal market. Standards which today are disseminated in the form of the common European CE mark.

The plan for a revision of the CPR is a clear attempt to promote the sale of and demand for sustainable construction products in the EU to a greater extent.

The play must also be seen in the light of the fact that the work of recent years with the current CPR has been enormously problematic and proved to be far from sufficient in relation to ensuring harmonized standards that can promote both the environmental and climate footprint of building materials and safety across the EU - the countries. And finally, the revision proposal must be seen in the context of the EU's greater focus on circular economy and the announcement that sustainable and climate-friendly products must be the norm in the EU, among other things with the proposal to revise the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and the development of a digital product passport (DPP).

With the proposal to revise the CPR, the Commission thus aims to:

• Improve the circularity of building materials, including pushing for more reuse, recycling and repair.

• Improve data collection and transparency in relation to the life cycle footprint of construction products – across the EU countries.

• Create fertile ground for further harmonization of building product standards, improve the assessment process and increase control of the standards.

• Develop and expand the CPR, so that it can fulfill the ambitions presented with the proposal for the ESPR and the development of the digital product passport in the building sector.