What Is The Digital Product Passport Timeline ?

The European Union has come up with several regulations in the past few years to enhance transparency around sustainability. Thus, reducing the rate of greenwashing, and speeding up the world’s transition towards a circular economy.

The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation outlines the concept behind the digital product passport, which is bound to create a new precedent for global market practices in the near future. Let’s discuss more on the digital product passport timeline.

What Is A Digital Product Passport?

A Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a digital information tool that contains the sustainability information for a product. With DPP, customers can scan a QR code on your product, which grants them access to information that explains the steps your business has taken to enhance your products’ eco-friendly attributes.
Companies with digital product passports typically focus on displaying product data like material origins, durability, recyclability, design, certifications, audits, and manufacturing conditions to their customers.

Laws That Influence The Digital Product Passport Timeline

The European Green Deal

The European green deal is a policy that aims to make the European Union carbon neutral by 2050. The policy was approved in 2020, and it focuses on reducing carbon emissions, while envisioning a net greenhouse gas emission rate of less than 55% by 2030.

Circular Economy Action Plan

The Circular Economy Action Plan is a set of actions designed to transform the European Union's economy from linear to circular. Adopted in 2015, the Circular Economy Action Plan focuses on product design regulations.
The action plan mainly focuses on identifying industries where circular design can be impactful. It also involves actions that help to minimise waste in the EU.

Strategy For Sustainable And Circular Textiles

The Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles aims to make all textile products in the EU recyclable, durable, and socially responsible, by 2030. The strategy aims to eliminate fast fashion and promote more durable and affordable textile materials.
In addition, the strategy for sustainable and circular textiles aims to provide a wide range of access to textile repair and reuse services.

Ecodesign For Sustainable Products Regulation

The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) is a directive that replaces the 2009 Ecodesign directive. Launched in March 2022, this regulation aims to expand the scope of labelling and efficiency requirements of products in the European Union.
The aim of the ESPR is to make sustainability the benchmark standard for company products in the European market.

Green Claims Directive

The Green Claims Directive is the latest proposal published in March 2023. It aims to protect consumers in the European market from greenwashing. The directives’ goal is to make green claims verifiable, reliable, and comparable everywhere in the European Union.

What is the Digital Product Passport timeline?

The EU Digital Product Passport implementation timeline is indicated in the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). It envisages additional delegated acts over the next few months to further refine the requirements for Digital Product Passport in specific areas.

Some of the topics the EU can address during the additional rulemaking that can influence the digital product passport date include:

• Data attributes
• Data carrier
• Applicable products

The Digital Product Passport will be mandatory for a wide selection of product categories which will be defined by the delegated acts. According to the ESPR proposal agreement, priority product groups for the digital product passport roadmap include:

• Textiles
• Iron, steel and aluminium
• Paints
• Tyres
• Detergents
• Energy related products
• Chemicals
• ICT related products
• Lubricants

The EU commission is expected to determine the specific information about the data required to be in the DPP through delegated acts by 2025.

Key Digital Product Passport Timeline Dates

Below is a list of important dates in the EU digital product passport timeline:

• 11 December 2019: Adoption of the European Green Deal, with the aim of making the European Union carbon-neutral by 2050.
• November 2020: The publication for the adoption of the European Union’s Circular Economy Action Plan.
• 30 March 2022: Publication of the proposal for the new Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, including the necessary information for digital product passport requirements.
• 5 Dec 2023: Interim agreement date between the European Council and Parliament on the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and DPP legislation.
• 2023 to 2027: Determination of Digital Product Passport requirements for some product categories like textiles, ICT, plastics, construction, and chemicals.

Final Words

Digital Product Passports are a way of ensuring sustainability in the European Unions' market. DPP solutions involve creating digital profiles for various products and granting customers or clients access to the products' information.

The information a digital product passport usually contains include the sustainability information, manufacturing processes, and specifications of the product. To learn more about our DPP solutions,

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