The Industrial Digital Twin Association (IDTA) has just published a new technical guide to help companies implement the future Digital Product Passports (DPP), a kind of “digital identity card” that every product must carry in compliance with European regulations. This guide explains how to create these passports using the Asset Administration Shell (AAS), a standard that functions as a “digital record” in which companies can organise all their product information in a structured manner. It is the first document in a series aimed at ensuring that these passports can be created easily, consistently across different companies, and in accordance with the law.

Digital Product Passports will become a key element of the future Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). Their purpose is to provide a digital record of a product throughout its entire lifecycle, including information on its composition, environmental sustainability, carbon footprint, repairability, reuse and recyclability. By making this information accessible to manufacturers, distributors, consumers and public authorities, DPPs will promote greater transparency and support the transition towards a more circular economy.

With this new publication, IDTA takes another important step towards turning these regulatory requirements into practical implementations. The Submodel Template defines a standardized structure for the mandatory metadata that every DPP should contain and demonstrates how the Asset Administration Shell can serve as the modular foundation for building compliant Digital Product Passports. Instead of developing different solutions for each industry or product, the approach relies on reusable and standardized building blocks.

This modular architecture offers significant advantages for organizations. It enables the reuse of existing information models, simplifies access and permission management, allows new data to be added without modifying existing structures, and ensures interoperability across companies and digital platforms. As a result, Digital Product Passports can be deployed more efficiently, consistently and at scale.

A clear example of this approach is the Battery Passport, which already combines several standardized IDTA Submodels to create a complete and regulation-compliant digital passport for batteries. The new template extends this concept to a much broader range of products that will require Digital Product Passports in the coming years, laying the groundwork for harmonized implementation across Europe.

The publication of IDTA 02099-1 further strengthens the role of the Asset Administration Shell as one of the key technological enablers for digital twins and Digital Product Passports. It represents another milestone towards the adoption of common industrial standards and the development of a more interoperable, transparent and data-driven industrial ecosystem.

You can read the full launch document for the new Submodel Template at this link.