The European Digital Product Passport (DPP; sometimes known as the EDPP) is a proposed initiative by the European Union that aims to provide consumers with access to information about the environmental and social impact of products. The DPP is part of the European Union’s broader efforts to promote sustainability and circularity in the economy and is predicted to be the single legislative instrument to verify compliance of consumer products.
While the DPP’s exact implementation timeline and requirements are still under discussion, the initiative represents a significant step towards a more transparent, sustainable, and circular European market, the essence of which is already in force under the French AGEC law.
Key features of the European Digital Product Passport
The European Digital Product Passport aims to provide consumers with a standardised digital certificate that provides information about the environmental and social impact of products, including those discussed below.
Environmental information
The DPP will provide information about the environmental impact of products, including their carbon footprint, water footprint, and energy consumption. This information will enable consumers to make more informed choices about the products they purchase and promote sustainable consumption.
Social information
The DPP will also provide information about the social impact of products, including information about labour conditions in the supply chain. This information will enable consumers to make choices that promote social justice.
Standardisation
The DPP will be a standardised certificate that provides consistent and comparable information about products. This will enable consumers to compare the environmental and social impact of different products and make informed choices.
Transparency and accountability
The DPP aims to create a single platform where information about a product’s entire lifecycle, from raw materials, through manufacturing, to end-of-life disposal or recycling, can be easily accessed by consumers, businesses, and regulators. This will allow for more informed decision-making and facilitate better tracking and monitoring of products throughout their entire lifecycle.
Benefits of the European Digital Product Passport
The European Digital Product Passport has several potential benefits for consumers, businesses, and the environment.
Promoting sustainable consumption
The DPP will enable consumers to make more informed choices about the products they purchase and promote sustainable consumption; helping to reduce the environmental impact of consumption and promote sustainable production and consumption.
Encouraging sustainable production
The DPP will encourage businesses to adopt more sustainable production practices for producing products that have a lower environmental and social impact; promoting the transition to a more sustainable and circular economy.
Promoting transparency and accountability
The DPP will promote transparency and accountability in the supply chain by providing information about the origin of materials and the manufacturing processes used to produce products.
Compliance and traceability
The DPP would serve as a tool to ensure that products comply with relevant EU regulations and standards, such as safety requirements, and to trace products back to their origins. This will help prevent the circulation of counterfeit or non-compliant products and facilitate market surveillance and enforcement activities.
To implement the DPP, a standardised digital format will be used to store and share data on the passport platform. Stakeholders, including manufacturers, importers, distributors, and retailers, would be responsible for providing accurate and up-to-date information about the products they deal with.
CIRPASS stakeholder-specific sharing of product data
Information is taken from the CIRPASS website FAQ – CIRPASS (cirpassproject.eu):
The EU believes that digital transformation will enable the transition to a circular economy to happen more easily. A consortium called CIRPASS (Collaborative Initiative for a Standards-based Digital Product Passport for Stakeholder-Specific Sharing of a Product Data for a Circular Economy) won the EC’s call for a proposal DIGITAL-2021-TRUST-01-DIGIPASS-Digital Product Passport: sustainable and circular systems.
CIRPASS is tasked to
- Create an inclusive forum to build a common understanding of a cross-sectoral DPP
- Build stakeholder consensus on DPP prototypes in three sectors: Batteries, Textiles and Electronics
- Focus on building a cross-sectoral DPP system
- Build/align terminology surrounding the DPP
CIRPASS has an 18-month timeline and will run from October 2022- March 2024.
CIRPASS advise that they are not a standardisation body, but instead, work to help the EU gain an understanding of what will be required in order for the EU’s concept of their DPP to be successful.
Alongside this, their intention is to communicate their understanding of how the DPP can work to the wider community, so that the global community understands what the DPP is. “Our aim is that the companies that are within the CIRPASS consortium have the same level of understanding and preparation for the upcoming DPP as all other companies outside. We study currently ongoing pilots to learn from them and help the Commission understand if it is going in the right direction.”
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