Competition of the Garanteasy Service in the sustainable management of the purchase, possession and disposal of products.

Thematic framework

Consumerism driven, this is the approach of the globalised world. To favour production, develop marketing and make sales numbers always growing. This is the paradigm of capitalist development, without pauses – except for planetary emergencies, such as Covid 19 – and without any downturns in sales, which on the contrary must always tend in the UP direction.

Put like that, it is nice for the producers, but a curve that grows indefinitely, assuming this is plausible, has definite consequences for the lives of all of us, citizens of the world. Everything that is produced has a useful life and an uncertain continuation, but one thing is certain, it does not disappear on its own.

These positions in the new millennium, aided also by the events in the public eye such as global warming, air pollution and plastics, have made the issue of sustainable development an issue that manufacturers – and with them also many vendors – have realised they have to deal with, in terms of mitigating harmful consequences. Over the past decade, the issue has taken on clearer contours, and in many parts of the world, a summary of the problem has been reached: manufacturers must take social responsibility for their production and the complete life cycle of their products.

Obviously, in this what we can call battle, they cannot be left alone, not so much because of a lack of trust, but because the problem is universal and other actors in the system must also rightly prepare to play their part, among them, the public sector and service providers, starting with those offering digital and innovative services, as well as those involved in defining rules on material recycling and on the definition of life cycle stages of complex products.

In short, the world is getting organised, major manufacturers have, or are making, social responsibility programmes, the certification industry is better defining the rules, and scientists are identifying corrective and mitigation actions. Service providers are thinking about services for social, economic and environmental sustainability, and finally, also governments are slowly trying to pursue administrative policy coordination of the development sustainability process. The EU, but not only it, is doing valuable work in defining principles, which makes it easier for Member States to identify the work programme and common goals to be achieved.

Having made this necessary premise, let us now examine the state of the art and see how private and innovative players are entering into the mechanism of production, i.e. its complete cycle, to bring overall benefits in the mitigation or elimination of problems and obstacles to product life cycle sustainability, focusing especially on household appliances and electronics products.

LCA EPD AND PCR

The acronym LCA stands for Life Cycle Assessment, i.e. the study of the life cycle of materials or, more importantly, the life cycle of complex products, consisting of several different materials, having a precise function, a construction methodology, a design and, in this new meaning, also a well calculable environmental weight, an end-of-life and a disposal methodology, which brings its impact back to zero.

An LCA study cannot be conducted in the absence of a product PCR – Product Category Rule – which is nothing more than the list of contents and purposes that the LCA study must have in order to compete for EPD certification. Every product that wants to follow this procedure must necessarily have a PCR, e.g. the PCR for refrigerators, washing machines, smartphones and so on. It is therefore clear that if the PCR does not exist for a category of objects, they cannot undergo the procedure. This is not the case for major household appliances and electronics products, which have their own dedicated PCR. However, certification bodies are continuously developing new PCRs and soon all major products will have them. Existing and pending PCRs are available on the EPD Italy website.

The acronym EPD stands for Environmental Product Declaration, i.e. a certification that establishes the degree of sustainability of products on which an LCA has been carried out in the first instance. The LCA is therefore the first step in the procedure by which a product is analysed, its impact is established and its functional life and disposal path at the end of it is identified.

The best products subjected to LCA are then ready to receive EPD certification, which is a worldwide recognisable element and which must become an integral part of all quality products, starting with household appliances and electronics that are universally popular and sold with great attention to the communication of the object’s internal quality. This procedure therefore provides a complete analysis of the product, from the raw material to the results of disassembly for reuse or recycling.

Obviously, if all products that later become waste were accompanied by an EPD certification, it would be much easier and more natural to have all the information needed to manage the good:

1. To make a wise choice when purchasing, as we may know the environmental burden caused by using one material rather than another, or for example which construction material requires less processing, or lower transport costs;
2. To use the product according to specifications, not only those indicated by the manufacturer, but also those suggested for sustainable use;
3. To dispose of the product in the most suitable way, either locally or globally, or, if appropriate, to extend its useful life through targeted interventions.

As things stand, at least in our country, as things are slightly better in the United States and Northern Europe, the procedure to EPD certify a product is still limited to those high quality products that can be manufactured according to certain rules and that especially have to be competitive with other quality products on the market. The costs of an EPD certification are not particularly high, but one problem is that most companies produce many different products and various versions, which makes it more complicated and expensive to have them all certified. One thing is also clear: the interest in reuse and repairability of the good. contrasts with the manufacturers’ interest in making large sales numbers, or in low-cost production, so the manufacturer will naturally choose the path of making the product always new, while the consumer’s interest will probably lie in keeping the good, being able to repair it and thus amortising the purchase costs more cheaply. These substantially diverging interests become common again when the product is EPD-certified. The certification is in fact a kind of assumption of responsibility by the producer and also represents a guideline on the management of the good for both producers and consumers.

What is WEEE

International and national regulations have in the first instance defined the problem by giving a common name to the goods we are dealing with, i.e. defining small and large household appliances, at the end of their useful life, as WEEE.

WEEE is Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, it is defined by legislation and its definition and management is the first task of the public sector in management: identifying the object of contention and making the rules.

WEEE are classified into 5 categories:

• R1: Equipment for temperature exchange with fluids, such as refrigerators and air conditioners;
• R2: Large appliances, such as washing machines, dryers and dishwashers;
• R3: TVs and monitors;
• R4: IT and consumer electronics, lighting equipment, PEDs and others, i.e. all those small appliances, audio equipment and consumer electronics goods that we use on a daily basis;
• R5: Light bulbs of all kinds and other light sources.

All these products present particular problems during disposal and need to be treated according to precise procedures. If we think of the huge amount of electronics products that are purchased – and consequently replaced – every day in Italy and around the world, the impact they can have on the environment if they are not disposed of properly is evident: this is why it is important to make an effort in this respect.

The incorrect disposal of household appliances, especially large ones, or their transformation into waste when they could still be efficiently repaired and used for a long time has direct consequences on various environmental matrices, such as:

1. Air quality as a function of work and transport
2. Soil pollution by WEEE components, such as non-biodegradable plastics
3. Consumption of non-fungible raw materials
4. The environmental burden of building new appliances to replace WEEE

The definition and regulation of WEEE therefore has an irreplaceable function, as every person or household in the world owns at least one of these items.

The main actors in the system – What the public sector does

The management and disposal system – internationally defined Waste management – on a continental level is organised by the European Commission, which regulates the sector with Directives and Resolutions, which must then be transposed by the member states and their parliaments.

They become national standards and regulations. The main directives coming from the EU are, for example, the one called Ecodesign, already implemented in Italy, which deals with the eco-compatible design of, among other things, capital goods, or, for example, the rules that will come into force next year concerning the fight against planned obsolescence. It will soon also be possible to maintain the benefits of the warranty by self-repairing the appliance through simple interventions and a predefined procedure.

Local governments then, based on the regulatory framework, activate collection and disposal services according to the given rules. 

Europe also contributes to this aim indirectly by funding development, dissemination and research programmes on topics such as:

1. Environmental Sustainability
2. Energy Saving, 
3. the Recycling of Materials
4. the Circular Economy
5. the dissemination of Good Practices in WEEE management

All this organisation represents the public contribution to the management of the problem.

Cleverly, this set of rules, while placing obligations on the entrepreneurial behaviour of producers, simultaneously creates operational space for service companies and for the initiative and intelligence of private structures by creating an environment favourable to their activity.

The EU therefore promotes, by means of Resolutions and Directives, the reparability of consumer goods and with it the increase of the useful life of household appliances and the correct application of the Legal Warranty in particular.

What the Private Sector Does

In this context in which principles have been laid down and rules have been given, Manufacturers of varying sizes have two possible paths, either to conform out of duty, or to try to adopt responsible behaviour and offer greater participation in the life cycle management of the objects they produce and market. Some manufacturers are showing that they have well understood that this attitude, in addition to being a due assumption of responsibility, increasingly represents a marketing element, depending on the increased social and environmental awareness of the population.

Other important players in the sector are Service Providers, who enter the life cycle of electrical and electronic products, precisely by providing services to facilitate the process, normally by improving the management of the supply chain from the user’s side.

It is precisely this latter meaning that seems to be the most successful and satisfying for users. The environmental consciousness of the population has increased exponentially over the last twenty years and now the fact of adopting more sustainable personal behaviour is a concept that has penetrated deeply into society and will increasingly do so thanks to the creation of a substantially favourable general context. There are still huge distortions, but the environmental awareness of the population, especially the European population, has increased and has developed a good attitude towards material recycling and sustainability.

The private sector therefore plays a very important role, partly conditioned by regulations, but largely on a voluntary basis, out of economic and strategic interest.

What a digital service provider such as Garanteasy can do to assist the system

Garanteasy is an innovative Italian SME that offers services related to the management of warranties and consumer goods in general, providing simple digital storage services and a complete guide to product management, with technical materials, description of after-sales assistance, identification of service centres to facilitate warranty repairs, and in general all useful information to avoid costs and waste in the management of a consumer good, which at the end of its useful life will almost certainly become a WEEE.

Garanteasy firmly believes in the circular economy, in the reparability of goods rather than their replacement, and in the social and even ideological function of the company as an implementer of the virtuous policies indicated by the European Commission.

In Point 27 of the European Parliament Resolution on Increasing the Useful Life of Products, the EU recalls some key elements in the management of the matter, such as ensuring better consumer information through the invitation to the Commission to improve information on the durability of products through:

1. the consideration of a voluntary European label indicating, in particular: durability, eco-design, modulation possibilities of components to accompany product progress and reparability;
2. voluntary experiments with companies and other stakeholders at Union level with the aim of developing a designation of the expected useful life of a product on the basis of standardised criteria that could be used by all Member States;
3. creating a usage counter for the most relevant consumer products, in particular large household appliances;
4. conducting an evaluation of the impact of aligning the lifetime indication with the duration of the legal guarantee;
5. using digital applications or social media;
6. standardising information in manuals on the durability, upgradeability and reparability of a product to ensure that it is clear, accessible and easy to understand;
7. information based on standard criteria, in which the expected lifetime of a product is indicated;
8. Make consumers aware of defective products that cannot be repaired right away, where appropriate through the development of consumer notification platforms; 

It is clear that the aim of this 2017 Resolution, which has been partly transposed into various measures, is precisely to create an environment conducive to private individuals and professionals operating in the market to participate in the ongoing process of improving consumer information on prerogatives, rights and savings opportunities.

Point 4, calls into question the Legal Warranty, which is a very significant element in defining the invitation to manufacturers to move towards the construction of goods that have a longer lifespan and are also repairable directly, maintaining the benefits of the Warranty. Especially, however, the Resolution insists on the alignment between the useful life of the good and the functionality of the Legal Warranty, which should obviously be rethought in function of the longer life of the good and the new possibilities of intervention.

This exhortation, being the one with the greatest impact on manufacturers’ revenues, has not yet found practical application, but it is being discussed a great deal and some steps forward, or at least sideways, have been taken at the instigation of the Associations and especially of some leading players in the Digital Economy, such as Garanteasy, which was set up precisely to give consumers a hand in managing the useful life of the goods they have purchased.

In the same European Parliament Resolution on Increasing the Useful Life of Products, the need to strengthen the right to a legal guarantee of conformity is addressed in the next point, reiterating that:

1. considers it essential that consumers be better informed about the operation of the legal guarantee of conformity; calls for this guarantee to be mentioned in clear letters on the purchase invoice of the product;
2. urges the Commission to take legislative initiatives and actions to improve consumer confidence:
   • strengthening consumer protection, especially for products with a longer reasonably expected lifetime and taking into account the strong consumer protection measures already taken in some Member States,
   • taking into account the effects of both ecodesign and contract law on energy-related products to develop a holistic approach to product regulation,
   • ensuring that the consumer is officially informed, in the sales contract, of his or her right to a legal guarantee and promoting information programmes on this right;
   • simplifying the proof of purchase act for the consumer by linking the guarantee to the object and not to the purchaser and, subsequently, further encouraging the generalisation of electronic receipts and digital guarantee systems;
3. calls for the introduction of an EU-wide complaint mechanism for the non-application of the guarantee right in order to facilitate the administration’s monitoring of the application of European standards;
4. notes that strengthening the principle of extended producer responsibility and setting minimum requirements can provide incentives to design more sustainable goods.

This part of the Resolution is also clearer on the EU’s policy intentions, which it has taken note of by making them its own and starting to promote them on the market on the basis of procedures facilitating the management of the Legal Guarantee.

Garanteasy, too, starts from the consideration, explicitly promoted by the EU, that the Management of Legal Guarantees of Conformity is the central pivot on which to pursue sustainable production and especially the sustainable management of after-sales services. Garanteasy therefore represents a private partner for social policies and it is with this methodology that it pursues its social commitment, which is the most exclusive characteristic of third millennium entrepreneurship.

Easy Warranty is the Company’s motto. It would seem a contradiction in terms, given the complication of the world in general and of commercial procedures in particular, but in reality this is precisely the purpose, that of making it simple for the consumer user to manage a process that, partly for objective reasons and partly for the ill-concealed will of the manufacturers, is nonetheless a complicated process that requires time and attention. Garanteasy operates in the wake of the calls of the European Parliament, simplifies the management of Guarantees – not just the Legal one – and develops the information available to Consumers, providing them with information on Manufacturers and their reliability rating in the management of after-sales services, on the territorial organisation of after-sales services, on how to access these services, and on the differences between selling in e-commerce, or through a physical shop, and the various foreign regulations, which are fundamental for managing purchases in the globalised economy.

All this is done with the typical tools of the Digital Economy the Website and the WebApp, tools through which consumers can remotely manage the life of their purchases.

In the globalised economy, the Garanteasy app also provides a global service, which especially within the EU borders is fully compatible with all regulations that are, as we have seen above, already inspired by common and shared principles.

From a social point of view, Garanteasy represents a kind of quality control on the work of Manufacturers and Vendors, but also a valuable partner for those operators who have already well understood that the quality of warranty service is a fundamental element of the product communication strategy.

Through the spaces dedicated to after-sales services, Garanteasy promotes and at the same time is ready to support the consumer in a new landscape such as the one foreshadowed by the EU, in which the management of household appliances and electronics products is much more focused on the preservation of the good, rather than its replacement

Proud to be part of a common path of social consciousness, the Garanteasy WebApp supports European policies in the sector and provides a service to the consumer based on information and simple management tools, within everyone’s reach, but let’s not forget that it is also a powerful tool to support Producers and Vendors in contributing to an increasingly sustainable future.

Carlo Maria Venturi

Garanteasy