Johan Dahlgren from GS1 Sweden elected as chairman of a working group within European standardization (CEN/Cenelec)The European Commission has recently approved the Ecodesign for Sustainable Product Regulation (ESPR), a forward-thinking piece of legislation that puts Digital Product Passports at the heart of achieving the objectives of the European Green Deal. Johan Dahlgren, Head of Standards at GS1 Sweden, is now elected as chairman of a working group within European standardization (CEN/Cenelec), where he will lead the work of developing harmonized standards for Digital Product Passports.
– Our objective is to provide GS1 users with the best conditions to meet ESPR with GS1 standards. The work within CEN/Cenelec will establish the technical conditions for Digital Product Passports,” says Johan Dahlgren, Head of Standards at GS1 Sweden.
The ESPR Regulation and Digital Product Passports (DPP)
The ESPR aims to improve the sustainability and environmental impact of products sold in the EU. In this regulation, the European Commission emphasizes the importance of Digital Product Passports as a tool to achieve the objectives of the EU Green Deal. Product passports help enable traceability, transparency and reuse of products throughout their life cycle, contributing to increased circularity and sustainability. Digital Product Passports will therefore become central to product data sharing across the EU. By providing transparency on the materials, origin and environmental impact of products, businesses and consumers can make more sustainable choices and build a better future.
Harmonized Standards
To specify how Digital Product Passports should be technically implemented, The European Standardization (CEN/Cenelec) has been mandated to develop eight harmonized standards. These European Standards will be a vital part of defining the technical infrastructure for Digital Product Passports and ensuring that companies complying with them automatically meet ESPR requirements. Harmonized standards will provide guidance for companies that need to create Digital Product Passports that comply with legislation.
GS1 Sweden leads working group within CEN/Cenelec
Johan Dahlgren, Head of Standards at GS1 Sweden, has been appointed chair of a CEN/Cenelec working group. The group will work on developing harmonized standards for identification and data carriers for Digital Product Passports.
– The first meeting has already taken place, attended by 60 experts from 18 countries. We have now started working on a first proposal for unique identification. I look forward to further fruitful discussions,” says Johan Dahlgren.
GS1 and Digital Product Passports
The reason for GS1’s involvement is to ensure that the portfolio of standards for identification, capturing, information sharing and traceability, which are widely used in many industries across the globe, can continue to function to meet regulatory requirements. An example of GS1 standards is the GTIN (Global Trade Item Number), which can be found under the barcodes of most products sold in stores.
– A number of standards offered by GS1 are described in the mandate given to European Standardization by the European Commission. By taking a leading role in this important work, GS1 wants to ensure that these standards can continue to be used by companies all over the world, also to meet ESPR,” says Johan Dahlgren.