CIRPASS project

The CIRPASS project focuses on creating Digital Product Passports (DPPs) to streamline product lifecycle management and support the circular economy. These passports store key product details digitally, accessible via QR codes, enabling better reuse, recycling, and regulatory compliance. Funded by the EU, CIRPASS ran from October 2022 to March 2024, targeting electronics, batteries, and textiles, with the follow-up project CIRPASS-2 covering textiles, electronics, tyres and construction. Swedish participants in the first project included Chalmers Industriteknik as a partner and RISE as an associated partner, the latter focusing on textiles and batteries.

Key highlights:

• Digital Product Passports (DPPs): Centralized digital records for products, improving transparency and lifecycle management.
• EU Regulations: ESPR (in force since 18 July 2024) is the framework for DPPs, but a passport becomes mandatory for a product group only through a delegated act; none has been adopted yet. The Battery Regulation requires a battery passport from 18 February 2027 for LMT, EV and industrial batteries over 2 kWh.
• CIRPASS Deliverables: Frameworks, blueprints, and 67 recommendations for industries and policymakers.
• Sector Focus: Electronics (repair and recycling), textiles (reuse and recycling), and batteries (lifecycle tracking).

Swedish companies are encouraged to start pilot projects, address data gaps, and integrate no-code tools like Blippa for DPP creation.

Digital Product Passports (DPP): A Key Component of EU Sustainability Regulations

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CIRPASS Objectives and Deliverables

The CIRPASS project is all about making Digital Product Passports (DPPs) a practical reality, ensuring that regulatory requirements align with how industries operate.

Policy and Regulatory Background

CIRPASS was born out of the EU Green Deal and the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), which came into effect on 18 July 2024. These regulations bring significant changes to how products are designed, manufactured, and managed throughout their lifecycle. Under the ESPR, a DPP becomes mandatory for a product group only when a delegated act for that group says so. The EU Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, adopted in July 2023, is separate legislation: it requires a battery passport from 18 February 2027 for each LMT battery, each industrial battery over 2 kWh and each electric vehicle battery (Article 77). Portable and SLI batteries do not need a passport.

CIRPASS plays a foundational role in this evolving regulatory landscape by defining what the DPP system should look like and how it should operate. This ensures that businesses, policymakers, and technology providers are on the same page, setting the groundwork for the technical deliverables outlined below.

CIRPASS Deliverables and Blueprints

The project has produced a range of technical resources to support the real-world adoption of DPPs. One of the key outputs is the DPP System Architecture Blueprint, which uses a dual-track approach combining HTTP URIs and Decentralised Identifiers (DIDs). This approach ensures that data flow is anchored in reliable product identifiers.

Another important deliverable is the Identification Schemes Framework, which evaluates how products, economic operators, and facilities should be uniquely identified within the DPP system. This framework is based on 10 specific criteria. Additionally, CIRPASS mapped out the information requirements for batteries, electronics, and textiles. These requirements include both mandatory and optional data points that will guide future delegated acts under the ESPR.

The project also provided 67 actionable recommendations for policymakers, businesses, and IT service providers. These recommendations are complemented by sector-specific roadmaps that guide the journey from initial prototypes to full-scale implementation. Along the way, CIRPASS identified the key factors – both opportunities and challenges – that will impact successful DPP delivery.

Another resource is the DPP-related standards dataset, which lists existing standards relevant to DPPs and helps companies navigate the technical landscape. To connect regulatory goals with practical implementation, the project also developed DPP User Stories (V2.0). These stories illustrate how stakeholders can issue, manage, and use DPP data effectively. All these deliverables were created through collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders, as discussed below.

Stakeholder Ecosystem and Collaboration

Collaboration was at the heart of CIRPASS. The initial consortium brought together leading industrial, research, and digital organisations from across Europe and beyond. This diverse group ensured that the project’s outputs addressed the practical needs of different industries.

The project worked closely with standardisation bodies like GS1 and various European organisations to ensure that the proposed DPP vocabularies and protocols could evolve into recognised industry standards. This collaborative approach helped create a unified framework rather than fragmented, sector-specific solutions.

After the initial phase ended in March 2024, CIRPASS-2 expanded its reach. It grew to include 49 partners and 13 lighthouse pilots across four major value chains: textiles, electronics, tyres, and construction.

How DPPs Work in Different Sectors

Digital Product Passports (DPPs) are tailored to meet the specific sustainability and regulatory needs of different industries. The CIRPASS project has outlined the data requirements for three key sectors – electronics, textiles, and batteries – chosen because they were early priorities for DPP policy. Of the three, only batteries have a confirmed date: the battery passport applies from 18 February 2027 under the Battery Regulation. Textiles are a priority in the ESPR working plan, with a delegated act indicatively planned for adoption in 2027 and requirements applying no earlier than 18 months later. For electronics, no ESPR passport requirement has been adopted.

In electronics, DPPs extend product lifetimes through repair and reuse. For textiles, they enable circular business models by supporting authenticated resale and recycling. Meanwhile, batteries benefit from lifecycle transparency, which ensures safe repurposing and efficient material recovery. Together, these applications strengthen trust in secondary markets and improve material recovery rates. Let’s take a closer look at how DPPs are shaping these industries.

Electronics: Repairability and Recycling Made Easier

For electronics, the CIRPASS framework focuses on collecting manufacturing data that encourages longer product lifetimes and circularity. This includes information like durability metrics, repairability scores (aligned with EU right-to-repair laws), detailed component hierarchies for disassembly, and sorting instructions for proper recycling.

This data makes repairs and recycling more efficient. For instance, if a consumer needs to repair a smartphone or laptop, the DPP provides access to disassembly guides and spare part details. At the end of a product’s life, recyclers can identify valuable materials and learn how to extract them safely.

Textiles: Supporting Circular Fashion

In the textile industry, DPPs provide a detailed digital record for each product, covering fibre composition, material origins, environmental impact, and certifications. This transparency supports circular business models by offering clear instructions for care, reuse, and end-of-life recycling.

DPPs help extend product lifetimes and facilitate textile-to-textile recycling. For example, when consumers know the exact materials in a garment and how to care for it, the product lasts longer. For recyclers, precise fibre content data is critical for maintaining material quality in closed-loop systems, enabling more effective recycling processes.

Batteries: Tracking Every Stage of the Lifecycle

Battery passports, mandatory under the EU Battery Regulation from 18 February 2027 for LMT, EV and industrial batteries over 2 kWh, align with CIRPASS objectives by detailing key information such as sourcing, carbon footprint, recycled content, chemistry, capacity, and guidelines for repurposing. This comprehensive data ensures safe handling, optimises second-life applications, and improves material recovery efficiency.

Implementing CIRPASS-Aligned DPPs with No-Code Tools

Swedish companies now have a practical way to align with CIRPASS’s technical guidelines using no-code tools, making compliance with upcoming regulations more accessible. As passport requirements arrive product group by product group, many businesses face the challenge of building digital infrastructure despite limited technical expertise or resources. No-code platforms offer a solution, automating the creation of data carriers and enabling smooth lifecycle data sharing between stakeholders and consumers. This is especially helpful for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that lack in-house IT teams but will need to meet ESPR requirements once the delegated acts for their products apply.

Blippa: A Tool for Scalable DPP Creation

Blippa’s SaaS platform simplifies DPP creation through its no-code features, which include generating digital product identities, creating and managing DPP compliant links, and hosting data in the cloud. Businesses can start from pre-designed templates instead of custom development. The platform links each product to data sources containing crucial details like sustainability metrics, material composition, and recycling guidelines. Blippa also supports version control and team collaboration, ensuring data accuracy and consistency as products evolve. It can read data from existing enterprise systems.

Linking DPPs with ERP and PIM Systems

SaaS platforms designed for DPPs can connect with ERP and PIM systems. These integrations are essential for bridging data gaps, ensuring that details like material origins, carbon footprints, and sustainability data remain up-to-date and verifiable. By automating the flow of information into DPPs, businesses can avoid manual data entry and accommodate dynamic updates, such as maintenance logs or repair instructions, where future delegated acts require them. This capability provides Swedish companies with a strong foundation for compliance and operational efficiency.

Practical Steps for Swedish Companies

Swedish businesses can begin with pilot projects in the product groups that apply to them: batteries (passport from 18 February 2027 for LMT, EV and industrial batteries over 2 kWh) or textiles, which are a priority in the ESPR working plan.

To prepare for ESPR requirements, companies should:

• Identify and address data gaps.
• Adopt GS1 standards for product identification and labelling to ensure compatibility across the supply chain.
• Follow Swedish initiatives such as SwePass for guidance and industry-wide support.

These steps can help Swedish companies prepare for passport requirements as they arrive.

Governance, Interoperability, and Future Outlook

Governance and Stakeholder Roles

The CIRPASS consortium, around 30 partners, described the roles of the actors that handle product data – manufacturers, importers, recyclers and others. To ensure effective data ownership and access, the project introduced two interoperable system architectures: one based on HTTP URIs and another on Decentralised Identifiers (DIDs). In Sweden, RISE and Chalmers Industriteknik took part in the first CIRPASS project.

To promote collaboration, CIRPASS‑2 is developing a cloud-based DPP Stakeholder Exchange Forum. This platform offers market visibility for solution providers and helps organisations – especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – connect with suitable technical partners. It also tackles one of the 28 barriers identified by the project: the difficulty smaller companies face in meeting technical demands for DPP implementation. This governance structure provides a strong foundation for CIRPASS’s ongoing development and alignment with regulations.

Preparing for Future Regulations

The standardisation work CIRPASS fed into has now delivered. CEN-CENELEC JTC 24 published the European DPP standards in 2026, and six of them – EN 18216, EN 18219, EN 18220, EN 18221, EN 18222 and EN 18223 – were cited in the Official Journal by Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/1736 of 15 July 2026. Two more, EN 18239 and EN 18246, are published but not yet cited. The EU registry for product passports has been live since 20 July 2026 (Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1778). See our overview of the DPP standards. CIRPASS’s "User Stories" and recommendations remain useful background, and its "initial set of information requirements" shows the kind of data points discussed for textiles, electronics and batteries. The data that will actually be mandatory for a product group is set in its delegated act. This forward-looking approach helps prepare businesses for the transition to a circular economy.

CIRPASS and the Circular Economy in 2030

CIRPASS aims at a shift from linear to circular economies, supported by Digital Product Passports (DPPs). After the first phase concluded in March 2024, CIRPASS‑2 expanded to 49 partners, launching 13 pilot projects across key industries – textiles, electronics, tyres, and construction. These pilots aim to validate business models for extending product life, remanufacturing, and recovering materials. By providing detailed data on product composition, DPPs are intended to improve the recovery of valuable materials at the end of a product’s lifecycle.

FAQs

What are Digital Product Passports, and how do they contribute to a circular economy?

Digital Product Passports (DPPs) are structured digital records tied to a product through a unique identifier. These records hold detailed information about the product, covering areas like sustainability, circularity, potential for reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling. Importantly, this information is shared and managed securely.

DPPs make product data transparent and accessible, which helps extend product lifespans, use resources more efficiently, and encourage sustainable production practices. They allow consumers to make better-informed decisions, help businesses explore circular economy opportunities, and enable authorities to confirm compliance with environmental rules.

Think of DPPs as a digital "passport" for a product. They improve traceability, support recycling efforts, and play a key role in advancing a resource-efficient circular economy.

How will EU regulations shape the adoption of Digital Product Passports across industries?

The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), in force since 18 July 2024, is the framework for Digital Product Passports (DPPs). A passport becomes mandatory for a product group only when a delegated act for that group is adopted and applies; no such act has been adopted yet, and textiles are first in line in the working plan. Batteries follow their own regulation, with a passport from 18 February 2027 for LMT, EV and industrial batteries over 2 kWh. The goal? To establish a standardised framework for product and sustainability data. These digital passports will provide detailed information about a product’s materials, production methods, and options for recycling or repair.

To meet these requirements, businesses will need to implement standardised data models and identification systems that work seamlessly with their existing tools, such as ERP and PIM systems. Supporting this transition is the CIRPASS project, funded by the European Commission. CIRPASS developed prototypes, roadmaps and recommendations, and CIRPASS-2 is running pilots, to ease the adoption of DPPs.

By driving transparency and traceability across value chains, these regulations aim to boost sustainability efforts. Companies that adapt early will not only meet compliance but also position themselves for growth as the initiative potentially expands to other industries.

How are Swedish companies involved in the CIRPASS project, and what benefits can they gain?

Swedish organisations took part in the first CIRPASS project: Chalmers Industriteknik as a partner and RISE as an associated partner, with RISE focusing on information needs for textiles and batteries.

Through their involvement, Swedish companies gain early access to standardised DPP frameworks. This early adoption supports better product transparency, improved traceability, and alignment with upcoming EU circular economy regulations. By integrating these frameworks, businesses can seamlessly connect with systems like ERP and PIM, recover materials more efficiently, and strengthen second-hand markets, all while reinforcing their circular economy efforts.