ECO Platform - Report from the General Assembly 2017

This year’s General Assembly on May 18^th in Brussels was held in combination with the Board Meeting (BM), which opened the possibility for all members of ECO Platform to be part of the physical Board meeting, as all members are invited for Board meetings by a decision from the Board of this spring. The participation of 26 stakeholders from 15 countries in the General Assembly show, that ECO Platform’s task is a paramount importance.

Within the General Assembly, managing director Christian Donath reported, that there are two new programme operators are members of ECO Platform since 2016: PEP Eco passport from France has been accepted in ECO Platform as full member within the last year and SÜGB from Switzerland as an emerging programme. The Irish Greenbuilding Council (Irish GBC) has become a member of ECO Platform also last year and is in the process of developing an own EPD Programme. In the section of Green Building Councils ECO Platform welcomed the Italian GBC and the GGBA (German Green Building Association) as new members.

From the three working groups it was reported, that Working Group 1 especially worked on the topic of a common format for EPDs. The WG I put its further work on hold by September 2016 because of the unsure development of EN 15804 with respect to the PEF-related amendment of M350. Referring to the change of convenor in working group 2, the members of ECO Platform expressed their thanks to Agnes Schuurmans for her excellent present work and welcomed Håkon Hauan as the new convenor. He successfully pursued the work of WG 2 being the process of ensuring the compliance and quality rules of EPD programmes with ECO Platform has. Within Working Group 3 the highlight of last year’s activities was the ECO Platform event on October 6^th with more than 80 participants and broad effects in press.

After four years of successful work of the ECO Platform it was discussed and decided by the General Assembly that time has come, to revise ECO Platform’s strategy and the structure of working groups. On this basis a strategy task force is working on the details now, which will be presented during next BM on June 29.

The next General Assembly will be on May 16, 2018, 14:00-16:00 CET in Brussels.

Four years after its official founding ECO Platform is undergoing a process of revising its strategy and working structure.

The principles for the strategy deriving from the objectives in ECO Platforms statutes were discussed and decided during the BM in Brussels on May 18. A Strategy Task Group (STG) is working on the details now, which will be presented during the next Board Meeting on June 29 as proposal for approval. As soon as the strategy is approved, the working programme will be implemented following the main issues of the strategy.

The structure with three working groups (1: Development of Quality Rules; 2: Compliance of Quality Rules; 3: Internal & External Affairs / Communication), that were implemented in 2013 worked so far for the objectives, which were addressed in the beginning. But as Sven-Olof Ryding, President of the ECO Platform stated, “the homework of Programme operators from the start in 2013 is done and we are entering a new phase. So we now have to make new proposal, as it is necessary to adapt to reality!”

The work on the crucial quality procedures has been successfully finalized. This was the task of WG II. Since the basic work is done and most of the last Working Group Meetings were held as joint meetings with WG I due to many interfaces anyway, it was decided to continue with only one Technical Working Group (TWG). The Board defines the tasks on the basis of the strategy for the TWG, which reports to the Board. Since there are many tasks for this Technical Working Group and time with volunteers in the Working Group is limited, Task Groups may be implemented to work on complex issues within the scope of the TWG.

Furthermore, it was decided to strengthen the communication efforts of the ECO Platform. Since the external communication towards important stakeholders, EC or standardization bodies is a very strategically field, it was decided to implement a Public Affairs Group (PAG), which consists of representatives from different membership categories. The Board defines the communication goals for the PAG. The PAG reports directly to the Board.

The internal communication is less strategic, but very important to keep all members informed about actual developments on a regular basis. To guarantee regular news to all members, it was decided to take the load of this task of the shoulder of the volunteers in a Working Group. Hence, the PAG can concentrate on strategic matters, while internal communication is taken care for by the administration of the ECO Platform.

On September 26 2017, the next physical Board meeting will be take place in Oslo/Norway in combination with a visit of the Vigeland Park and an EPD event for the Nordic region the “ECO Platform Day” on 27.09.2017 hosted by EPD Norge (Håkon Hauan).

All members of ECO Platform are invited to join this two-day event in Norway.

For further details please find the draft programme of the event attached.

Best regards

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