The certificates of Hydro’s greener brands feed into digital product passports
Digital product passports contain verified information about products. Vestre has installed its first benches that have digital product passports and are made with Hydro CIRCAL.
Just like the personal passport is a trustworthy identification of a person, digital product passports can verify the identity of a product. The digital product passport validates information such as manufacturing date and location, composition of materials and environmental footprint. The passports should create the transparency needed for consumers to select products that are truly less harmful for the environment.
The data in product passports must come from trusted sources that can feed seamlessly into the passports. Hydro’s two greener aluminium brands Hydro CIRCAL recycled aluminium and Hydro REDUXA low-carbon aluminium are certified by an independent third-party. The certificates are stored on a blockchain and provide selected, trustworthy sustainability data about the aluminium, which can feed into digital product passports.
Norwegian outdoor furniture company Vestre has delivered benches, tables and waste bins with digital product passports in Husnes, Norway. The outdoor furniture is part of the FOLK product series which is made with Hydro CIRCAL recycled aluminium. The digital product passport is available for everyone who scan the QR codes on the furniture and was developed by Empower. On the landing page you can follow the journey of the recycled aluminium and get more information about the share of recycled post-consumer aluminium scrap. View example of a product passport
“This is the future. Consumers are increasingly demanding access to the materials’ footprints and travel from raw material to finished product. Customers want to make sustainable choices, and then it is up to us as manufacturers to make that information available. It is about transparency and documented quality in a simple and available way. With the Husnes furniture, the public can easily scan the QR code that is attached to it and see the life cycle and footprint of the aluminum and wood,” says Jan Christian Vestre, CEO of Vestre.
Digital product passports are at the core of the EU’s legislative initiative for circular economy and sustainable products. By supporting the development of digital passport solutions, the EU aims to encourage better informed consumer choices, in order to create demand for more sustainable products.