Digital Product Passport

In March 2022, the European Commission issued a press release announcing their plans for a new ecodesign framework. This approach would replace the old framework and focus on ecodesign requirements for sustainable products. One centerpiece of this plan is the Digital Product Passport (DPP), a unique identifier used to track information about consumer products. The DPP is an essential tool for handling the demands of the Commission Council’s Directive.

What is Digital Product Passport?

Think about your national passport. It contains details about your identity, such as your citizenship, physical characteristics, and travel history. Anyone looking at your papers could trace your movement over the last few years. They could also confirm that you, the passport holder, are the same traveler as the one shown in the document.

In the same way, a DPP provides a collection of information about a particular product. Details can include:

ingredients or components used in the product
sustainability and circularity considerations
strategies or metrics for reusability and recyclability
repairability, durability, and upgradability considerations
energy efficiency metrics
compliance data used to establish environmental, etc. status

Compliance information can include certificates, such as health product declarations and life cycle assessments. A DPP might also contain additional information like a bill of materials (BOM) or product environmental compliance status (e.g., EU RoHS, EU REACH, EU POP).

What are DPPs Used For?

The central purpose of a Digital Product Passport is to encourage sustainability and recycling or reuse. Stakeholders add product information to the DPP across each step of its life cycle. This data is distributed along whole value chains and becomes accessible to all participants. The benefits come from better awareness of the materials or goods used in the product life cycle and their embedded environmental effects.

Indeed, these benefits affect many DPP stakeholders. Vested parties include businesses, consumers, legislators, and recyclers. The unique construction of a Digital Product Passport allows it to solve many problems that typically trouble a product life cycle.

Product Life Cycle and Digital Product Passport

Product Life Cycle Issues	DPP-centric Solutions
Information gaps exist in a product’s supply chain; these frustrate attempts to trace its providence or optimize its fabrication.	Information gets added at every phase of the life cycle. Data is compiled and centralized for an individual unit with a unique product identifier. Energy and material efficiency become enhanced by the better quality of information. More robust product data encourages a prolonged life cycle, an optimized active phase, and better options for the product’s end-of-life phase. Consumers can more easily identify “greenwashing” (presenting a product as more environmentally friendly than it truly is). Users can thus make better-informed decisions about the products they buy and whether those products will perform sustainably.
Difficulties in logging, distributing, verifying, or sharing product information between numerous and disparate interested parties	Product information is stored and accessed efficiently. Information gets shared in formats appropriate to the differing demands of the various user types. Clear and complete data encourages the development of new prospects for product circularity. This robust infrastructure strengthens the viability of circular business models on a larger scale. Product information gets easily integrated with other product databases, such as the European Product Registry for Energy Labelling (EPREL) and Substances of Concern In Products (SCIP) database.
Not feasible to leverage product information from many disparate sources to the extent that corporate policy or international trade gets affected.	Organizations can make decisions more easily about sustainable policies, ranging from product eco-design requirements to larger circularity objectives. Assessment of products that represent a risk to human health and the environment is streamlined. Infrastructure is in place for identifying possible substitutes for high-risk products. Policymakers are better able to assess organization compliance with sustainability initiatives.

Which Products require a Digital Product Passport?

In May 2023, the Council of the European Union adopted its “general approach” position for re-establishing its ecodesign framework. The new regulation, ESPR – Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, repealed Directive 2009/125/EC, replacing it with the ecodesign framework directive.

Consequently, the scope of products subject to ecodesign regulation has grown. Producers and consumers can expect almost universal product ecodesign regulation. For DPPs, this status comes with some notable standouts and exemptions.

Examples of Industries Positioned to Use DPPs

Product Class	Details
Construction Products	The Construction Products Regulation (CPR; March 2022) describes requirements for safer and more environmentally friendly materials.
Batteries	The EU Battery Regulation (implemention in 2026) proposes changes across many products and sectors dependent on cell-based energy storage. DPPs will be used extensively for traceability and targeted recycling initiatives.
Textiles	The EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles (March 2022) sets design and recyclability requirements for textiles, focused on extending the product life cycle. The popularity of online shopping has also made the Commission consider regulations limiting the destruction of unsold clothing.
Other sustainable products	New ecodesign framework for sustainable products (March 2022) to delineate other products and industries adopting DPPs.

DPPs for Electronics

With the repealing of 2009/125/EC, the Commission is positioned to rejuvenate other product ecodesign regulations. Ecodesign of electronics involves many of these standards, so it is worth keeping an eye on the landscape as the legislation evolves. Relevant sectors include:

electronic displays and televisions, following (EU) 2019/2021^*
computers and servers, following (EU) 617/2013 and 2019/424^*
external power supplies, following (EU) 2019/1782

* amended by (EU) 2021/341

What Else Should I Know About DPPs?

A Brief Timeline of the Modern DPP

In 2020, the European Commission introduced the Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP). It serves as one of the fundamental pillars of the European Green Deal regarding sustainable growth. The objective of CEAP is the improvement of sustainability, circularity, and energy efficiency of products. These measures cover Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) in particular and apply to each product using a cradle-to-grave timeframe. Such a perspective considers all the practices for materials sourcing, manufacturing, and supply chain.

On 30 March 2022, the Commission presented the Digital Product Passport as part of the proposal for an Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). The DPP is a “product-specific data set” that establishes product disclosure requirements. Consequently, it improves product traceability and makes all the relevant data about a particular product available to all stakeholders, including consumers and producers.

On 22 May 2023, the Council of the European Union adopted the position proposed in ESPR. This statement confirmed the Council’s plans to re-establish its framework for ecodesign requirements and sustainable products. The scope of products covered by the regulation and DPPs expanded to include almost all classes of consumer products. Some notable examples became emphasized (e.g., textiles), while others (e.g., food, feed, motor vehicles) received exemptions.

Digital Product Passports: Interested Parties

The Council lists transparency as a central attribute of the DPP. Indeed, many users of a Digital Product Passport desire a product history that is clear and easy to follow. Many sectors consequently find it helpful to track a product’s life cycle with high precision. Vested parties with access to a product’s DPP can include:

the European Commission
the original manufacturers of the product
importers and distributors responsible for spreading the product to international markets
end-users (for physical goods) or customers (for services)
recycling firms and aftermarket repair service providers
refurbishment and remanufacturing facilities
public interest organizations
other competent national authorities

Examples of DPPs Across Europe

Here are examples of Digital Product Passports throughout Europe:

Product Circularity Data Sheet (PCDS) of Luxembourg
Circular Product Data Protocol for the textile industry
CircThread for home appliances
CIRPASS – Collaborative Initiative for a Standard-based Digital Product Passport for Stakeholder-Specific Sharing of Product Data for a Circular Economy

Do you still have questions about Digital Product Passports? Contact Enviropass and connect with one of our experts.