Digital product passport: Unlocking transparency and traceability in the supply chain

As the push for sustainable, circular economies accelerates, these digital product identities are becoming more than just a nice-to-have.

With the EU already mandating their use in industries like textiles, batteries, and electronics, the concept of digital product passports is gaining traction fast.

A digital product passport is a digital record that contains key data about a product’s lifecycle, including its origin, components, materials, repairs, and recycling instructions. It travels with the product from manufacturing to end-of-life, giving stakeholders (from producers to consumers to recyclers) a single source of truth.

This data is securely stored and accessible through a QR code, RFID chip, or other digital identifier embedded in the product or packaging.

The traditional model of linear consumption (make, use, dispose) is being replaced by a more sustainable, circular approach. But circularity only works if product data can be trusted and shared across supply chains. That’s where digital product passports come in.

They help:

• Meet evolving regulatory requirements such as the EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR)

• Increase transparency for end users and regulators

• Enable better repair, reuse, and recycling

• Combat greenwashing by verifying sustainability claims

• Unlock circular business models through data-driven insights

By assigning a digital identity to each product, industries can unlock transparency, traceability, and value across the entire lifecycle. Here’s how different sectors are already embracing this technology:

Fashion and textiles

Clothing brands are introducing digital passports that document a garment’s full journey — from raw materials to dye processes and labor practices. Consumers can scan a label to see where the fabric was sourced, what chemicals were used, and how to care for or recycle the item. This supports more sustainable purchasing decisions and makes circular fashion possible.

Consumer electronics

Laptops, smartphones, and home appliances now carry digital records that include repair guides, upgrade options, warranty status, and details about recyclable components. This helps extend product lifespans, reduce e-waste, and make repairs more accessible — aligning with the EU’s right-to-repair movement.

Batteries and electric vehicles

Digital passports for batteries track essential materials like lithium, cobalt, and nickel. These records document sourcing conditions, carbon footprint, and state of health throughout a battery’s life. At the end of life, they enable proper recycling or second-life use — a crucial step in decarbonizing transport and energy.

Automotive and mobility

Each vehicle can have a digital identity that captures ownership changes, mileage, accident history, and maintenance records. This improves residual value calculations, resale transparency, and trust in used vehicle markets. In leasing and fleet management, it enables dynamic pricing and smarter asset control.

Construction and building materials

Manufacturers are starting to use product passports for concrete, glass, and insulation materials. These records help track carbon content, origin of raw inputs, and disassembly options — which is essential for green building certifications and circular construction.

Healthcare and medical devices

For medical devices, digital product passports offer a way to manage compliance, track performance data, and ensure traceability across global supply chains. They can also streamline recalls and facilitate faster audits by health authorities.

Rolling out digital product passports requires more than just new technology. It’s a cross-functional shift involving supply chains, IT systems, and regulatory compliance. Several key challenges often stand in the way:

Inconsistent data standards
Suppliers and manufacturers use a variety of systems to manage product information. Aligning data across formats, regions, and legacy tools is a complex process that demands unified standards.

Sensitive data and privacy
Digital passports include detailed product insights. But transparency must be balanced with the need to protect supplier relationships, proprietary methods, and compliance with data privacy laws.

Legacy system integration
Many manufacturers rely on older ERP systems not built for product-level traceability. Adding digital passports without disrupting operations requires adaptable, low-friction integration.

Verifiability and trust
For a passport to be useful, its data must be trusted. Companies must adopt tamper-proof systems (like blockchain or cryptographic validation) to ensure authenticity and compliance.

Evolving global regulations
With varying regional rules, including Europe’s Green Deal and the GDPR, organizations must navigate a fast-changing regulatory environment with built-in compliance from day one.

Digital product passports offer major benefits, but success depends on solutions that are secure, interoperable, and built for long-term regulatory alignment.

While the road to implementation can be complex, the rewards of adopting digital product passports are significant. These digital records unlock long-term value across the entire product lifecycle — from design and manufacturing to resale, repair, and recycling.

1. Greater supply chain transparency

Digital product passports make it easier to trace materials back to their source. This supports ethical sourcing, ensures compliance with environmental regulations, and allows companies to provide consumers with verifiable claims about product origin, carbon footprint, and labor practices.

2. Improved product lifecycle management

With a passport attached to every item, manufacturers, retailers, and even consumers gain real-time access to a product’s full history — including maintenance, repairs, ownership changes, and material composition. This enables better reuse, resale, and recycling, helping extend product life and reduce waste.

3. Stronger compliance and reporting

As environmental and circular economy regulations tighten globally, digital passports offer a scalable way to meet reporting requirements. By standardizing and automating documentation, companies can reduce manual errors, avoid fines, and respond to audits or inspections with confidence.

4. Enhanced consumer trust

Today’s consumers demand transparency. Digital product passports allow brands to communicate more than just marketing claims — they offer verified facts. Whether it’s organic cotton in textiles, fair-trade minerals in electronics, or eco-friendly packaging, companies can prove their impact and values.

5. Unlocking circular business models

Passports make it easier to develop new circular economy services such as take-back schemes, repair programs, and product-as-a-service models. The visibility they provide helps companies retain control over assets after sale, opening new revenue streams and improving sustainability.

Digital product passports need more than just visibility. They require data integrity, verifiability, and built-in privacy. At Partisia, we deliver a blockchain-based platform purpose-built to meet those demands.

Our infrastructure combines the transparency of public ledgers with advanced privacy technologies, enabling businesses to share product information securely and at scale.

With Partisia’s platform, organizations can:

• Create tamper-proof product records that can be independently verified across the value chain

• Ensure authenticity through cryptographic signatures and decentralized validation

• Protect sensitive business information with privacy-preserving technologies like Multi-Party Computation (MPC)

• Comply with global regulations such as the EU Digital Product Passport initiative and GDPR

• Build long-term trust with customers, partners, and regulators by embedding transparency and security from the ground up

Because our platform is decentralized and privacy-first, it ensures that the right information is shared with the right stakeholders without exposing proprietary data or compromising compliance.

Digital product passports are reshaping how industries track, report, and communicate product information, from origin and materials to lifecycle data. But turning transparency into a competitive advantage requires the right infrastructure.

With our platform, you don’t just meet regulatory requirements. You build a foundation for secure, scalable, and future-proof data collaboration. The organizations that move now won’t just keep up. They’ll lead.

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