Digital Product Passport
What is DPP and Why is it important?
Our society and economy are currently undergoing significant shifts propelled by two key trends: digitalization and sustainability. Modern consumers are more well-informed and are placing an increasing emphasis on ethical and sustainable considerations when making purchasing decisions. This change is not only observable in consumer behaviour but is also evident in legislative actions, such as the introduction of the Digital Product Passport (DPP).
The Digital Product Passport mandates the disclosure of thorough and accurate information regarding various aspects of a product, including its composition, the origin of components, and potential options for repair and disassembly.
Both consumers and regulatory bodies are actively seeking transparency concerning material origins, manufacturing processes, and environmental impacts. This is precisely where the DPP becomes crucial. A Digital Product Passport is essentially a digital document or record intended to provide comprehensive information about a specific product throughout its life cycle. Its primary goal is to enhance transparency and traceability in supply chains by offering detailed insights into the product’s composition, origin of components, manufacturing processes, and other relevant data.
What is the Sustainable Footprting Standard of GSES?
The standardisation of information is a key challenge of implementing the Digital Product Passport. The Sustainable Footprint Standard of the Global Sustainable Enterprise System is a holistic approach to product-level sustainability across environmental, health and circularity dimensions.
Here is how it works:
- The Sustainable Footprint Standard sets out which indicators are relevant for all product categories and also defines key relevant indicators for specific product categories, such as cosmetics and building materials.
- The Standard is based on existing product sustainability frameworks such as Life Cycle Assessments and the European Product Environmental Footprint, Material Circularity Index of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the Dutch CB’23, REACH and the Cradle to Cradle standard. Using existing standards helps keep the sustainability landscape less cluttered and allows organisations to build on what they already have. It also offers the benefit of a holistic birds-eye view, taking into account everything we already know about product level sustainability.
- The Standard sets out the weight of each indicator for a scoring system called the Nature Impact Rating approach. The indicators are sorted into three pillars: Circular Footprint, Health Footprint and Environmental Footprint. Each indicator is assigned a method of calculation and a weightage, allowing for a score for each pillar out of 100%. Together, an average of all three pillars leads to a Nature Impact Rating, graphically represented as a score out of 5 leaves.
What information is required in a DPP?
- General information about the product, such as the product identification number, user manuals and safety instructions, manufacturer details.
- Sustainability impact information such as Life Cycle Impact Categories, ESG related information, as well as a list of relevant certificates and standards that the product meets is included, underscoring its adherence to quality benchmarks.
- Information on the materials used, their origin, and potential environmental impact.
- Information about how to maximise the lifespan of the product, (For example, for textiles: laundry care information).
- Disassembly and end-of-life information, such as recycling and what to do with the product upon the end of its use.
- Information about how much recycled material exists in the product.
- Information related to the Substances of Concern, their quantity and what measures to take in case of contact with them.
Harmony between the GSES Sustainable Footprint Standard and the Digital Product Passport
- Every product that is registered on the GSES platform receives a ‘product scorecard’ based on the various indicators specified in the Standard and calculated using the NIR.
- The platform allows for customizability by offering the inclusion of relevant indicators that may not exist in the standard and are not scored, but can nevertheless be useful as informative indicators.
- This digital scorecard is what makes the NIR well-suited as the digital carrier for the Digital Product Passport regulation.
The following components of the GSES Product Scorecard are already aligned with the DPP guidelines:
- Article identification numbers
- Sustainability information, based on Life Cycle Assessment, including the carbon footprint from Cradle to Market.
- The materials, including respective weights and disaggregated sustainability dimensions that go into the product.
- Country of manufacture
- Certificates linked to the product including their validity status
- REACH declaration based on the list of Substances of Very High Concern
- Warranty years
- All information is third-party verified and the date and type of audit are displayed on the scorecard
