Digital Product Passport within Boundaries

Abstract

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.