By 2030, every textile product sold in the European Union will require a digital product passport (DPP). These DPPs, likely in the form of a scannable QR code or NFC tag, will provide comprehensive information about a product’s origins, material composition, supply chain, sustainability, recyclability, and more. This data will be consolidated from various federated sources into one accessible location.

The EU's Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles aims to address the negative impact of the 12.6 metric tons of textiles wasted each year in the EU by enabling complete traceability of fashion products. This will allow companies and consumers to make more sustainable decisions regarding the use and re-use of textiles. With DPPs expected to be mandatory by 2030, the timeline for compliance is tight.

Fashion brands, already familiar with the complexity of their supply chains, face a significant challenge in disclosing details about every material that goes into their products. This is why it is crucial for brands to begin preparing now to comply with DPP requirements. This means taking steps toward greater traceability through the discovery, collection, and sharing of textile information.

Digital Product Passports In The Real World

At Seamm, we’re working with fashion brands on the real-world implementation of digital product passports. Select merchandise from two leading eco-conscious brands, Pineapples Don’t Have Sleeves and Jannike Sommar, are tagged, and those tags will unlock DPP information that brands and consumers can access.

It All Begins With Identifying Data

As the industry moves toward DPP compliance, the underlying data protocol is still evolving. This protocol will define everything a brand must disclose about a product via the DPP. Although we can’t be sure yet what the final protocol will include, we know it will require many different data points. Brands should analyze what data is available to them and begin figuring out how to collect what’s missing. We expect the DPP protocol to require data such as the country of origin for materials and processes, information about a product’s composition and raw material sourcing, certification and compliance data, and more. Collecting some of this data, such as everything that goes into a product upstream, will be challenging, so it’s critical to collaborate with suppliers now to fill in any gaps.

Embrace Data Standards For Openness And Scalability

Integrating data into a traceability system and eventually making it available to a DPP platform that consumers can access requires standardized data. Data exists in various systems—both within a brand and among supply chain partners—and it should be easily shareable. Therefore, brands need to monitor and adopt existing and emerging standards.

This is especially important in the context of DPPs for two reasons: First, much DPP data will remain decentralized—after all, circularity will eventually touch information silos that brands have no direct relationships with, like groups that handle the repair, reuse, or recycling of textiles. Second, as DPPs begin to permeate the globe, they’ll need to adapt to regional data differences through a scalable data architecture that makes it easy to collect and ingest growing information. In both cases, standardized data is the key enabler.

Prepare To Prove Compliance With Sustainability And Circularity Goals

Whether part of a traceability system or alongside it, brands should develop strong evidence management capabilities. DPPs will make building credibility for brands’ traceability data and other material specifications increasingly important. This will require a system for collecting, storing, securing, and accessing digital evidence that demonstrates, for instance, that materials used are majority recycled, responsibly sourced, etc.

Create Identities For All Products That Require DPPs

Every product that needs a DPP will also need a unique identifier. This unique ID links to all the DPP data collected and shared through the supply chain. Brands may be tempted to create their own ID system, but a better strategy would be to adopt global standards, like those established by GS1.

The most important advice: act now. Those of us working in traceability have seen firsthand the challenges brands face in digitizing, organizing, and managing vast amounts of supply chain data. Still, several forward-thinking companies have successfully adopted traceability to support ESG commitments and meet the climate demands of discerning consumers. Now, with the EU’s digital product passport initiative, brands need traceability for a new reason: because legislators require it.