Digital Product Passport: What Craft Businesses Must Provide
The digital product passport requires data on origin, carbon footprint, and recyclability—including from small suppliers.
The digital product passport creates additional work for craft businesses but can also make their product documentation more reliable. In the future, even small suppliers will be expected to provide information about the origin, carbon footprint, and recyclability of their products. The key is to integrate data collection into purchasing, production, and order processing early on instead of searching for the required information only when someone asks for it.
Facts and Analysis
The digital product passport is an EU requirement. At its core is a structured collection of information about a product. According to the available summary, this covers three areas in particular: origin, carbon footprint, and recyclability.
For craft businesses, the main point is that these requirements do not apply only to large manufacturers. Small businesses can also be suppliers within a supply chain and may need to help provide the required product data. Documentation therefore becomes a task that affects several areas of the business.
For purchased materials, data quality depends on the information suppliers provide. For products manufactured in-house, the business must determine which information from purchasing, production planning, or manufacturing can be brought together. The product passport therefore also depends on reliable interfaces: information must be complete, easy to find, and assigned to the correct product.
Other European regulations create similar organizational requirements. The article on the EU Packaging Regulation and its implications for the skilled trades provides a related overview. In both cases, it makes sense to integrate new information requirements into existing workflows instead of treating them as isolated tasks.
The additional workload is real. At the same time, it presents an opportunity: businesses that organize their product data properly can answer questions from customers and business partners more quickly. Internally, they also gain a clearer picture of where materials come from and which information is still missing. This transparency does not replace professional or legal review, but it provides a better basis for the work ahead.
What Does This Mean for Craft Business Owners?
Business owners must first identify where their company generates, receives, or passes on product data. Their role as a supplier is particularly relevant. Businesses that supply components, parts, or other products to commercial customers should expect requests for information needed for those customers’ product passports.
This task should not remain solely with management. Purchasing, production planning, manufacturing, and administration may each hold some of the relevant information. Without clear responsibilities, follow-up questions, duplicated work, and inconsistent data are likely.
Data quality is more important than collecting as much information as possible. A business should only record information whose source can be traced internally. This principle is also familiar from other documentation processes, such as the reliable organization of payroll tax data or preparations for a special VAT audit.
The software in use should also be reviewed. The immediate priority is not necessarily a new system, but whether existing solutions can store and exchange product data unambiguously. Breaks between spreadsheets, emails, and order documents increase the maintenance workload. Businesses that later select software or add interfaces should therefore understand how information actually flows through their operations.
Recommended Actions
Start with a manageable practical review:
Select products: Begin with a typical product group or a frequently supplied component.
Review existing data: Look for available information about origin, carbon footprint, and recyclability.
Mark the gaps: Record which information is missing and who can provide it.
Assign responsibility: Decide who requests supplier data, maintains internal information, and answers inquiries.
Standardize storage: Ensure that information can be clearly assigned to a product and found again.
Then test this process using a real order. Record not only missing data but also unnecessary searches and duplicate entries. This will produce a short work instruction that can later be applied to other product groups. Tax-related documentation processes likewise show how important reliable assignment is—for example, when claiming input VAT retroactively.
This article is based on reporting by Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung on the digital product passport.
FAQ
What information must craft businesses provide for the digital product passport?
The relevant information includes data on product origin, carbon footprint, and recyclability.
Does the digital product passport also affect small suppliers?
Yes. Small suppliers must also prepare to provide the required product data.
How should businesses start preparing?
They should check which data is already available, assign responsibilities, and systematically obtain missing information from suppliers or their own documentation.
Frequently asked questions
The relevant information includes data on product origin, carbon footprint, and recyclability.
Yes. Small suppliers must also prepare to provide the required product data.
They should check which data is already available, assign responsibilities, and systematically obtain missing information from suppliers or their own documentation.