How Will Digital Product Passports Deal with Changes Upstream in the Supply Chain?

 As convinced as we are about Digital Product Passports (DPP) being a great idea, as we dig deeper into the matter we sometimes come across things where we wonder "How do they intend to handle this in practice?". We've brought up some such questions before and here's another one.

DPP: A Supply Chain of Data

All finished products are the end result of a long supply chain, obviously. So is their Digital Product Passport. It consists of environmental information for all raw materials and component they consist of.

Our understanding is that the DPP is valid for only ONE set of data for a specific product.

If there are changes made in the supply chain, the DPP will no longer be valid and needs to be replaced with one containing updated environmental data.

What Might Change in The Supply Chain

Even if no change can be detected to the looks, function or performance of a product, the environmental impact might be different. So while a product could well be sold as the same product with the same product ID, it would probably still need a new DPP.

• A change of supplier upstream in the supply chain might impact the CO2 emissions. Positively, hopefully.

• A process change upstream might remove or add emissions of some chemical

• Logistical changes may impact emissions

But not only upstream:

• A design change might improve recyclability

• A new method to recycle products or components may improve DPP data

How are such changes supposed to be handled?

Potential Consequences of Invisible Changes in How the Product is Manufactured

Changing the content of the DPP will be a breeze if you use a good solution for composing and handling your DPPs. But how about more hands on, physical handling? Especially: what about the QR code?

• Could your stock of packaging become obsolete because the QR code printed on it has become obsolete?

• To avoid that, will you need to install ink jet printers to apply QR codes at time of manufacture?

• How will you distinguish between old and new DPP in storage and delivery? Having to scan QR codes on each individual package doesn't seem like a feasible option to us.

We don't have any answers. Just questions. And a hope that this is something already thought about in the EU, just that we're not yet aware of it.

What are your ideas?

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