The EU’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) is no longer a distant policy, but an active regulatory shift that’s set to reshape the future of furniture sold in Europe, writes Matthew Eckholm, DPP specialist at Protokol – and here’s how furniture brands can proactively embrace ESPR compliance around design, materials and supply chains …
The EU’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) has quickly shifted from a distant policy discussion to a pressing priority for the furniture industry. Since coming into force in mid-2024 with the aim of making sustainable products the standard across the EU, furniture manufacturers, suppliers and retailers have been working to understand its implications.
The regulation applies to any business placing furniture or related components on the EU market, with compliance requirements centring on the introduction of Digital Product Passports (DPPs). These passports are expected to capture details such as material composition, sourcing, repairability and recyclability – core issues for a sector under growing pressure to extend product lifecycles and reduce waste.
With its uniquely complex supply chain considerations, and the added scrutiny it receives due to its high environmental impact, the furniture sector has a particularly extensive task ahead when it comes to compliance.
To support furniture businesses that want to ensure they stay ahead of the regulation’s mandate, we’ve mapped the three key milestones they need to have on their radar in the coming year …
1. The publication of the ESPR and Energy Labelling Working Plan 2025-30 (released in April 2025)
After the ESPR came into force in July 2024, there has been a long wait for the next official news on the specific requirements for businesses across priority sectors. Finally, in April this year, the working plan was published, outlining its improvement expectations for all affected sectors – including the furniture sector.
The working plan states that every product for which ecodesign measures will have to be adopted will need to have a DPP (a digital record of information about the product), to enable transparent data on a product’s composition and environmental impact to be shared with businesses and consumers alike.
Knowing at this stage that this will be a mandatory requirement means that businesses can begin to focus on strategies for the deployment of DPPs, such as determining where data that may be needed resides, or engaging with DPP solution providers.
2. Release of the delegated act (expected by 2028)
By 2027, the EU is expected to have outlined its first set of delegated acts – guidelines referring to the exact requirements for the data required in DPPs for each priority group. For certain industries, such as furniture, these details aren’t expected until 2028 or later.
The exact requirements for each industry are expected to include the specifications for the data to be collected and made available. For the furniture industry, this could include requirements for data on material sources or information on repairability and recyclability.
Ahead of the delegated acts being announced, prepared businesses should already have a clear view of where any of the data that may be required resides within the business or supply chain, an implementation strategy, and be in a position to begin piloting with a trusted partner.
3. Deadline for compliance (18 months after the delegated act is released)
The deadline for compliance is expected to be up to 18 months from the publication of each of the delegated acts, however the EU can shorten this period if it is well justified, for example through environmental urgency or alignment with other policies.
Following the publication of the delegated act, furniture businesses should be in a good position to learn from their pilots, and be confident in their DPP implementation plan to achieve compliance. They can also look to industries that have been higher up the priority list (such as iron and steel, that is expected to see the publication of a delegated act in 2026, or textiles, which will see its delegated act published in 2027) to see what has worked well for them.
While the compliance deadline is a few years away, each milestone presents a crucial opportunity for furniture businesses to consider, in order to secure their path to regulatory compliance ahead of schedule.
