Blockchain’s Role in Digital Product Passports

Key Takeaways:

• Blockchain technology strengthens DPPs

• DPPs enable circular economy practices

• Data security and consumer trust are enhanced with blockchain-powered DPPs

• Industry leaders like Volvo are already piloting blockchain-enabled DPPs

The Digital Product Passport is one of the most innovative tools, created with the aim of making product supply chains more transparent, traceable, and sustainable. It offers comprehensive, trustworthy insights into a product’s entire lifecycle.

With the use of blockchain technology, digital product passports become even more powerful, making the data exchange secure, immutable, and decentralised.

Together, blockchain and DPPs are spearheading a breakthrough in circular economy practices, ensuring that products follow sustainable practices from sourcing to usage and at the end of their life.

Blockchain Technology in Digital Product Passport

Blockchain is a decentralised, digital ledger that records transactions transparently and securely. It is a chain of blocks, where each block holds records of a set of transactions, and they are linked together using cryptography.

Changing or tampering with data on blockchain is extremely difficult, nearly impossible even, as any change would require modifying all subsequent blocks and gaining consensus across the entire network.

This makes blockchain perfect for digital product passports. When integrated with DPPs, blockchain delivers some key advantages, such as:

• Security: Data in blockchain is cryptographically registered
• Immutability: Once data is entered, it cannot be altered without consensus.
• Redundancy: Data is stored in multiple nodes, overcoming potential data unavailability due to network failure.
• Traceability: Every transaction is time-stamped and permanently recorded.
• Automation: Smart contracts can automate compliance checks and alerts.
• Transparency: All stakeholders can view and inspect the same version of information.

Because of these features, blockchain is the ideal infrastructure for DPPs, particularly in industries that often face problems with counterfeiting, supply chain opacity, or regulatory non-compliance.

What are The Advantages of Blockchain for Digital Product Passports?

Integrating Digital Product Passports with blockchain technology has numerous advantages. Here are some of the most impactful benefits:

• Enhanced supply chain transparency: Blockchain keeps a record of every step of a product’s journey, making it easier to trace where it comes from and how it was made.
• Improved operational efficiency: With automatic data sharing and verification, blockchain helps reduce delays, errors, and manual work in the supply chain.
• Stronger regulatory compliance: Blockchain creates a tamper-proof record of product data, helping companies meet legal requirements more easily.
• Boosted consumer confidence: Consumers can trust the product information listed in a digital product passport because blockchain ensures it hasn’t been changed or faked.
• Facilitated circular business models: Accurate, trackable data support reuse, repair, and recycling, making it easier to follow circular economy practices.

Blockchain-powered digital product passports will not only reduce a product’s environmental impact but also unlock economic value by closing resource loops, enabling more efficient, data-driven operations.

Designing Digital Products for Traceability

Digital Products, such as electronics and consumer goods, to complex machinery benefit significantly from integrating digital product passports. Embedding DPPs into their core design allows manufacturers to:

• Ensure resource efficiency during production
• Track component sourcing and certification
• Monitor usage patterns for predictive maintenance
• Facilitate resale, refurbishment, or recycling

This approach is in line with the Eco-Design Principles, providing products with longer lifecycles, generating less waste, and remaining in economic circulation.

Supporting the Circular Economy with Blockchain-Powered DPPs

The circular economy aims to move away from the traditional “take-make-dispose” model, focusing instead on reuse, repair, refurbishment, recycling, and more environmentally friendly disposal.

With the help of DPPs, manufacturers can ensure their products follow circular economy practices by:

• Enabling material recovery and component reuse
• Empowering consumers to make sustainable choices
• Supporting regulatory compliance for sustainability reporting
• Streamlining reverse logistics and end-of-life management

Blockchain strengthens this role by guaranteeing the accuracy and security of data, features that are essential for tracking products and materials over extended product lifecycles.

Addressing Data Security

One of the biggest challenges facing the digital product passport is data security. DPPs hold sensitive information about suppliers, material sources, product performance, and much more. This information must be protected against:

• Unauthorised access
• Tampering or manipulation
• Intellectual property theft

With the help of blockchain technology, these risks can be easily mitigated through encryption, distributed storage, and permission-based access. This way, data integrity can be preserved while relevant stakeholders can verify a product’s transparency and compliance credentials.

Building Consumer Trust

Informed consumers are empowered consumers. Digital Product Passports contribute to providing transparency to consumers, building brand credibility and trust. Through DPPs, shoppers can access:

• Ethical sourcing certifications
• Carbon footprint data
• Product longevity expectations
• Repairability and recyclability ratings

With the number of eco-conscious buyers increasing every day, offering this level of transparency helps brands to stand out from the rest in the marketplace.

Case Study: Volvo and the Battery Passport

Volvo Cars is one of the early adopters of blockchain-based digital product passports. The company is using blockchain technology to trace cobalt used in EV batteries, making sure that the materials are ethically sourced and reducing environmental risks.

Volvo’s initiative is part of a broader strategy to meet EU battery regulation and the growing consumer demand for sustainability and transparency.

Volvo is setting an example of how the automotive and electronics industries can use blockchain-powered DPPs to improve accountability and align with the European Green Deal and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)

How DigiProd Pass Can Help with Blockchain-Powered DPPs

At DigiProd Pass Ltd, we offer end-to-end support for organisations looking to implement blockchain-powered Digital Product Passports. From mapping product data to integrating secure blockchain infrastructure, DigiProd Pass will help your business maintain transparency, traceability, and regulatory compliance.

Our solutions are tailored to meet sector-specific requirements, whether in batteries, furniture, textiles, electronics, or more. We help companies unlock the full potential of DPPs and advance their circular economy goals with confidence.

Closing Thoughts: A Sustainable Digital Future Powered by Blockchain

Digital Product passports, combined with blockchain technology, create a powerful synergy between data transparency, supply chain integrity, and sustainable development. As more companies and regulators adopt this circular innovation, we can expect better resource usage, longer product lifespan, improved customer satisfaction, and stronger climate action outcomes.

References

• Reuters – Volvo to issue world’s first EV battery passport ahead of EU rules: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/volvo-issue-worlds-first-ev-battery-passport-ahead-eu-rules-2024-06-04/
• arXiv – Battery Passport for EVs: Volvo EX90 case: https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.15758
• LabelLink – Volvo is the first car with a Digital Product Passport: https://labellink.org/volvo-is-the-first-car-with-a-digital-product-passport/
• The Battery Pass (EU) – Battery Passport Content Guidance 2023: https://thebatterypass.eu/assets/images/content-guidance/pdf/2023_Battery_Passport_Content_Guidance.pdf
• BASE Project – Battery Passport Regulations Overview: https://base-batterypassport.com/blog/regulations-4/battery-passport-40