How IDC helps industry understand the value of digital product passports in SwePass

Fredrik Johansson, Industry Developer at IDC, describes their mission clearly:

– Our role is practical: making sure research results reach and benefit industries in everyday scenarios. We demonstrate working solutions in our demo environment, Circular Labs, organize seminars, and create meeting spaces for industry stakeholders. Our goal is to lower barriers, helping companies quickly adopt digital product passports.

However, SwePass faces several challenges. According to Fredrik, one major issue is balancing how much information these passports should contain and ensuring the data presented is trustworthy and usable:

– Many companies already struggle with disconnected systems that don’t communicate well. This becomes even more complicated when a product comprises multiple components, each with its own passport. Standardizing and validating data, such as climate calculations (LCA/GHG), is both complex and costly.

IDC brings valuable expertise to the project through its strong industry connections and extensive experience in implementing sustainable and circular solutions. Fredrik emphasizes that the most critical aspect for IDC isn’t the technology itself, but ensuring it works in real-world industrial contexts:

– We understand industry needs and have firsthand experience of what works – and what doesn’t. Thanks to ongoing and past projects on sustainability and circular economy, we know what’s necessary for digital product passports to achieve practical success.

Without collaboration among researchers, industries, system developers, and end-users, reaching the goals is impossible. Everyone needs to understand what’s required and actively contribute. Only then can digital product passports make a real difference. In the short term, IDC aims to boost industrial adoption of digital product passports. Long term, they envision passports becoming a standard part of everyday industrial practice:

– In the future, digital product passports will be as commonplace as any other product information. When that happens, we know we’ve succeeded, Fredrik concludes.

For those curious about how industry can leverage digital product passports practically, explore IDC’s current trainings and events. Learn more about IDC’s work at IDC West Sweden.