People, Product, Planet: How PaperTale Is building smarter Digital Product Passports in SwePass

PaperTale is no stranger to complex supply chains. Their platform integrates blockchain, AI, and digital twin technology to track every step a product takes. But what sets them apart is how deeply they go. Not just the factory floor – but back to farms, workers, emissions, wages, and beyond.

– We don’t just track products, we transform the entire information ecosystem around them, says Bilal Bhatti, CEO and Founder of PaperTale.

This approach has found a natural match in SwePass, a project that brings together stakeholders to co-develop a harmonised Digital Product Passport (DPP) aligned with future EU regulations like ESPR. With its roots in the textile sector, PaperTale brings years of hands-on DPP development to the table – including live applications, blockchain-secured data, and user-focused interfaces that speak to everyone from recyclers to regulators.

PaperTale’s work is grounded in a simple but powerful philosophy: People, Product, Planet. They believe these three elements must be in balance for any value chain to be truly sustainable.

In SwePass, PaperTale is especially focused on ensuring that DPPs work not only in theory but in practice. That means mapping everything from fiber content to labor conditions and emissions, connecting it all to digital identities via tags – QR, RFID, and increasingly, NFC for seamless interactions.

– It’s not enough to collect data. It has to be reliable, accessible and actionable – even years after a product is sold.

Among the biggest challenges? Fragmented supply chains and inconsistent data standards. Too much of the current system still relies on unverified, self-reported data – a gap PaperTale aims to close with real-time validation and harmonised protocols.

Their practical work in SwePass focuses on several critical areas:

• Defining data models and protocols that enable end-to-end traceability and accountability, aligned with EU regulatory frameworks
• Developing and testing the next generation of data tools
• Ensuring interoperability between PaperTale and other systems, including PLMs and ERPs
• Implementing real-time data collection and verification through a two-point validation system
• Contributing to user-centric DPP applications that make supply chain data meaningful and actionable for businesses, consumers, and recyclers

By contributing to SwePass, PaperTale isn’t just advancing its own technology – it’s helping build a digital infrastructure that can scale across industries. One that’s ready for tomorrow’s rules and today’s urgent need for accountability.