By 2050, the European Union plans to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions, i.e. to be climate neutral. To achieve this, the EC has launched a new regulatory package within the European Green Deal, a proposal that aims to make almost all physical goods circular and energy efficient by 2030.
The aim of this regulation is therefore to contribute to the fight against climate change through the implementation of a circular economy, in order to decouple the existing relationship between economic growth and waste production. Within its Strategy for a DPP Circular economy and Sustainable Textile, it also highlights the importance of regulating the textile industry, which it has described as the fourth industry with the greatest environmental impact, and aims to ensure that textile products sold in European markets are durable, recyclable, free of hazardous substances and produced sustainably.
The European Commission has approved a series of measures to ensure that textile products placed on European markets are durable, recyclable, free of hazardous substances and produced sustainably.
The measures of this strategy include, among others, the implementation of a digital product passport for all physical goods from 2023. In this post, we explain everything you need to know about these passports.
What are digital passports?
The digital passports, which are expected to be implemented next year, will compile information on the manufacturing process of each product so that users along the supply chain can reuse or recycle them appropriately, and will be used to determine whether any material cannot be recycled or is highly polluting.
In the fashion world, if a garment has a digital passport, it will have a QR code or an NFC, RFID or Bluetooth tag that will contain detailed information about the product. Including these passports in clothing and other items will bring more transparency to the fashion industry by including information about the garment's raw material composition, manufacturing process and even the method of transportation.
In the fashion world, clothing labels would come with a QR code or other codes with detailed information about the product.
Who are digital passports for?
Although the EU wants to make the digital passport a standard for all products sold in Europe, for now, the priority is focused on the textile, construction and automotive sectors.
What information will digital passports have to contain?
Consumers will have clear, reliable and easily accessible information about the products they consume, how to care for them and how best to recycle them. However, much work needs to be done to determine exactly what information users need along the supply chain. The European Commission will therefore review the system on a product-by-product basis, with the process being governed by separate acts and requiring the entire supply chain to sit down and discuss the key information to be included in the passport.
Complications of the implementation of the digital passport and intellectual property
However, manufacturers and all professionals involved will face major challenges in creating, sharing and distributing the necessary data in a simple and cost-effective manner. The European legislative initiative is necessary and meets the criteria of sustainability and digital transformation, but it will really pose a major challenge for companies.
Furthermore, concerns center around intellectual property and privacy. The concept of exposing all product information sounds contradictory to protecting intellectual property, but this is where the issue of encryption comes in to protect this information. And yet, there will be cases where companies do not want to share certain data, even if it is encrypted, because it is linked to sensitive information, so being transparent when justifying green claims can be tricky.
In these cases, ZKPs, or zero-knowledge protocols, can offer a way to achieve this data transmission by allowing sustainability information to be shared without revealing sensitive product data. This will allow manufacturers to selectively share information across the supply chain without the need to store data or compromise data security.
Zero-knowledge protocols can provide a way to achieve data transmission by allowing sustainability information to be shared without revealing sensitive product data.
Digital passports, a way to tackle greenwashing and textile waste
Digital passport information will be crucial to combating greenwashing, as it will force companies to reveal whether their products are truly safe, easy to maintain and recyclable, as well as whether their activities are truly aligned with environmental protection.
Furthermore, this passport can help eliminate textile waste, as large companies that handle surplus products will be obliged to disclose the quantities discarded each year, the reason for the disposal and the amount of waste they have delivered for reuse, recycling, energy recovery and disposal activities according to the waste hierarchy. They will also have to ensure that this information is available, either on a public website or by other means.
In conclusion, digital passports are a good way to reduce the environmental impact of the production of new products, as well as increase the recycling and circularity of fabrics.