Federal Act
on the Protection of the Environment
(Environmental Protection Act, EPA)

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion and, with­in the scope of their re­spons­ib­il­it­ies, the can­tons shall en­sure that nat­ur­al re­sources are con­served. They shall in par­tic­u­lar com­mit to re­du­cing the en­vir­on­ment­al im­pact of products and build­ings throughout their en­tire life cycle, clos­ing any gaps in ma­ter­i­al cycles and im­prov­ing re­source ef­fi­ciency. The en­vir­on­ment­al im­pact caused abroad shall be taken in­to ac­count.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall re­port reg­u­larly to the Fed­er­al As­sembly on the con­sump­tion of nat­ur­al re­sources and the de­vel­op­ment of re­source ef­fi­ciency. It shall identi­fy any need for fur­ther ac­tion and sub­mit pro­pos­als for qual­it­at­ive and quant­it­at­ive re­source tar­gets aimed at the product or building and its life cycle. As far as possible, it shall use internationally recognised standards to measure these targets.

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons shall reg­u­larly ex­am­ine wheth­er the le­gis­la­tion they have en­acted is hinder­ing in­dustry ini­ti­at­ives to con­serve re­sources and im­prove the cir­cu­lar eco­nomy.