PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
The EU database for energy labelled products (EPREL) provides an effective basis for searching and comparing energy efficient products in the EU market. Thus, EPREL is a valuable information source for consumers, procurers, retailers, policymakers and other stakeholders supporting sustainable product purchasing and policymaking. However, given the recent implementation of the database, there is still much potential for a broader exploitation by the target groups. A significant number of stakeholders is not fully aware of the information offered by EPREL or is not used to the utilisation of EU level information sources and prefer information provided by their local information channels. Second, stakeholders are often searching for comprehensive information packages, including besides environmental aspects also information about e.g. price, availability and technical features of products. Moreover, high data quality (completeness and correctness) on EPREL is key to ensure the effectiveness and use of the database. The proposed project will develop and promote a new type of modular web application, tailored to the needs of consumers, procurers, retailers and policy makers, providing essential product information via the typical information channels used by the target groups. The new modular web application among others will allow merging of various product information including price, operation costs, energy/resource efficiency, product availability, technical product features, statistical market information, etc. by support of crawler technologies. The tools developed will effectively support purchasing of energy efficient sustainable products, but will also support the design of product policy instruments, e.g. including green procurement and subsidies. A second key activity of the project will be the development of tools and processes supporting data quality on EPREL. This will involve automated software routines as well a crowdsourced checking of market data.