Digital Product Passport (DPP): a silent revolution

People have been talking about ” data culture ” and ” data-driven strategy ” for at least ten years: how does a company ensure the quality of its data? How does it update and share it? And, above all, how does it turn data into a lever capable of changing its business model in a timely fashion? On this essential subject, the level of maturity remains very uneven from one organization to another. But in 2022, a triggering event occurred, a regulatory project that is forcing everyone to move forward: the Digital Product Passport(DDP).

Where does DDP come from? As part of the Green Deal, the European Commission signed a regulation on the eco-design of sustainable products (ESPR). The future passport stems directly from this ESPR. The aim is to trace the life of a product from A to Z, and in particular its recycling or reuse. Let’s be clear: the DDP is a tool for the circular economy, even if many other uses can already be anticipated. It will come into force progressively from 2027, with a timetable for each product family. The first products concerned will be electric batteries. Next will come textiles, building materials and tires, as well as intermediate products such as steel… Only a few product categories will be exempt: food products, animal feed and medical products.

DDP’s main challenge: interoperability

What does it actually mean? It’s a large information system (IS), the first feature of which is that it’s decentralized,” explains Claire Fioretti, Michelin’s Director of Standards and Regulations for Connected Mobility. It’s not a question of creating a new, single database where everyone can input their information. We’re in the opposite situation here: the new IS will interrogate each of the economic operators’ databases. ”

This creates a first challenge: cybersecurity. There’s no question of the DDP’s IS hacking into manufacturers’ databases. But the stakes don’t stop there: next come the issues of access rights (who has access to what?) and identifiers. The greatest innovation of the DDP is interoperability. In other words, players in the tire industry, such as Michelin, have to agree with those selling sporting goods, such as Decathlon, on a common structure. “Interoperability is necessary so that the Commission, which will have to scan all types of products, can do so simply. The authorities will use the PLR to produce statistics on the circular economy. Hence, also, the central register of identifiers requested by the Commission”, adds Claire Fioretti. Laurent Tonnelier, founder of MobiLead in 2008 and involved in standardization, points out that the working groups will draw on as many existing voluntary standards as possible: it’s not a question of reinventing the wheel. “There’s plenty of ground to cover. We need, for example, to be able to identify a product individually – and not at batch level – to meet the circularity objective. This is very new for industry. For Claire Fioretti (Michelin), all this is indeed ” a revolution “: “ As soon as you scratch beneath the surface, you discover dizzying perspectives,” she says.

This is reflected in the number of participants in our committees, such as the working group on information systems, which has over a hundred members, including players such as Google, Huawei, Siemens and Bosch.

QR code or RFID chip, the question of product marking

” A product passport is first and foremost a passport, not a product sheet ,” says Laurent Tonnelier. It’s a building block on which many services can be built. Some might see it as a means of combating counterfeiting, for example. We could also be moving into a world of proof, the opposite of today’s claims. Imagine that tomorrow, a certifier could come and sign your label, or attest to the origin of your products, thanks to the DDP. Once we have a common language, anything is possible. Standards will open up a whole new world of possibilities. ”

Another fundamental element is that each product must be connected to the Internet. It’s a ” digital ” passport. And the question of format is fuelling intense debate. What will the ” Data Carrier ” look like, that famous QR code, NFC signal, RFID chip or 2D barcode (or whatever!), which will be read to retrieve all the information? Between operators, this is ” the ” question, with a colossal impact. When it comes to product marking, we’re not starting from scratch. Many operators have already invested, sometimes heavily, in sophisticated devices that facilitate checkout, for example. They don’t want to go through all that work again, and yet the formats finally chosen must enable everyone to comply with the regulations. We have to be careful not to exclude small and medium-sized businesses,” adds Laurent Tonnelier.

And whatever formats are chosen, there’s another issue to be resolved: what information to put in them. It won’t be possible to fit thousands of characters. Nor can we affix an 8 cm-wide QR code to a lipstick. We need to think about what comes next, so we can choose what we’re going to print, what we’re going to code locally and what we’re going to put online via a remote link. We also need to think about the durability of information in the event of the company’s demise. ” As you can see, the subject is something of an Everest. But once all this has been stabilized (standardized!), we can expect PLR to give rise to dozens of business uses.