The arrival of the Digital Product Passport (DPP) under the European Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) represents far more than another regulatory initiative. Behind the forthcoming transparency requirements lies a profound shift in how fashion companies collect, manage and use product data. The DPP will require businesses to demonstrate a product’s origin, characteristics and journey using reliable, accessible and verifiable information.
For brands, the question is therefore no longer simply which data they will need to disclose, but how to build an organization capable of producing and analyzing that data consistently over time.
In its guide on preparing fashion brands for the Digital Product Passport, Lectra identifies five key steps for turning this future regulatory obligation into a driver of operational performance and sustainability.
- Create a single source of truth
For many companies, the first challenge is fragmented information. Material data, certifications, supplier information, costs, technical specifications and environmental indicators are often scattered across multiple business systems and Excel files.
Yet the DPP is built on a simple principle: the same information must remain easy to find, verify and update throughout the product lifecycle. Future European requirements will make it increasingly difficult to rely on manual processes or parallel databases.
The first step is therefore to centralize strategic information within a common framework, including material characteristics, certifications, supplier data, environmental indicators and compliance documentation. Clear data governance can then safeguard quality and reliability over time.
In this context, a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution often provides the most relevant foundation for centralizing product data and creating a single source of truth accessible to all stakeholders.
- Connect data across the product lifecycle
A centralized database is not enough. Different business functions must also be able to access the same information and work from shared references.
Design, product development, sourcing, quality, compliance and CSR teams must progressively align around a common data foundation.
PLM solutions play a critical role by ensuring information continuity across functions and enabling every user to work from the same reference data.
This approach supports faster, more consistent decisions, particularly when teams need to balance cost, quality, environmental performance and raw-material availability.
The goal is to embed sustainability into decisions made upstream in the product process, rather than addressing it only at the reporting stage.
- Deploy traceability that can scale
Traceability is one of the main challenges in preparing for the DPP. While many brands now have reasonably good visibility of their direct suppliers, knowledge of upstream tiers often remains limited. Regulators, consumers and investors, however, increasingly expect a much more detailed understanding of the entire value chain.
To achieve visibility at scale, brands need traceability solutions designed for the specific requirements of the fashion industry, with the ability to collect, consolidate and update data from multiple stakeholders across the value chain.
The ability to track material flows, document and verify certifications, and maintain up-to-date information across several supplier tiers is becoming essential. This requires more structured data collection, greater automation and closer collaboration throughout the industrial ecosystem.
Beyond compliance, greater visibility can also reduce supply-related risks and strengthen the credibility of environmental claims.
- Prepare to generate digital passports
Once data has been consolidated and traceability strengthened, the next challenge is to make that information usable for generating future digital passports.
This means establishing robust processes for collecting, validating and updating data, while also managing different levels of access for consumers, market-surveillance authorities and business partners.
The most advanced organizations are already structuring their data, defining governance rules and building architectures capable of generating this information automatically. This helps prevent the DPP from becoming a document-heavy project that must be managed under pressure when the requirements take effect.
- Make sustainability an operational reflex
The final step is arguably the most important. The success of the DPP will depend not only on technology and processes, but also on adoption by teams.
When environmental data becomes accessible to design, purchasing, development and production teams, it is no longer the sole preserve of CSR specialists.
This shift is particularly important because most of a product’s environmental impact is determined during the early design stages. Decisions about materials, suppliers and manufacturing processes directly shape the product’s future environmental performance.
Sustainability can then move beyond a reporting exercise to become a genuine criterion for operational decision-making.
A transformation that goes beyond compliance
The Digital Product Passport should not be viewed as a simple regulatory deadline. It is set to become one of the key catalysts for the fashion industry’s digital and sustainable transformation.
The brands that succeed will be those that use this deadline to modernize data governance, strengthen traceability and break down organizational silos.
Ultimately, compliance is likely to be only the first benefit of a much broader transformation, capable of delivering greater efficiency, resilience and lasting competitiveness.
