The upcoming Digital Product Passport, to be introduced by the European Union, is designed to facilitate product circularity, providing a boost to more sustainable production. The new standard is expected to come into force across the 27-nation European Union from as early as 2027 in the form of data carriers like QR codes on products or their packaging.

The EU Digital Product Passport will provide a unique identification and key product data for all kinds of products for use along the entire supply chain, from raw materials to the end-user. Such a ‘passport’ is also being advocated by global standards body GS1 for launch globally.  The obligation of the EU Digital Passport to communicate on a product’s lifecycle will certainly increase manufacturers engagement with ESG initiatives aimed at achieving circularity.  ‍

Why the change?

The rise of this EU Digital Product Passport coincides with the ever-increasing use of 2D barcodes like the QR being accepted as a product identifier and, in the near future, for Point-of-Sale use.  With a single scan on a smartphone, consumers will access a wealth of information on product components and their provenance data and a whole lot more.

Simply put, a digital product passport will allow brands to have unrivaled engagement on product circularity and sustainability efforts with their customers and suppliers, allowing them to communicate transparently on their products at all stages of the supply chain, with a depth of product data until now difficult to verify. For more sustainable brands who depend on their reputation for their sales such as artisan producers, the ability to show their product components’ provenance in a standardized format will be advantageous.

End-to-end traceability and more  

Eventually, the EU aims to introduce the EU Digital Product Passport for almost ALL products and their components, starting with textiles and footwear from as early as 2027. The EU has announced that only a few sectors, including food, animal feed, and medicinal products, will be exempted from obligatory inclusion in the EU Digital Product Passport scheme.  

In regard to product traceability, the main objectives of the EU Digital Product Passport include:  

• Enabling the tracking of all substances of concern throughout the lifecycle of the products covered;

• Ensuring that everyone from consumers to authorities can access product information relevant to them;

• Showing that product compliance has been verified by competent national authorities.

Public demand for more traceability  

Recent research has found that roughly five of every six of US consumers surveyed say that product traceability is paramount while three-quarters stating that more transparency of brand information is important or very important to them. While the EU Digital Product Passport will, for now, only be a legal requirement in the 27 nations of the European Union, it could prove to be a significant advantage for global brands to provide the data required by the EU’s passport globally because they will need to comply anyway to keep selling their products in the majority of European markets.  

Blue Bite’s platform permits the provision of detailed traceability data, both via data carriers like NFC digital tags but also via QR codes, down to a level of data tracking required for the incoming EU Digital Product Passport. In the near future, we plan to roll out the Digital Product Passport for those retailing in the EU or wanting to meet the regulation’s product circularity demands anywhere. Three of our current clients, the global e-commerce giant eBay, and two fashion designers, BVLGARI and Acne Studios, are using the platform to promote their products’ circularity.

Now is a good time to get ahead of the regulatory loop and to introduce detailed circularity and traceability data on your brand: there is already customer demand and the legal requirement to provide this data, at least across the European Unions’ 27 nations, is not far off!

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