The Future of Materials Systems 2026

Digital product passport interoperability Digital product passports (DPPs) offer a promising approach to strengthen material traceability. A DPP is a structured digital record that travels with a product throughout its lifecycle, providing reliable information about what it is made of, where it comes from and how it can be used, repaired, reused or recycled. By collecting and holding such data in a verifiable manner, DPPs help make materials more transparent and traceable across value chains. This would enable better design and sourcing decisions, and help regulators, businesses and consumers make more informed and responsible choices. A DPP , such as that being developed in the European Union (EU), could improve the circularity and efficient use of materials through sharing relevant data on a product’s material and chemical composition, instructions for maintenance, repair, refurbishment or recycling, and repair or service history (see Figure 10). As DPP schemes are set to be introduced across different countries and regions, maintaining interoperability will be challenging without a shared underlying protocol. Poor interoperability between DPP schemes risks raising compliance costs, duplicating reporting and impeding cross-border transparency. These risks are amplified by gaps in patchy data availability, supplier capacity and digital infrastructure, especially in lower-income regions, jeopardizing the feasibility of DPPs. Examples of useful data fields that a digital product passport could contain FIGURE 10 Digital product passport (DPP) dataOperational risk dataSafety & performance Repair, reuse, recyclability & recovery potentialCircularity Evidence & verificationChain-of-custody & certificationWhere materials came from & how they were transformedProvenance Which materials the product is made fromComposition Labour, rights & ethical sourcingSocial impactsCarbon & biodiversity loss footprintsEnvir onmental impacts Poor interoperability between DPP schemes risks raising compliance costs, duplicating reporting and impeding cross-border transparency. The Future of Materials Systems: Cooperation Opportunities in a Multipolar World 21