A Conceptual Model to Assess the Environmental Impacts of Digital Product Passports

Digital product passports (DPPs) are introduced into the European Union as a means to realize the circular economy. DPPs digitally capture product-related data to foster life extensions of products through, e.g., recycling, repurposing, repair, or reuse. Hence, DPPs are an interface connecting manufacturers, product service providers, product users, and public bodies. However, DPPs cause environmental impacts as a digital service through the use of IT infrastructure, which remain largely unaddressed so far. This study presents a five-dimensional conceptual model that qualitatively structures the aspects and components of these potential life-cycle environmental impacts of DPPs as digital services. The model distinguishes between DPP users, issuers, service providers, service hosts, and DPP functions, and links their activities to ICT-related resource use and emissions. The results provide a structured basis to bootstrap future environmental sustainability assessment studies. The work contributes to the literature by providing a further understanding of the ecological costs of digital services and related IT systems, thereby fostering a more sustainable implementation and management of DPPs.