In 2024, the EU has introduced new legislation (ESPR) to promote sustainable products and reduce environmental impact. Several things are still in the works, but approximately 30 product categories will, as a direct consequence, be covered by the new requirements for a digital product passport.
What is a digital product passport?
The digital product passport provides comprehensive and detailed information about a product’s lifecycle, environmental impact, and composition, including product identification and the materials used. Design processes, lifecycle environmental impacts, technical specifications, maintenance, user manuals, warranty details, information on reuse and recycling, energy recovery, waste management, and environmental information are also elements of the digital product passport.
Although digital product passports are not yet mandatory for all product categories, implementation is expected to occur gradually between 2026 and 2030. The preliminary agreement in December 2023 on ESPR prioritizes products with significant environmental impact and improvement potential, including textiles (especially clothing and footwear), furniture, chemicals, batteries, consumer electronics, electronic devices, and building products. For batteries, through the “New EU Battery Regulation,” textiles, through the “EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles,” and electronics, through the “ECO-design for sustainable products regulations,” work on prototypes for DPP has begun, and the requirements are expected to be fully implemented during 2024.
You can read more about the Digital Product Passport here.
Why digital product passports?
Transitioning to a circular economy is crucial for sustainable development, to reduce resource utilization and environmental impact. Increasing recycling rates to 80-90% could lead to significant CO2 savings by 2040. Digital product passports aim to promote sustainability by providing important information for informed choices, improving resource management, and facilitating repair, reuse, and recycling of products. It serves as a coordinated digital solution that supports regulatory procedures.
What is the relationship between DPP and EPD?
A key part of the DPP is documenting a product’s climate footprint along the entire value chain. Here, the EPD plays a significant role. An EPD is a concise document that describes the environmental impact of a product or service, based on an LCA analysis. An EPD is approved by an independent third party, comparable, published, and additive.
The relationship between a Digital Product Passport (DPP) and an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is quite interdependent and complementary within the framework of environmental sustainability and product information transparency.
DPPs are likely to include EPDs as part of their comprehensive information set. The EPD provides the detailed environmental data that feeds into the broader information platform offered by the DPP. The data from an EPD can be used within a DPP to inform consumers and stakeholders about the environmental aspects of the product, such as greenhouse gas emissions, resource use, and waste production.
You can read more about EPD here.
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