Design a digital product passport data model appropriate to a specific product category and its circular economy use cases.
Digital Transformation & Artificial Intelligence
Digital Product Passports and Traceability Data for the Circular Economy
Design digital product passports that carry traceability, material and repair data through a product's life to enable circular economy business models.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
Circular economy business models depend on knowing what a product is made of, where its components came from and how it can be repaired, refurbished or recycled, information that today is scattered across suppliers, manufacturers and retailers or lost entirely once a product leaves the factory. A digital product passport attaches structured, accessible data about materials, origin, repairability and end-of-life handling to a specific product or batch, letting repairers, recyclers, resellers and regulators retrieve accurate information throughout the product's life. This course teaches sustainability, product and data teams to design a digital product passport data model appropriate to a specific product category, source and validate the underlying supplier and material data, choose an identifier and carrier technology that survives the product's real use conditions, and align the design with emerging regulatory requirements for product traceability. Sessions include data modelling exercises for specific product categories, supplier data collection workflows, and the interoperability standards needed so passports remain readable across different platforms and years. Participants leave with a digital product passport data model, a supplier data collection plan, and a compliance mapping against relevant regulatory requirements.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Source and validate supplier and material data needed to populate an accurate product passport.
Select identifier and carrier technologies, such as QR codes or embedded tags, that survive a product's real use conditions.
Map digital product passport requirements against relevant regulatory obligations for the product category.
Design data governance that protects commercially sensitive supplier information while meeting disclosure requirements.
Plan interoperability so passport data remains readable across different platforms over a product's full lifespan.
Build a business case that links product passport investment to repair, resale and recycling revenue opportunities.
Who Should Attend
Sustainability and circular economy managers designing traceability programmes for their product range.
Product data and PLM specialists responsible for the underlying data model behind a digital passport.
Supply chain teams coordinating data collection from multi-tier supplier networks.
Compliance officers mapping product traceability requirements against emerging regulation.
Packaging and product engineers selecting identifier and carrier technology for physical products.
Business development staff building repair, resale or recycling propositions around product passport data.
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Designing the Digital Product Passport Data Model
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Defining Data Requirements for Circular Economy Use Cases
- Identify which data a repairer, recycler or reseller actually needs at each stage of a product's life.
- Distinguish mandatory regulatory data fields from optional data that supports specific circular business models.
- Design a data schema that scales from a simple product to complex multi-component assemblies.
- Prioritise passport content for the product categories where circularity value or regulatory pressure is highest.
Session 2Structuring Material, Origin and Repairability Information
- Structure material composition data at a level of detail useful for recycling sorting without exposing trade secrets.
- Capture component origin and substance-of-concern data required for compliance and consumer transparency.
- Document repairability information, including spare parts availability and disassembly instructions, within the passport.
- Version the data model so it can accommodate new fields as regulation or circular business models evolve.
02Sourcing and Governing Passport Data
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Collecting Accurate Data from Multi-Tier Supply Chains
- Design a data collection workflow that reaches component and material suppliers beyond the first tier.
- Set data validation rules that catch inconsistent or implausible supplier-submitted material data.
- Address supplier reluctance to disclose commercially sensitive material or sourcing information.
- Establish a process for updating passport data when a supplier or material changes after initial launch.
Session 2Data Governance, Access Control and Confidentiality
- Define which passport data fields are publicly visible and which are restricted to regulators or authorised recyclers.
- Protect commercially sensitive supplier data while still meeting mandatory disclosure requirements.
- Assign data ownership and update responsibility across manufacturer, supplier and retailer roles.
- Plan for data corrections and dispute resolution when passport information is found to be inaccurate.
03Identifier, Carrier and Interoperability Choices
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Selecting Identifiers and Physical Data Carriers
- Compare QR codes, RFID tags and embedded chips as data carriers against durability, cost and readability needs.
- Choose a product identifier scheme that remains unique and resolvable across the product's expected lifespan.
- Test carrier durability against the product's real use conditions, including washing, weathering or heavy handling.
- Plan for products that change ownership, are repaired or are disassembled and reassembled during their life.
Session 2Interoperability and Long-Term Data Accessibility
- Adopt open data exchange standards so passport data remains readable by systems the current platform provider did not build.
- Plan for data accessibility over multi-decade product lifespans that will outlast any single software vendor.
- Design fallback access methods for situations where a networked lookup is unavailable at the point of need.
- Test cross-platform readability of passport data before committing to a single vendor's proprietary format.
04Compliance, Business Case and Rollout
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Mapping Regulatory Requirements and Compliance Deadlines
- Map digital product passport requirements against applicable product regulation for the relevant product category.
- Track compliance deadlines and phased regulatory rollout schedules that affect implementation priority.
- Coordinate passport design with existing extended producer responsibility and eco-design reporting obligations.
- Engage with industry and regulatory consultations that shape passport data requirements before they are finalised.
Session 2Building the Business Case and Scaling Across Product Lines
- Quantify revenue and cost opportunities in repair, resale and recycling that accurate passport data enables.
- Estimate the cost of data collection, carrier technology and platform integration against expected benefits.
- Pilot the digital product passport on one product line before extending the model across a wider portfolio.
- Report passport adoption and data quality metrics to leadership to justify continued investment and scaling.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
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