Achieving a Sustainable Economy with Digital Product Passports
A sustainable , ideally circular economy is becoming increasingly important for the resilience of most economies , especially those with complex supply and value chains across multiple sectors . However , only a small proportion of business economies fully ( or at least to a large extent ) meet sustainability criteria and the opportunities for achieving strategic advantages in the market . These opportunities can only be realized with the availability of product information across sectors .
The digital product passport is a key emerging technology within a digital ecosystem to track and monitor product properties throughout business processes in a sustainable economy [ 8 ], [ 7 ].
As an example , consider supply chains in the automotive sector . This sector manifests a multitude of companies of widely varying sizes working in a cooperative , but also highly competitive , ecosystem . The raw materials necessary for a vehicle are transformed step by step into component parts . These parts are processed and assembled step by step into more complex parts until the final car assembly can be completed .
Key component types include metal parts , batteries , electronics and plastics in the chassis , engine , transmission system and body of the car . The EU Circular Economy Action Plan [ 8 ] lists Batteries and Vehicles as one of seven key product value chains in a sustainable economy . The proposed EU regulation ‘ Ecodesign for sustainable products ’ [ 7 ] builds on the existing EU ecodesign directive 2009 / 125 / EC ( for energy related products ) to set design requirements for products to improve their circularity , energy performance and environmental sustainability .
The participants in a supply chain negotiate product specifications as well as terms and conditions with their own suppliers and customers . Not only legal regulations such as the Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains [ 11 ], but also company policies require stringent documentation of the supply chain , the manufacturing process , and the products ( intermediate and final ). Product specifications include not only information about the manufacturer and technical information for design and configuration such as CAD diagrams , but also about the materials used to facilitate the recycling and re-use of the parts at the end of the car ’ s or component ’ s life .
Moreover , data on carbon and energy footprints as well as usage of chemicals and minerals and compliance with labor conventions are also required . Like a person ’ s passport issued by a country , a product passport is designed to be a trustworthy certificate of a product ’ s identity and key selected characteristics . The product passport is then the basis for accepting a product (“ allowing entrance into the manufacturing process ”) and in handling the product (“ what can this product do , what properties does it have and what can be done with it ”, in summary “ its capabilities ”). A Digital Product Passport ( DPP ) needs to meet at least these requirements :
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