The European commission released the new “Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) in 2020 to promote sustainable products, to encourage sustainable consumption and to ensure better resources and waste management. The circular economy action plan CEAP introduces legislative and non-legislative measures on EU level. A big number of EU regulations and directives specify the CEAP requirements and must be fulfilled before placing a product on EU markets. The regularity framework includes, among many others, proposals for the revision of the actual Ecodesign Directive, the revision of the EU legislation on packaging and packaging waste, and a new Green Claims Directive. As many other industries, the circular economy initiative impacts the Vaillant Group value chain. The Vaillant Group is a global market and technology leader in the field of heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and cooling technology (HVAC). Sustainable product aspects such as recyclability, reuse, upgradability, environmental performance, substances of concern, sustainable packaging, recycled content etc. must be created/calculated, managed, and reported along the product lifecycle. These requirements build enormous challenges for future product development and for the IT infrastructure managing the product lifecycle. The long-term approach to circular economy transformation at the Vaillant Group with expected major challenges for the PLM infrastructure will be presented.
