Last year (30 march 2022), the European Commission launched the proposal for the new Ecodesign Sustainable Product Regulation (ESPR).
The ESPR is part of the Sustainable Products Initiative (SPI) and encourages the production and consumption of sustainable products that are energy efficient, last longer, use recycled materials and are marketed with circular business models.
The aim of the SPI is to make sustainable products the norm in Europe.
Any organization offering goods for sale on the European market, whether based in Europe or not, will have to comply with the requirements of the regulation.
The ESPR also covers parts and intermediary assemblies, including products that require further manufacturing or transformation.
Food, feed, and medicinal products, are exempted.
The proposed ESPR approach focuses on reviewing the design of products to meet ecodesign (performance and information) requirements, which are being introduced in response to environmental and sustainability concerns.
To support sustainable production and the transition to a circular economy, the Digital Product Passport (DPP) is being introduced. The DPP must ensure that product data can be accessed and shared simply and easily anywhere by anyone.
All regulated products placed on the market must be provided with a machine-readable passport and a unique identification.
Pending approval, the CIRPASS project, a project funded by the European Commission, has been launched.
CIRPASS is paving the way for gradual pilot and implementation of digital product passports, focusing on developing a roadmap for prototypes in three value chains: electronics, batteries and textiles.
In the world of clothing, textiles and luxury items, already exist several initiatives to register and track the life cycle of products via a combination of RFID, NFC, NFT, QR-codes and blockchain.
In the world of clothing, textiles and luxury items, several initiatives to register and track the life cycle of products via a combination of RFID, NFC, NFT, QR-codes and blockchain already exist:
- Aura Blockchain Consortium combining RFID, NFC, NFT, IoT to track products
- EON product cloud (fashion)
- Arianee (luxury items)
- FibreTrace (textile)
In other sectors:
These are just a few of the initiatives that are already running for several years or started recently.
The Digital Product Passport is the new gold.