Real-World Applications of Digital Product Passports (DPPs)

Digital Product Traceability: Background

The DPP is a digital ID for products that tells the full story of how something was made, what it’s made from, and its recycling potential: a proper data collection provides insight into the origin of materials, the manufacturing process, service life, maintenance requirements and recycling options of a product, from cradle to grave.

It enables the supply chain to be organised and managed more efficiently by providing detailed product information, it optimises the companies’ production processes and help them to increase their resources efficiently, as well as to adapt seamlessly to the changing legal an regulations requirements. At the same time, it is also quickly becoming one of the EU’s most powerful tools for building a more sustainable and transparent future: sustainability and efficiency are the recent main drivers of a paradigmatic shift in the way companies manufacture, manage and report on their products. In fact, with the EU’s ecodesign for sustainable products regulation (ESPR) kicking into gear in 2026, companies across industries are already putting DPPs to the test.
From smartphones to sofas, batteries to blouses, DPPs are designed to help businesses meet stricter environmental standards while empowering consumers to make more responsible choices.

Let’s take a closer look at digital product passport example at how three very different sectors – automotive, fashion, and construction – are bringing digital product passports to life.

Digital Product Traceability: What This Is About?

How companies are using DPPs in the real world
The benefits they’re seeing for operations, customers, and the planet
How DPPs are helping brands prepare for new regulations
Lessons you can borrow, whether you’re a global manufacturer or a growing brand

Digital Product Passport Example – Case 1: How Audi and Tesla Are Making EV Batteries More Transparent

Industry: Automotive (Electric Vehicles) – DPP for automotive
Companies: Audi & Tesla
In partnership with: Global Battery Alliance
Where it launched: World Economic Forum, Davos (2024)

DPP for automotive: The Problem

Electric cars are supposed to be green, but the reality is more complicated. The materials used in EV batteries often come from places where environmental and labour standards are hard to track. Without transparency, it’s tough to know whether sustainability claims hold up or if they’re just greenwashing.

DPP for Automotive: What They Did

Audi and Tesla took a bold step: they created digital “battery passports” (DPP for batteries) to trace where critical materials come from and how sustainably they’re sourced.
It’s like a travel log for each battery, recording details like:

Where the raw materials were mined or refined
What’s inside the battery (chemical composition)
Its carbon footprint
Whether labour and human rights standards were followed

DPP for batteries – Tesla’s pilot traced 100% of the cobalt in a long-range battery pack to a single source in the DRC. Although that cobalt made up just 1% of the battery’s content, it showed that full traceability, while still challenging, is possible.

DPP for batteries – Audi’s pilots, rolled out in Hungary and China, tracked up to 13.6% of materials in their RS e-tron GT. They also tracked carbon data and human rights practices along the supply chain.

DPP for Automotive: Why It Matters

This is a big deal. By sharing these details with consumers, governments, and partners, Tesla and Audi are building trust. Parallelly, they are getting ahead of tough EU battery regulations that will soon demand exactly this kind of data.

Takeaway: Battery Passports are helping EV makers prove their sustainability claims with facts, not fluff. It’s early days, but these pilots show that traceable, ethical sourcing is possible.

Digital Product Passport Example – Case 2: Nobody’s Child Brings Transparency to the High Street

Industry: Fashion – Digital Passport fashion industry
Company: Nobody’s Child (UK-based womenswear brand)

Digital Passport Fashion Industry: The Problem

Fashion moves fast, but that speed often hides messy supply chains and environmental damage. Today’s shoppers (especially Gen Z and Millennials) want to know more.
Where was this made? Who made it? How sustainable is it?

Digital Passport Fashion Industry: What They Did

Nobody’s Child decided to get ahead of the game. Starting in 2023, they piloted digital product passports across 50 clothing styles, mainly denim and casual wear.

Each garment has a unique QR code on the care label. Scan it with your phone and you’ll see everything from:

Where the cotton was grown
How much water and energy were used
The working conditions at the factory
Repair tips, certifications, and even links for resale

Thanks to a platform, they were able to collect over 100 data points per product and trace materials all the way back to the cotton farm (Tier 5 traceability).

Digital Passport Fashion Industry: What Happened

Customers loved the transparency and started engaging more on social media.
Internally, it helped the team find compliance risks and improve supplier performance.
It also laid the groundwork for rental, resale, and second-hand services.

Takeaway: Nobody’s Child is showing how even mid-sized fashion brands can lead on transparency and turn compliance into a competitive advantage.

Digital Product Passport Example – Case 3: Building a Future-Proof Office with Material Passports

Industry: Construction & Real Estate – DPP for construction
Project: Edenica Smart Office, London
Developers: BauMont Real Estate Capital & YardNine

DPP for Construction: The Problem

Construction is one of the most wasteful industries on the planet. So many materials get thrown away simply because we don’t know what they are or how to reuse them. Once something’s built, it becomes a black box.

DPP for Building: What They Did

The Edenica office building in London flipped the script. It’s one of the first commercial buildings to use material passports from the ground up. Cataloguing everything from steel beams to floor slabs, with details like:

Type of material and where it came from
Its exact location in the building
How it was installed and how long it will last
Whether it can be reused or recycled

All this information is stored in a platform called Circuland, linked to the building’s digital design (BIM) and carbon assessments. They even used recycled precast concrete for the façade, with a 120-year lifespan, and designed the building to be easily adapted or disassembled in the future.

DPP for Building: What They Gained

Cut operational energy by 50%
Achieved BREEAM Outstanding and WiredScore Platinum
Created a roadmap for future reuse, renovation, or even full disassembly
Set the stage for circular construction across the UK

Takeaway: Material passports turn buildings into future resources, not waste. Edenica proves it’s possible and profitable to design for reuse from day one. The traceability of the building materials is today more important when considering the 3 recent disasters in Europe, which brought the safety of building materials to the global attention.
In London (UK), June 2017, in Milan (Italy) August 2021 and in Valencia (Spain) February 2024, three buildings were destroyed by fire with dozens of victims and missing, hundreds of displaced, because of the external cladding made of aluminium sheets with a polyethylene core, or of plastic material, both highly flammable materials. The entire buildings were engulfed in flames in a few minutes. The accident in London even lead to a review of the building regulations in the UK.

Why Digital Product Passports Are a Game Changer

These aren’t just pilots or experiments. They’re signals that the future is already here and it’s more transparent and circular.

Whether you’re making EVs, jeans, or buildings, Digital Product Passports can help you:

Meet new regulations
Earn trust with facts and real data, not marketing
Cut waste and find new revenue streams in reuse and repair
Improve the communication with the consumer
Build smarter and safer systems that work for people and the planet

The companies above aren’t just checking a box. They’re reshaping their industries, and the rest of the market will have to follow.

The Traceability Hub