An increasing number of articles are appearing in the construction press about Digital Product Passports (DPPs). But what are they, and why are people starting to talk about them?
Let’s start with a definition.
What is a Digital Product Passport?
A Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a structured digital record that provides key information about a product. It enables stakeholders across the product’s lifecycle, including manufacturers, consumers, regulators and recyclers, to access data related to its key attributes, including those related to sustainability, safety and compliance.
The Digital Product Passport is a core feature of the new Construction Product Regulation which was published on 18th December 2024. Amongst other elements, the DPP will include a Declaration of Performance and Conformity (DoPC; a digital equivalent to the Declaration of Performance), other information about the product, a unique identifier and a data carrier to connect that identification (and the information) to the product itself.
If you sell construction products into the EU and they are currently covered by the old Construction Product Regulations, it is likely that the DDP system will apply to these products.
How will digital product passports assist the construction industry?
The European Union has adopted Digital Product Passports as a means by which it can foster a more open and responsible marketplace for products, by integrating open data principles and enhancing transparency across product value chains.
Information about construction products is required by a whole range of actors in the construction supply chain, not just by your customers, but by their customers, by regulators and enforcement bodies, by the designers, builder and users of the buildings they go into, and by the people who will maintain, repair, repurpose and recycle them.
Since the Grenfell tragedy in 2017 it has been clear that knowing what is in your building is essential to building safety, but how it gets there safely in the first place depends upon reliable information. You can read more about this problem in our 2018 report “A Fresh Way Forward for Product Data: State of the Nation”
DPPs will help manufacturers market their products:
- By facilitating (and evidencing) compliance with regulations,
- by improving product data management throughout a product’s lifecycle and
- by supporting sustainability goals and providing a means to achieve them.
This will mean that:
- Manufacturers’ sales and marketing teams will know they are providing key information that is always accurate and linked back to source.
- designers can check that the products they specify comply with the necessary performance requirements.
- distributors and contractors can ensure that the correct products have been supplied to site.
- installers can be sure they installed the product that has been specified.
- building control officers can sign off works having verified that the products and systems meet with the regulatory requirements.
- building owners can know what is in their buildings.
So why are people talking about DPPs now?
The main reason why people are talking more about Digital Product Passports in the construction sector now, is that the new European Construction Products Regulation (CPR): (EU) 2024/3110 was published on 18th December.
This new regulation (which repeals the old CPR, which was adopted by the UK) lays down harmonized rules for the marketing of construction products across the EU and refers specifically to DPPs as a key element of its implementation.
However, there is a lot more about DPPs in the new European Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR): (EU) 2024/1781 which was published in July 2024. This regulation sets out sustainability requirements for a wide range of products in the EU, with the aim of encouraging companies to bring more sustainable products to market.
The reason for this split in information is that ESPR relates to all products (not just construction) and CPR relates specifically to construction products. But they both come from the same basic principles, they are based on the same framework.
By devising a set of overarching principles for DPPs, the EU is creating the underlying framework whereby different sectors can create their own specific requirements, yet the same best practice approach of transparency and data integrity can be applied to all sectors. Other sectors (such as apparel, consumer electronics, textiles) will also be using the same underlying framework.
The information requirements of a DPP are set out in Chapter III of the ESPR, articles 9-15. The CPR further expands on the requirements for a ‘construction digital product passport system’ (commonly abbreviated to CPR-DPP) in Chapter X, Articles 75 and 76 of the CPR.
What will make DPPs successful when other initiatives have failed?
We think Digital Product Passports have the potential to change the way information about construction products is shared, for these reasons:
- Digital from the Bottom Up: DPPs will have a digital first structure and governance system, unlike the product data sheets initiative. Digital first means connection back to source, giving confidence in accuracy. It will be able to scale – essential for an increasingly complex construction value chain.
- Based on Open Standards: The process of introducing DPPs into construction will create the naming and identification element of construction products that we outlined as an essential requirement in our 2018 report but has yet to be implemented.
- Realistic Hosting and Sharing: DPPs will have a standardised framework for storing, accessing and sharing product data. An EU funded study known as CIRPASS2 is currently exploring how this system could be optimised, with a particular focus on how it will be feasible for SMEs to use.
- Customer Demand: By introducing DPPs the EU is responding to the market by aligning to growing consumer, regulatory and industry demands for sustainability, circular economy goals and transparent product data.
- Designed to be Future Proof: as part of a larger framework for products across industry, the DPP system addresses the need for product information beyond the specific niche of construction products.
The CPR has been developed in consultation with all members states of the EU and aims to address the regulatory needs of all EU members’ national construction codes, to enable a single market for construction products. As such it addresses the needs of 27 countries’ construction codes, and we can learn from the expertise of all these countries. This makes sense in the construction industry where many of its products are produced, marketed and sold in the EU as well as the UK.
How DPPs will be introduced into construction?
The introduction of digital product passports will not happen overnight. The new regulations introduced by the EU foresee a process of evolution whereby the information about products is gradually digitised and shared digitally.
At the end of this process, Digital Product Passports will be:
- based on open standards
- structured and machine-readable
- searchable
- developed with an interoperable format
- transferrable through an open, interoperable data exchange network, without proprietary (ie vendor) lock-in.
The Spanish construction products association, UNE, is engaged in a project looking at how its members can gradually introduce the steps to a digital product passport by initially producing digital Declarations of Performance and Conformity (the new name for Declarations of Performance introduced in the new European Construction Products Regulation (CPR).
When will Digital Product Passports in Construction become mandatory?
The obligation to deliver a Digital Product Passport for a construction product that you want to sell in the EU is some years off, and the actual date will depend on the construction product, but we are looking at least 2.5 years ahead.
The new CPR will only apply to products covered by harmonised performance technical specifications and European Assessment Documents that are adopted under the new regulatory framework. Once a product’s relevant harmonised technical specification is transferred to the new CPR, then the new CPR will apply. Until then, the old CPR will apply. [Source: Oscar Nieto, European Commission ]
I’m a Manufacturer: what do we need to do now?
1. Do not buy a solution
It should be clear from the above article that the Digital Product Passport is not something that you can buy off the shelf from a software provider. Software providers do not know what is in a DPP yet; that has not yet been determined. In order to prepare for digital product passports you need to structure the data in your systems, but you may not need to use a third party provider to do this.
2. You already have the information
The information you will need to provide is currently already in your systems, but it may be in several places.
3. Read our free guide to digitisation
If you’d like to know more about how to digitise your product information as a manufacturer, read our Plain Language Guide to digitisation. Download the guide from the IET website here or see other PLG publications here.
What happens next?
Europe is advancing initiatives for Digital Product Passports, with CEN/CLC working on establishing standards and the European Commission addressing key aspects like delegated acts, data management and legal constraints.
This coordinated effort also involves collaboration with the international community. Stakeholders are encouraged to participate through their national bodies to help shape these evolving practices.
We’ll be writing about this work in future posts.
Keep Up to Date and in Touch
The Plain Language Group is an independent group working to encourage digitisation in construction products. We will be writing on this blog about how to get started with Digital Product Passports, what they consist of and what to do next in the coming weeks. If you’d like an email notification when we publish new content please sign up here.
Read more about the Plain Language Group here.
If you are looking for independent consultancy advice on digitisation for construction products, please get in touch.
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