The continuous growth of material consumption places a high burden on the Earth's systems, causing harm to both humans and nature. Transitioning to a circular economy, in which all products and materials retain in cycles, has been promoted by the European Union as a countermeasure to this threatening development. However, progress in the circular economy transition is minor and needs to be accelerated. Therefore, reducing material consumption by implementing the highest level circular strategies, such as product-as-a-service models or reusing, is crucial. 

The European Union (EU) proposes the implementation of a cross-sectoral EU Digital Product Passport (DPP) to accelerate the transition to the circular economy. The EU DPP is a standardized dataset of product-specific lifecycle information that is electronically accessible with a product. It is anticipated to benefit all actors along a product's value chain by creating transparency and trust, enabling access to more comprehensive information, and facilitating informed decision-making for sustainability.

However, research around this concept is still emerging, and it needs to be clarified how exactly the EU DPP should be designed to be impactful. Notably, actor- and product-specific information requirements are missing for the technology's near-term implementation. 

This thesis research addresses the societal challenge by contributing to the called needs from the DPP research. It aspires to shed light on the contextual DPP development by eliciting information requirements for the EU DPP that addresses the information deficits of EU consumers hindering them from acquiring the most circular mobile phone alternative.

For this purpose, rigorous Design Science Research is performed through desk research and based on scientific literature to explicate the information deficits of consumers. They are translated into design principles that guide the purposeful elicitation of information requirements. Furthermore, by conducting expert interviews, the information requirements are evaluated and revised to bring value to the EU DPP's development in practice. However, as the EU DPP is a new technology that will intervene in the complex consumption system of mobile phones, uncertainties about its implementation exist. Thus, with expert input, boundary conditions are identified that determine the implementation of an EU DPP. They are structured in a Boundary Condition Framework to inform further research and development.

A total of 50 information requirements are elicited that ensure the relevance, soundness, and accessibility of the EU DPP's information provided so that consumers' information deficits are addressed. Whether the EU DPP developed based on these information requirements can mitigate consumers' information deficits is determined by four boundary conditions that need to be in place and are partly dependent on the heterogeneity of consumer needs. They are:

Suitability of the DPP      The development process and the resulting DPP is suitable to serve the objectives (e.g., material consumption reduction) and address the consumer needs in the research’s context.