Samenvatting

The Digital Product Passport (DPP) is emerging as a key solution in enhancing product transparency, sustainability, and traceability. A DPP serves as a digital record containing vital information about a product's lifecycle. As regulations tighten on sustainability and product circularity, the digital product passport is gaining prominence in sectors like electronics, fashion, and automotive.

However, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face significant challenges in implementing DPPs. These challenges stem from various factors, including the complexity of integrating digital systems with existing workflows, unawareness on how to use DPP to develop sustainable products, what are the data and information that must be recorded in the DPP, limited resources, a lack of expertise, and more.

Moreover, SMEs often operate in industries with varying regulatory requirements, making the task of ensuring compliance even more complicated. The necessity of collaboration among different stakeholders adds further complexity.

This research project seeks to explore these challenges by interviewing a limited number of SMEs. The objective is to understand the awareness and specific barriers SMEs encounter and provide finding that students, researchers, and companies can address in future research projects.