For many organisations, the conversation around Digital Product Passports (DPPs) begins with regulation. As the European Union advances the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), companies are understandably focused on understanding what information they will need to collect, how products should be identified, and how they can prepare for upcoming compliance requirements.
While these are important considerations, they risk framing Digital Product Passports too narrowly. If businesses view DPPs solely as another compliance obligation, they may miss one of the greatest opportunities to reshape how products are designed, managed and valued throughout their entire lifecycle.
The organisations that stand to gain the most from Digital Product Passports will be those that recognise that DPPs represent a new digital foundation for product intelligence, supply chain collaboration and consumer trust.
Digital Product Passports are changing the role of product data
Historically, product information has largely served operational purposes. Manufacturers maintained production records, retailers tracked inventory, and logistics providers monitored shipments. Each participant in the value chain generated data for its own needs, often within systems that were never designed to communicate seamlessly with one another.
Digital Product Passports fundamentally challenge this model. Instead of information remaining fragmented across organisations, DPPs create a persistent digital identity that accompanies a product throughout its lifecycle. Material composition, repair guidance, sustainability attributes and end-of-life information become part of a connected digital record that can support manufacturers, retailers, consumers, recyclers and regulators alike. This represents a significant shift from viewing data as an internal operational asset to recognising it as shared infrastructure that enables greater transparency, accountability and circularity.
Yet a Digital Product Passport is only as valuable as the information it contains. If product data is inconsistent, duplicated or disconnected from the physical item, transparency alone cannot create trust. In many ways, the success of Digital Product Passports will depend less on the passport itself than on the integrity of the data that supports it.
“The discussion around Digital Product Passports often focuses on what information needs to be shared. We believe the more important question is whether organisations can trust the information they already have. Digital trust begins long before a consumer scans a QR code, it starts when every physical product is given a reliable digital identity that remains consistent throughout its lifecycle”, said Nanna Ingemann Dalsgaard, Vice President of Sustainability, Digital ID and Marketing, SML Group.
From compliance to competitive advantage
There is a natural tendency to approach new regulation as a compliance project. However, history suggests that organisations that derive the greatest value from regulatory change are often those that look beyond the minimum requirements.
The same is likely to be true for Digital Product Passports.
As companies build stronger product-level data, they also create opportunities to improve inventory accuracy, strengthen product authentication, support resale and repair services, enhance customer engagement and respond more effectively to disruptions across increasingly complex global supply chains. What begins as compliance infrastructure can evolve into an enterprise-wide capability that supports both operational resilience and business innovation.
This perspective is becoming increasingly relevant as industries place greater emphasis on traceability. The World Economic Forum has highlighted that resilient supply chains will depend not only on greater transparency across global material flows but also on interoperable Digital Product Passport systems capable of creating trusted product-level information across value chains. Rather than viewing traceability as an administrative burden, organisations are beginning to recognise it as essential infrastructure for resilience, sustainability and long-term competitiveness.
The conversation, therefore, should not simply be about meeting regulatory deadlines. It should be about building capabilities that continue delivering value long after compliance has been achieved.
The missing conversation is about trust
Much of the public discussion around Digital Product Passports has centred on visible technologies such as QR codes, mobile experiences and consumer-facing information. These elements are important because they make product information more accessible.
However, accessibility should not be confused with trustworthiness.
Consumers may be able to scan a product and instantly access sustainability information, but confidence in that information depends entirely on whether the underlying data has been accurately captured, verified and maintained throughout the product’s journey. Without trusted data governance, even the most sophisticated Digital Product Passport risks becoming little more than a digital document with questionable credibility.
This is where digital identification technologies have an increasingly important role to play. For more than two decades, industries have relied on unique product identifiers and automatic identification technologies to improve operational accuracy and traceability.
Those same solutions now provide the foundation upon which trustworthy Digital Product Passports can be built. RFID, QR codes, NFC and other identification technologies should not be viewed as competing approaches, but as complementary components of a broader digital identity ecosystem, each serving different purposes while contributing to the same objective: ensuring that physical products remain reliably connected to their digital information. GS1 similarly emphasises that interoperable identification standards will be critical to ensuring Digital Product Passports function consistently across industries and international markets.
Preparing for the next phase of digital commerce
Digital Product Passports are often described as a sustainability initiative, but their implications extend far beyond environmental reporting. They signal a broader transition towards a future in which products become continuously connected sources of trusted information throughout their lifecycle.
As organisations prepare for this future, the focus should not simply be on implementing another technology platform or meeting another regulatory milestone. Instead, leaders should ask whether they are building the digital foundations needed to support transparency, interoperability and trust at scale.
Nanna Ingemann Dalsgaard, Vice President of Sustainability, Digital ID and Marketing, SML Group also shared, “Compliance may be what brings organisations to Digital Product Passports, but trust is what will determine the value they create. The businesses that succeed will be those that see DPPs not as the finish line, but as the beginning of a more connected and intelligent product ecosystem.”
Ultimately, Digital Product Passports are not just changing how products are documented, they are changing how products participate in the digital economy. The organisations that recognise this shift today will be better positioned not only to meet tomorrow’s regulatory expectations, but to build stronger consumer relationships, more resilient supply chains and more circular business models in the years ahead.