Digital Product Passport (2): Versus Product Storytelling

Digital product passports aim to preserve the value of products throughout their lifecycle and prevent premature devaluation due to “lack of knowledge.” The necessary information is based on data generated throughout the product’s lifecycle. This can include details on how a product is constructed, what materials were used, and how these materials can be best reused, such as through value-preserving recycling. Collecting and sharing data along the value chain is a crucial aspect of a digital product passport.

Data sharing in this context refers to an automatable or automated transfer of data that can be seamlessly integrated and processed in the systems of subsequent participants. Simply sending a Word or PDF file electronically does not meet this criterion, as the data must be extracted from the sender’s system and re-entered into the recipient’s system. In this case, the medium is digitized, but the data itself is not.

For such automated data sharing, certain prerequisites must be met: Firstly, objects must be uniquely identified. This requires identifiers that can be used across company boundaries without conflict. Several approaches exist for this, such as UUIDs or the GTIN identifiers, provided by GS1, which are already widely used. Additionally, a data model (including attributes and codes) is needed to adequately describe the objects. It is crucial that the data used is understandable to subsequent users, meaning the data model must be at least generally known, and preferably standardized. A common protocol that describes the structure of the data to be exchanged is also important to enable the interpretation of the exchanged files. Finally, an infrastructure is needed where many network points can actively participate in the data exchange.

To ensure these essential features, numerous initiatives and projects, such as Cirpass or R-Cycle, are working on the technical definition of digital product passports.

Many of today’s solutions presented as digital product passports do not meet these requirements and are better classified as Product Storytelling. This is the case when the information is based solely on data from the company’s own systems, with no provision for data addition or transfer. These applications, often still labeled as “digital product passports,” provide end-users with comprehensive product information but do not fulfill the aforementioned requirements or emerging regulatory demands.

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