The Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner
Sustainability legislation coming out of the European Union will have a profound effect on all links in print media supply chains. From books to labels, our industry is sadly not immune to these many and complicated rules. Getting up to speed with their expectations is just as sadly unavoidable; what matters to print buyers has to also matter to printing service providers. One of the central ideas with the DPP is to make products traceable, from their origins and components through to their compliance with the law. This might be an opportunity for printing companies.
The EU has developed the principles of the Digital Product Passport (DPP) to ensure compliance with all manner of legislation. DPPs are essentially a very complicated label in digital form and all products traded in the EU will have to have a DPP of their own. Printers can be pleased that some of this information will be in physical documents, depending on the product. But most of it, as the name suggests, will be in the form of digital data.
The Digital Product Passport was introduced in 2024 and is required for pretty much any product sold in the EU. The point of it is to close the gap between the information consumers want and the lack of reliable data about the goods they buy. Each product placed on the EU market has to have a unique product identifier and be accompanied by digital or printed documentation that confirms the product meets all EU compliance rules. This means sustainability and legal statutes. Information about substances of concern will be declared as will details of how products should be disposed of or recycled. The idea is to help companies, buyers and sellers alike, to mitigate risks as they relate to environmental impact and authenticity.
The DPP is a detailed digital record of a product’s entire lifecycle so it should enhance supply chain management, as well as ensuring regulatory compliance. DPPs should also make it easier to share data in a transparent way, especially across borders. This should boost product visibility and sustainability practises and it should also help combat fraud and the proliferation of fake products.
The DPP was initially part of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation which requires the provision of information about a product’s origins, what it is made of and its environmental impact. This regulation also requires manufacturers to make recommendations to consumers relating to a product’s disposal.
The details of what you as a printer need to do to support your customers depends on the type of work you print and your typical client profile. At the very least you should expect print buyers to ask questions about your processes and environmental impact. Get to grips with ISO 16759, the ISO standard for quantifying and communication for calculating the carbon footprint of print media products. It’s cheap and an easy read and a great way to differentiate your business from that of your competitors. They may have no clue as to how to offer to calculate the carbon footprint of print jobs, but your customers will be thankful that you do. And who knows, perhaps such calculations can be an opportunity for new service offerings, a way to provide verifiable data for your clients’ DPPs.
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This article was produced by the Verdigris Project, an industry initiative intended to raise awareness of print’s positive environmental impact. This weekly commentary helps printing companies keep up to date with environmental standards, and how environmentally friendly business management can help improve their bottom lines. Verdigris is supported by the following companies: Agfa Graphics, EFI, Fespa, Fujifilm, HP, Kodak, Miraclon, Ricoh, Unity Publishing and Xeikon.
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