The word “Sustainable” is one of the most elastic words in design marketing, slapped on every product like a sticker, making it complicated for customers to understand what is truly sustainable and what is just greenwashing. Claims mostly work on trust, and trust, it turns out, is a cheap commodity. THE Digital Product Passport (DPP) it’s the of the EU response to this loophole, and will require companies to attach a permanent, auditable record to the object itself, allowing anyone to verify it.
From 2027, an increasing share of physical products sold in the EU will have to carry a label linked to a digital record: what the product is made of, where these materials come from, how it was made, its footprint and instructions for repair, disassembly and recycling. It is one of the most important parts of the EU Ecodesign regulation for sustainable productswhich came into effect in July 2024. Batteries will be first, followed by textiles and footwear, while design products such as furniture and consumer electronics will have to comply by 2028.
Digital Product Passport © DesignWanted, artificial intelligence
Digital Product Passport © DesignWanted, artificial intelligence
Digital Product Passport © DesignWanted, artificial intelligence
Digital Product Passport © DesignWanted, artificial intelligence
Digital Product Passport © DesignWanted, artificial intelligence
Digital Product Passport © DesignWanted, artificial intelligence
Digital Product Passport (DPP):
How it works
The mechanisms are quite simple on paper: each product receives a unique identifier, which leads to a file containing all relevant documents, such as life cycle assessments and carbon footprint data. For design firms, the most immediate impact will be internal, as a digital product passport is only as good as the data that feeds it, and most manufacturers do not have such a structured record of information.
A design brand that has always been able to say “This chair is made from FSC beech and this particular wool blend” will now have a structural advantage over a competitor that has historically been opportunistically sourced and will struggle to find its assets. Brands whose history of sustainability has been substantial rather than aspirational are the ones for which this transition will be smoother and hopefully a genuine market differentiator.
What will change for designers?
There is also a design-to-practice dimension that goes beyond compliance logistics. Because the passport should carry disassembly and repair information, it essentially asks designers to spend more time thinking about a product’s second life. how a chair decomposes, how to repair it easily, how it can be recycled. This, of course, is not a new idea. Modularity and repairability have long been signs of serious design thinking. However, they will now become market-wide expectations rather than differentiators, which over time will shift even basic furniture products a little closer to a higher level of design thinking.
What will change for consumers?
The general public will be able to access information that is currently either buried in an online sustainability report or simply does not exist in an accessible format. For design-conscious shoppers already interested in material provenance, the passport will facilitate research and make it quick and easy, while for others it can instill curiosity, perhaps making the general public aware of the impact of their choices. It also has a practical meaning: if a leg breaks or needs re-upholstery after years, the passport should make it easier to find the right spare parts or compatible materials, encouraging users to take care of their products instead of throwing them away.
Towards environmental change
The furniture sector currently has low material reuse and recycling rates, and a large part of this is an information problem, so the default is often landfill or incineration. Considering the significant amount of money people typically spend on furniture, the hope is that when the guidelines become clearer, consumers will actually care about repair, not just for the environment but also just for their personal finances.
None of this guarantees an environmental result by itself, as the of the EU the passport will only record information, but will not force brands to comply with specific viability standards. Whether this will affect production or not will largely depend on customer response, whether the presence of the passport will steer consumer choices towards more sustainable options, or whether it will simply go unnoticed.
