A glimpse into the future

In our digital world, personal contact remains the best way to connect with old and new friends and partners within the EUEW community. The best opportunity to do so, is coming up fast: the 2025 EUEW Business Convention in Helsinki from June 4 to 6, where we will also celebrate 70 years of EUEW success and experience. So secure your participation today, as it only comes around once every two years!

During our convention, we will take a glimpse into the future and reflect on how that impacts our industry today, and what responsibility we can and must take to help shape our future. We will also be slicing topics up into breakout streams, making it practical, insightful and rewarding. This makes our convention into a valuable opportunity to exchange best practices, learn and network with key partners in the industry, as well as a wonderful way for partners to experience midsummer magic during a sightseeing tour that includes Sibelius, the Rock Church and Finland’s Reindeer Park!

In the February edition of Electrified, I highlighted the EUEW Expert Update webinars, during which relevant legislation, guidelines, and trends are identified, interpreted and translated into relevant local impact for members. I am happy to announce that the Board of Directors of the EUEW has agreed to invest in the quality and frequency of these Expert Updates by inviting KPMG to prepare a series of webinars for this year.

Topics during these upcoming webinars will be amongst others: the new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation and Greenwashing Regulations with a special focus on the questions what claims are permissible, and which are not. Of course, the impact of the Omnibus on the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) will also be a topic for a webinar, as well as the interesting question how and which subsidies and incentives, related to sustainable investments, innovative projects, and similar initiatives, could be relevant to EUEW members. This way, we are convinced the Expert Update program will offer a wide range of relevant and interesting topics in a pragmatic and accessible way. So, stay tuned for our next webinar!

Next to the Expert Updates, we also like to give the stage to our EUEW members and share the priorities they are working on. We do that by putting members in the spotlights in Electrified, like we do with Switzerland in this edition. Next to that, I am calling on you to share a best practice with the rest of our community by presenting it during an Initiative Multiplier webinar. Past topics included Green Packaging (by Fedet Netherlands), Product Passport templates and ETIM (by ETIM International) and TechBiM Digital Transformation (by Techlink Belgium). I know there is an abundance of best practices available that are interesting to others to learn from or build on. So, please don’t be modest and step forward to share your best practice with our community!

As a result of inquiries from both CECAPI and Lighting Europe, we will engage with a first face to face and joint meeting with CECAPI about environmental product data. The aim is to identify current challenges around this topic, in particular the wide variety of stakeholders involved, as well as the broad range of expected data in the industry for many different uses in various uncoordinated formats. In short: maybe we can do ourselves, our manufacturers and our customers a big favour by harmonizing and simplifying things. I am happy that the EUEW will be represented by four Country Federations, as well as five representatives of the Advisory Council. A promising new start!