Digital Product Passport (DPP)

A structured, machine-readable record of a product's composition, origin and impacts, reachable from the product itself.

A DPP attaches a product’s data to the product: scan a code, get the record. Composition, origin, certifications, repair and recycling information, and — where relevant — its carbon footprint.

The EU is introducing DPPs through the ESPR, sector by sector rather than all at once. Textiles and batteries are early.

The engineering question is not the QR code, which is trivial, but what stands behind it: whether the data is a claim the brand types in, or a record that can be checked. A passport whose figures cannot be traced to their source is a nicer format for the same unverifiable claim.

ESPR The EU's Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation — the framework that makes digital product passports a legal requirement.
Verifiable, not verified A record anyone can check for themselves is not the same as one an accredited body has audited. Both are useful; they are not interchangeable.
Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) The greenhouse gases attributable to one unit of a product across a defined part of its life cycle.