Digital Passports for new products

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Hi everyone,

There’s a major policy shift currently taking place in the EU that has the potential to redefine how we shop, how businesses operate and eventually how sustainable the products around us are.

It’s called the Digital Product Passport, and it’s probably one of the most important climate tech initiatives that most people have never heard of.

Here’s why it matters.

What’s a Digital Product Passport?

In short, a Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a scannable digital ID for every product containing information about its origin, materials, carbon footprint, repairability, and end-of-life options. Think of it as a super detailed and advanced climate impact label.

These passports are part of the EU’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), a new framework hoping to increase transparency in everyday consumer goods, create a more circular economy, and drive lower-impact products.

DPPs will apply to thousands of everyday products like clothes, phones, furniture, batteries and appliances.

The idea boils down to the fact that if we can understand how something is made and how long it’s expected to last, we’ll be far more likely to use products more efficiently, repair them more and recycle them properly at the end of their life.

Why’s this a big deal?

Currently, most of us have almost zero visibility into the things we own. If I asked you how much C0₂ your new jacket produced, if your phone could be repaired with a certain issue, or what to do with your toaster when it dies, would you have an answer?

Digital Product Passports aim to fix that by giving us all access to honest and transparent information about every item in a clear and standardised way.

Buy a new jacket with a DPP, and you might be able to scan a QR code to see:

• The carbon emissions from manufacturing and transport

• Fabric origin, water use and dyeing process

• How to repair it (and which parts are replaceable)

• Where you can drop it off for recycling

This isn’t just about building more consumer knowledge, it’s about trying to build a circular economy from the ground up with supply chains, recyclers and industry regulators all working with shared data.

The Tech making it possible

None of this would ever work without some clever infrastructure powering it behind the scenes. Just a few examples include:

• QR codes and RFID chips to identify and trace individual products

• Large-scale cloud data platforms for managing product lifecycle data

• Blockchain tools for verifying origin and sustainability claims

• AI-powered systems for automating carbon and material tracking

Startups like TrusTrace and Circularise are already driving this technology forward with platforms that help to trace supply chains and map out data points like emissions and climate impact.

Who Benefits from this?

We all win if policies like this can be successfully rolled out globally. Consumers get more transparency into what they choose to buy, or not buy, offering easier ways to make the right decisions and reduce their impact.

Brands can prove their sustainability claims and comply with new laws, and repair shops and recyclers get access to the data they need to help keep products in use as long as possible, or recycle them as efficiently as possible.

Policymakers can also use DPPs to track real progress without relying on often patchy reporting.

It’s not a shiny new gadget, but this is the kind of system change that moves the needle.

What could go wrong?

Like all big ideas, rolling out DPPs comes with risks and challenges including:

• Small brands might struggle with the data burden

• There’s a risk of greenwashing if the data used isn’t independently verified

• Privacy concerns could arise around tracking unique or personal items

• Different industries will need to agree on standards to keep things consistent.

The good news is that these are all solvable problems and people are actively trying to tackle them before the system becomes mandatory. The first sectors, like batteries and textiles, are expected to be included in this policy as early as 2026!

Most of the products we use and buy daily are a mystery from a sustainability view. We don’t truly know where they came from or how they’ll end up when we’re done with them.

Digital Product Passports could change that, and that’s a major win. They could turn vague claims like “our product is sustainable” into something measurable, forcing brands to live up to their claims. And they could help make circularity the default, rather than an ideal.

It’s not the most exciting policy or technology innovation, but it’s another great example of how the right technology, used in the right way, can have an incredible impact!

See you next week,
James

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