Stop Guessing in the Dark: Identified Requirements for Digital Product Passport Systems

Abstract

The Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a concept for collecting and sharing product-related information along the life cycle of a product. DPPs are currently the subject of intense discussion, and various development efforts are being undertaken. These are supported by regulatory activities, especially in the case of the battery passport. The aggregation of product life-cycle data and their respective use, as well as the sharing of these data between companies, entrepreneurs, and other actors in the value chain, is crucial for the creation of a resource-efficient circular economy. Despite the urgent need for such a solution, there is currently little attention given to the digital infrastructure for the creation and handling of the DPPs (i.e., the so-called DPP system). Moreover, there is so far no common understanding of what the requirements for a DPP system are. This is the background and underlying motivation of our paper: we identify the requirements for a DPP system in a structured way, i.e., based on stakeholder involvement and current literature from science and industry. In addition, we compose, categorize, and critically analyze the results, i.e., the list of requirements for DPP systems, in order to identify gaps. Summarized, our research provides insights into the criteria to be considered in the creation of an actual DPP system.

Theorising circular economy and sustainable operations and supply chain management: a sustainability-dominant logic

“…For example, in the design process, including environmental factors in the bill of materials (BOM) of a product and related composition structure can be linked to useful data about product durability estimation and recyclability properties. This creates a valuable opportunity for businesses to feed product longevity and recoverability parameters into the generation of Digital Product Passports (DPP), which is a concept that has been gradually becoming a regulatory policy for a climate neutral and circular economy (G€ otz et al, 2022), requiring companies to collect and share product-related information along a product's lifecycle (Jansen et al, 2022).…”

Digital Product Passport in Marketing and the Future of Sustainable Development

“…According to the German Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection and the "Proposal for a New Ecodesign Regulation for Sustainable Products" (ESPR), a DPP contains information about the components and origins of a product, but it should also carry information for environmental and social impact assessment throughout the product's production, use, and conversion stages. The information can then be used to build circular economy business models (Jansen et al, 2023). The European Commission has set the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, this will be accomplished by promoting the dual transition to sustainability through digitalization.…”

Digital Twins of Supply Chains: A Systems Approach

“…In particular for batteries, the European Union has now mandated [107], that certain batteries (notably Electric Vehicles [108]) must be accompanied by a DPP, in an effort to facilitate circularity [109]. Whereas other attempts are known (e.g., materials [110]) the sustainability and circularity communities seem to be driving the efforts [104], both in terms of efficiency [111][112] [113][114] and transparency [114][115] [116].…”