The Digital Product Passport: Enabling Interoperable Information Flows Through Blockchain Consortia for Sustainability

Global supply chains face mounting pressure for collaboration and reliable data exchange in an inter-organizational environment, especially in the pursuit of sustainability. The inherent complexities, driven by intricate multi-layered processes and worldwide connectivity, pose significant challenges. Within this article, we want to present our current research towards a Digital Product Passport enabled by blockchain as a decentralized ecosystem for reliable, traceable, and interoperable data exchange without a central authority. Following a Design Science Research methodology, it explores the convergence of a blockchain consortium and a public blockchain interface, including a discussion of the necessary governance structures. This research promotes a system-independent Digital Product Passport within blockchain-based information systems, ensuring privacy, traceability, transparency, and trust in global supply chains, advancing standardized data structures for a reliable information flow. Additionally, our Digital Product Passport supports companies in providing and verifying sustainability criteria to legislators. Reliable and interoperable information are key aspects to establish governance for successfully managed community resources without the intervention of a central authority enabled by blockchain.