DPP in the Textile Industry: Traceability for Sustainable Fashion

Sustainable Textiles Traceability

The fashion industry is at a turning point. With growing pressure to cut down waste and keep up with fast-evolving sustainability rules, brands need reliable tools.

Given the global turnover of textile around 1.7 trillion, and the potential damage from unmanaged non-conformances, that is loss of product value, rework, scrap, discounts, returns, recalls, reputational damage, even if only 1% of global value is lost each year due to these poorly managed non-conformances, this results in 17 billion dollars per year, with a most realistic range around 10–25 billion USD per year.

That’s where the Digital Product Passport (DPP) comes in. The DPP is reshaping how fashion works, bringing in much-needed transparency and accountability. For brands ready to lead rather than follow, it’s a powerful advantage in a world that’s rapidly going green.

What Is a Digital Product Passport (DPP)?

Think of the Digital Product Passport as a digital ID card for fashion items. It holds all the important facts about a product, from where the materials come from to how it was made.

The EU Digital Product Passport is part of the EU’s new sustainability framework, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), which officially took effect in July 2024. For the fashion world, especially textiles and apparel, DPPs will soon become mandatory. Requirements are expected by early 2026, with enforcement starting mid-2027.

In the fashion and textile space, DPPs are already proving their value by:

Enhancing traceability: Following the product from raw material to recycling bin and making sourcing practices more transparent.
Empowering consumers: Letting buyers know exactly what’s in their clothes and how those clothes were made.
Circular economy product passport for promoting circularity: Offering useful info on repair, reuse, and recycling.
Ensuring regulatory compliance: Helping brands stay on top of new sustainability laws and standards.

By putting all this information into a digital format that’s easy to access, DPPs make it easier for everyone, from brands to shoppers, to make smarter and more sustainable choices.

Why the Textile Industry Needs Digital Product Passport Textiles

The fashion supply chain can be a bit of a black box. Materials are sourced and processed across continents, often by third-party suppliers, often very small, with a deep expertise but a local presence, that aren’t easy to monitor. This lack of visibility opens the door to many issues, such as unsafe working conditions and pollution.

The first major agreement is going back to 2013, the Bangladesh Accord as a result of the tragic building collapse in Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza on 24^th April 2013, with more than one thousand deaths among garment workers and 2,000 additional workers injured.
But still recent reports continue to uncover major labour abuses in global garment factories. Regulators are responding. The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), rolling out from 2025, will push companies to identify and manage risks across their entire value chains.

Meanwhile, overproduction continues to be a major problem. It is called the “obscene waste”: the available statistics suggest that between 80bn and 150bn garments are made every year and that between 10% and 40% of these – up to 60bn garments – are not sold.
Even the shoes market is facing an unbelievable number of half a billion thrown away each year. In the EU alone, the average person throws away about 11 kilograms of textiles every year. And only a tiny fraction of that gets recycled.
Why?
Textile supply chain transparency: most products are made of mixed materials that aren’t traceable or recyclable.

At the same time, greenwashing has eroded public trust. That’s why the EU has proposed the Green Claims Directive, which will crack down on vague or misleading environmental claims.

This is where DPPs for textile industry can be a game changer. Under the ESPR, they provide a standardized way for brands to log and share information about materials origin, production processes, and environmental impact. For the textile industry, this means:

Responsible fashion production: Better visibility into fibber origins and how garments are made.
Data to back up sustainability claims.
Circular fashion traceability: Clearer pathways toward circular business models.

Consumers are increasingly asking for this level of transparency. A 2024 survey by PEFC International found that nearly three-quarters of Europeans want to know that forest-based fibers (like viscose) in their clothes come from responsibly managed sources. EU digital passport for textiles makes that kind of information easy to verify.

Sustainable Textiles Traceability: How DPPs Support Sustainable Fashion Goals

DPPs are tools that help brands live out their sustainability values and meet ESG goals. By embedding rich, traceable data into each product using QR codes, NFC tags, or even blockchain, DPPs create a direct line between a product and its full backstory.

Here’s what they typically highlight:

Durability and longevity: Including care tips and how to make clothes last longer.
Green fashion traceability – recyclability: Detailing what materials are used and how to properly separate them.
Eco-friendly clothing supply chain – material transparency: Listing fibers, dyes, and any potentially harmful substances.
Third-party certifications: Validating sustainability claims with proof from trusted sources like GOTS, OEKO-TEX, or the EU Ecolabel.

This kind of transparency supports compliance with reporting frameworks like the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which now requires detailed ESG in fashion industry disclosures from large businesses. But it’s not just about meeting regulations. DPPs also reduce the risk of greenwashing, since every claim can be verified. For customers, that builds confidence. For brands, it creates a powerful point of difference, especially in markets where sustainability credentials are becoming a must-have.

And thanks to technology, DPPs can integrate with existing systems like ESPR textile industry platforms, blockchain networks, or product lifecycle management software, making them easy to scale and manage across supply chains.

Implementation: What Data Is Captured and Shared?

In the textile chain, which goes from spinning to fabric making, finishing, garment making, retail and consumer, some possible information to be entered in the digital identity for traceability are:

kwh (energy consumption)
dye consumption
water consumption
carbon footprint
type of raw material (cotton, synthetic, etc.)
quality of the lot (quality parameters to be determined)
customer certificates
batch production date
batch data
plant data

What exactly goes into a Digital Product Passport for textiles?
The idea is to capture a complete picture of the product’s journey and make it available to anyone who needs it.

Here’s what you’ll typically find:

Digital ID for clothing and unique QR code for textile traceability: So, anyone can scan and access product info instantly.
Material and fiber composition: Including percentages, recycled content, and any hazardous substances.
Country of origin and production stages: Mapping out where and how the item was made.
Environmental impact metrics: Like carbon footprint, water usage, and chemicals applied during manufacturing.
Repair instructions, end-of-life options, and recyclability info: Helping consumers make smarter post-purchase decisions.
Certifications: Showing proof of sustainability, fair trade, and compliance with key regulations.

This DPP product data is meant to be useful to:

Consumers, who want to shop more responsibly.
Regulators, who need to confirm product compliance.
Supply Chain Partners, who require shared data for better collaboration.

Technologies like RFID, smart labels and sensors, APIs, with blockchain when necessary, are being used to make sure this data is secure, reliable, and accessible in real time. The UNECE’s traceability framework is helping standardize how this info is shared across the industry.

DPP Implementation in Textile Industry: Challenges and Opportunities Ahead

Barriers to Adoption

While the Digital product passport textiles offer exciting possibilities, getting there won’t be easy for everyone. For smaller businesses, a few big challenges stand out:

Cost of integration for SMEs and lower-tier suppliers: Smaller firms often lack the funds or workforce or expertise to adopt digital tools quickly.
Need for interoperable data standards: Different systems need to be able to talk to each other—which isn’t always the case today.
Lack of digital infrastructure or data capture tools across the supply chain: Many companies are still working with outdated processes or paper records.

Opportunities and Benefits of DPP for Textile Brands

Despite the challenges, the potential rewards of DPP adoption are significant:

Improved data governance and compliance readiness: Making sustainability data easier to collect, manage, and report.
Enhanced sustainability storytelling and brand differentiation: Brands can show, not just tell, how their products are made.
Early access to green finance, partnerships, and funding: Verified transparency helps unlock opportunities tied to ESG investing.
Creation of more circular, value-driven business models: From customer engagement, take-back programs to second-hand sales, DPPs open new doors.

In short, while the road to DPP implementation may be bumpy, the destination offers real strategic value for brands ready to lead the change.

Why Fashion Brands Need Digital Product Passports & Next Steps

The Digital Product Passport is more than a regulatory requirement—it’s a smart move for fashion brands looking to stay relevant and resilient. The brands that act now will be better prepared for new laws, more efficient in their operations, and more trusted by their customers.

In an industry racing toward transparency, building your traceability infrastructure is no longer optional—it’s essential for growth that’s sustainable in every sense of the word.