🌱 What role can Digital Product Passports play?
When looking at supply chains and the design or production process, Digital Product Passports (DPPs) are one example of a feature that can be used to make products more sustainable. The aim with DPPs is that the end users can be better informed on the materials of a product, and thereby — for example — make better purchasing decisions or recycle the product properly at the end of its lifecycle.[i]
🌱 What examples of supply chain transparency are there?
Examples of brands that have made considerable efforts to improve their supply chain transparency and have also factored this into their design process include Lovia, Fairphone, and Patagonia.
🌱 What is needed for a more sustainable future?
While DPPs are a positive improvement in terms of increasing transparency and accountability in production chains, they will hopefully also pressure businesses and their design departments to truly make more sustainable choices. To create a sustainable future, more businesses and designers need to take responsibility for the negative impacts brought about through their creations — instead of shifting this responsibility on consumers.
This post has been adapted from a newsletter written by Saskia Tykkyläinen and Christine Nikander for a collaboration between Palsa & Pulk and The E-Waste Column. The newsletter titled “What is the role of design in a just transition?” was originally published in both “The Just Transition Newsletter” and “The E-Waste Newsletter”.