EU Policy & Regulatory Framework
European Union nations are committed to achieving climate neutrality by 2050 in line with the Paris Agreement. The European Green Deal serves as the EU’s roadmap for reaching this ambitious target, fostering innovation, sustainability, and long-term prosperity. Cradle to Cradle Certified® supports this vision by providing a globally recognized standard for products that contribute to a circular economy.
This page helps our community navigate the EU regulatory landscape and shows how Cradle to Cradle Certified® supports companies in preparing for what is coming, going beyond compliance where it matters most: material health, circularity, and credible product-level data.
What is the Green Deal?
The European Green Deal is the European Union's strategy for achieving climate neutrality by 2050 while strengthening a competitive, resource-efficient economy. It brings together a wide range of policy initiatives designed to reduce environmental impacts, protect natural resources, and accelerate the transition to more sustainable ways of producing and consuming.
A key pillar of this transition is the move towards a circular economy. Rather than relying on a linear "take-make-waste" model, a circular economy aims to keep products, components, and materials in use for as long as possible, reducing waste and the demand for virgin resources. To support this shift, the EU has introduced a range of measures focused on product design, durability, repairability, recyclability, and responsible resource use across sectors such as electronics, batteries, packaging, textiles, construction, and food.
How Cradle to Cradle Certified® helps companies stay ahead
Cradle to Cradle Certified® (C2C Certified®) has long been at the forefront of setting rigorous standards for products and materials to enable the transition towards a circular economy. In collaboration with 2B Policy, we initiated a mapping of key pieces of legislation to align with the C2C Certified standard. Our holistic product certification framework covers numerous sectors, making many legislative texts relevant for comparison. After conducting thorough research and a gap analysis, we prioritized the following legislative texts: