Digital Product Passport
What is the Digital Product Passport?
The Digital Product Passport (DPP) acts as a digital identity for products and enables companies to ensure the integrity, authenticity and security of their products.
The DPP helps companies collecting and sharing product data throughout its entire lifecycle used to illustrate a product’s sustainability, environmental and recyclability attributes.
Through a digital identifier (e.g, a QR code or RFID tag), ideally compliant to IEC 61406 or another worldwide unique digital identifier, the DPP links the physical product to its digital twin. This connection allows a complete set of verified product data to travel seamlessly with the item throughout its lifecycle, ensuring that accurate and consistent information is accessible to all stakeholders.
For example, by simply scanning a QR code printed on a motor with a smartphone camera, a consumer will be immediately redirected to the product’s associated Digital Product Passport to view information about materials used, ownership history, and even instructions on recycling or proper disposal.
Why companies need Digital Product Passport now?
The need for Digital Product Passports (DPP) is more urgent than ever due to a wave of EU regulations aimed at promoting sustainability, transparency, and compliance within the manufacturing industry. These regulations, part of the European Green Deal (EGD), are designed to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and affect nearly all physical products on the compliance with legislation.
Compliance with legislation
The adoption of DPPs is driven by both innovation and extensive EU policies and regulations. Key regulations include:
- Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR):
- Proposed in March 2022, ESPR sets guidelines for product durability, reusability, resource efficiency, and carbon footprints.
- New EU Battery Regulation:
- Proposed in December 2020, this regulation targets battery sustainability and safety, emphasizing recyclability.
- Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD):
- Starting January 2024, CSRD mandates listed and large companies to report on sustainability and ESG issues, promoting a greener economy through detailed reporting.
- AGEC:
- The French decree focus on giving consumers information about the environmental qualities and characteristics of waste generating products.
- EU Circular Economy Action plan:
- Supports the transition to a circular economy and aims to keep products and materials in use for longer supported by Digital Product Passport guidelines.
Win Customer Loyalty
- Transparency and Trust:
- The DPP allows companies to provide detailed, verified information about product origins, manufacturing processes, and environmental impacts. This transparency builds customer trust and confidence, leading to greater brand loyalty and a competitive edge in the market.
- Regulation Mandates:
- Information must be accessible to consumers and other stakeholders via the product itself, its packaging, or an associated digital medium.
- New Innovative Offerings:
- Building the infrastructure to comply to the arising regulations is quite an investment. But if done right, the underlying technology can help companies to offer new digital services to their customers, which can be monetized and re-finance the investments.
Optimize Your Product’s Lifecycle
- Lifecycle Management:
- The DPP offers a detailed lifecycle management from production to disposal. By tracking and recording product data at every stage, companies can improve quality control, optimize supply chain operations, and enhance product traceability.
- Operational Efficiency:
- Improved resource management, reduced waste, and increased operational efficiency. Information requirements include details on product performance, installation, maintenance, and disposal.
Benefits of Digital Product Passport
EU legislation on product passports ensures consistent information management and provides the necessary tools to achieve and follow up on companies’ own sustainability goals and increase consumer interaction.
Consumers receive product to support their sustainable choices.
Unique identities and standardized data make it visible that all parties in the value chain meet sustainability requirements.
Open sustainability data provides greater international visibility for businesses and consumers through the supply chain.
Reliable and verified data protects products, consumers and patients, and ensures that everyone has the same information.
Buyers and producing companies avoid unnecessary manual administration and handling of data.
Standardized information ensures that companies comply with laws, regulations and industry requirements.
Neoception® Digital Twin Infrastructure: The ultimate solution for all digital product passport requirements.
The Neoception ® Digital Twin Infrastructure (DTI) and Digital Product Passport (DPP) are interconnected through their shared objective of efficient data management and compliance with EU regulations.
- The DTI acts as an enabler for companies, allowing them to provide DPP data for their products on a large scale with minimal effort.
- By modeling your DPP already, even before the standardization is complete, you will avoid a massive re-work of existing DPPs for products currently on the market.
Industries affected by the Digital Product Passport
The implementation of the Digital Product Passport regulation will impact several industries and product categories, according to the European Commission.
The industries listed below are those with which the implementation of the Digital Product Passport will begin.
Curious about the future with the Digital Product Passport?
Discover why the Digital Product Passport isn’t just a challenge and regulation, rather what benefits can arise for your company from it with Neoception.
