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Digital Product Passports and Reverse Logistics Viability in Industrial Value Chains

Architectures for cross-tier material provenance tracking, data governance, and regulatory compliance.

Funding & GovernanceIndustrial Digital Transition Council
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Project Overview & Context

Focuses on the implementation challenges of EU Digital Product Passport (DPP) requirements across complex tier-2 and tier-3 industrial suppliers. We examine interoperable data protocols, intellectual property protection in bill-of-materials disclosures, and the cost of compliance for mid-market suppliers.

Core Objectives & Hypotheses

Primary Objectives
  • Map data architectures supporting verifiable provenance without exposing proprietary supplier formulas.
  • Evaluate supplier readiness across battery, textile, and machinery manufacturing sectors.
Guiding Research Questions
  • How can decentralized identity protocols preserve supplier confidentiality in mandated disclosures?
  • What is the total cost of compliance for tier-2 SME manufacturers under EU DPP regulations?

Methodology & Execution

Case-based field pilots with 8 manufacturing consortia, combined with technical architecture simulations and regulatory legal analyses.

Tangible Scholarly Outputs

task_altCISR Research Report RR-2025-08
task_altTechnical Reference Architecture for Mid-Market DPP Adoption

Publications from this Project

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Open Access • CC BY 4.0Sustainability & Responsible BusinessRESEARCH REPORT

Digital Product Passports in Industrial Value Chains: Architecture, Governance and Adoption Barriers

Prof. Eleanor Vance, Dr. Marcus ThornePublished 2025CISR Research Report Series

The European Union’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) establishes Digital Product Passports (DPPs) as mandatory compliance mechanisms. This research report details architectural frameworks for decentralized material tracking, analyzes data governance models, and documents implementation costs across 45 mid-market European suppliers in industrial machinery and textiles.

DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4891024