Matthew Ekholm DPP and Circularity Specialist

Fibre2Fashion

2 days ago

Protokol's DPP solution enables companies to align with upcoming DPP mandates
As the European Union moves closer to implementing the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), businesses across industries are under mounting pressure to future-proof their operations and comply with forthcoming sustainability mandates. A key requirement—the Digital Product Passport (DPP)—is set to revolutionise how product data is managed, accessed, and shared across the value chain. In response, Protokol has partnered with Productsup to deliver a seamless solution that enables manufacturers to transform existing product data into fully compliant DPPs both efficiently and cost-effectively.
To gain deeper insights into this timely partnership and its implications for the textile and apparel sector, Fibre2Fashion spoke with Protokol's DPP and Circularity Specialist, Matthew Ekholm. In this exclusive interview, he discusses the critical challenges brands are facing, how the new integration streamlines DPP creation, and why early adoption could give companies a competitive edge in the circular economy era.
Protokol offers Digital Product Passport solutions tailored to manufacturing. In sectors like textiles, what specific pain points is Protokol solving most frequently today?
Protokol's Digital Product Passport (DPP) solutions are allowing fashion and textile enterprises to align with and prepare for compliance with the EU's upcoming DPP mandate—a pillar of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). The legislation, which entered into force last year and is set to impact any company placing products in the EU marketplace within the mandated product groups, stands as a key tool in advancing circularity in the EU.
In regard to pain points, many companies are both unaware and unfamiliar with the upcoming circularity regulations. Our DPP consultancy services help companies understand the requirements, while our DPP Solution offers a tool for companies to create DPPs for their products in preparation for the upcoming DPP mandate.
Another pain point many in the fashion sector face is the frequent challenge of data management—from product data and sustainability metrics to environmental impact information and more. This data is often generated by various actors across the value chain and is typically stored in disparate or siloed systems. For companies looking to comply with DPP regulations, collecting and organising this data can be a big challenge.
That is why we are pleased to announce the news of our partnership with Productsup. As an overview, our recent partnership with Productsup, the feed product data management and syndication platform, allows companies to collate their product data, pulling in data from a variety of different sources. They can then quickly and easily map this data against DPP templates to ensure that the required data is both present and displayed in a valid format. DPPs can then quickly and easily be created from this mapped data—solving the challenges related to collecting and organising data from disparate sources.
How does Protokol ensure interoperability between its Digital Product Passport systems and legacy manufacturing systems that are still widely in use?
With our API-enabled DPP solution, customers can import product data directly from external sources (legacy systems) to populate their DPPs. Ultimately, this means that the DPP solution will work in tandem with legacy systems, rather than simply replacing them. The benefits of this are that product data can remain in existing systems and be utilised for DPPs; ERP and SCM systems may also be able to support this data-gathering process.
As our API-enabled DPP solution continues to gain traction, there is no need for the replacement of legacy systems, and the time or resources required for implementation are lowered.
When it comes to our integration with Productsup more specifically, customers can not only import product data from single sources, but also instead import, merge, and map data fields from existing product data against required data fields for the DPP. In practice this means that data can be gathered from not just a single source, but a multitude of legacy systems across the supply chain. This has distinct advantages for organisations where the product data they may be required to include in their Digital Product Passports is collected and stored by suppliers, manufacturers, partners or external systems.
How does your partnership with Productsup position Protokol to support brands in meeting broader sustainability reporting directives like the CSRD?
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) aims to make businesses more accountable for the sustainability of their operations and supply chains by enhancing transparency. While the deadline has faced delays—likely into late 2025—certain businesses operating within the EU will soon need to report their sustainability and social data in line with the European Sustainability Reporting Standard (ESRS), which includes greenhouse gas emissions, water usage, and even working conditions.
Instead of seeking to 'plug' these gaps manually, DPPs can be used to support fashion brands in meeting this regulatory demand. When furnishing DPPs, typically the data collected comes from the broader supply chain (e.g. suppliers, external manufacturers), in addition to the company itself. This makes the inclusion of Scope 3 data and many other environmental impact data points much easier. With data needing to be verifiable and transparent for the ESPR, this has the potential to also be utilised to meet many of the CSRD reporting requirements (such as the Scope 3 data reporting requirement) by providing a verifiable audit trail necessary for CSRD compliance.
Therefore, as DPPs can be utilised to support both CSRD and ESPR compliance, businesses will need to collect and standardise detailed product data, such as material composition, repair guidelines, and certifications, in secure, machine-readable formats accessible to stakeholders across the supply chain.
Our integration with Productsup will help fashion brands seamlessly collect and organise data, embed it into DPPs efficiently, and ensure comprehensive compliance with multiple circularity requirements.
Can you walk us through a recent implementation of Protokol's technology in a textile or apparel manufacturing firm and the measurable impact it had?
While not yet announced, Protokol is currently working on a pilot with a customer in the fashion resale space who has taken steps to implement DPPs not just for compliance but also to empower the sustainable consumer.
Garments entering the resale market will be issued with a unique DPP that provides a transparent overview of key product lifecycle data. By providing consumers with transparent product insight, they can become more confident in the authenticity, sustainability, circularity and history of the product they are buying. This is vital in encouraging consumers to become more 'eco-conscious' when it comes to purchasing decisions, empowering them with the information needed to make sustainable choices and actively impact what items remain in circulation or stop being produced.
Supply chain transparency is a key challenge—how does your technology enable real-time traceability and trust across stakeholders?
With the Product Lifecycle Event Registration feature, the Protokol DPP enables users to accurately track events throughout a product's lifecycle, from creation, to repair to recycle. By allowing user-generated or system-generated events to be created as part of the DPP, all permissioned stakeholders involved in a product's lifecycle can create events related to manufacture, repair, end-of-life and more, ensuring no major lifecycle event is unaccounted for. Such trails are created to foster enhanced traceability and reporting.
In simple terms, Protokol's DPP solution can capture data insights relating to how a product is used, its lifespan, and more; and not just from the manufacturers, but from stakeholders across the value chain and even directly from the customers who use it.
Textile and apparel manufacturers are under pressure to meet ESG goals—how is Protokol helping such clients track and report environmental or ethical compliance using DPPs?
Protokol's Digital Product Passport solution enables companies to align with (and eventually comply with) upcoming DPP mandates, which are being put forward by the EU as a tool for encouraging the circularity and sustainability of products. DPP solutions will allow companies to meet ESG goals by demonstrating the sustainability and circularity of a product to stakeholders across the value chain, including end-users such as the consumer.
Data included in DPPs can include the environmental impact of products, including metrics such as water usage, carbon footprint, and more. With some DPP solutions, this data can be exported for auditing or compliance purposes. In this way, DPP solutions such as Protokol's are enabling textile and apparel brands to track and report the environmental impact of their products.
With the EU's upcoming ESPR and Digital Product Passport mandate, how is Protokol enabling fashion and textile businesses to turn existing e-commerce data into compliant DPPs efficiently and at scale?
We are aware that gathering product data to create DPPs is often a significant and strenuous undertaking, usually requiring teams to source data from a range of disparate systems prior to even considering standardisation or organisation. At a time when deadlines are closing in, this process is a huge burden on companies that need to begin their ESPR compliance journey.
Our integration with Productsup is wholly focused on making this process seamless for their customers, including fashion retailers, who now need to gather their data and implement it into DPPs ahead of the ESPR's DPP mandate coming into force. Productsup allows for direct integration with e-commerce platforms or various other sources, allowing data to be imported into the platform in one smooth and streamlined effort. This data can then be quickly and easily mapped against purpose-built DPP templates to allow companies to create DPPs efficiently and at scale.
How are textile and apparel manufacturers leveraging DPPs to boost operational efficiency, sustainability, and traceability in supply chains?
Beyond compliance and efficiency with EU regulations, DPPs are unlocking new value for textile and apparel brands. They enable better storytelling by letting consumers scan a data carrier on a product, such as a QR code, and see a garment's journey. By amplifying an item's sustainability credentials, they empower brands to build loyalty by proving their commitment to ethical and sustainable practices. This is particularly important amidst the phenomenon of 'greenwashing' and the challenges businesses also face, beyond regulatory demands, to prove their sustainability pledges at a time when so many are positioning themselves as 'ethical' to increase sales and garner attraction.
Moreover, from an operational efficiency standpoint, DPPs streamline data management across the product lifecycle. Traditionally, businesses have struggled with fragmented information systems and manual documentation. In other words, DPPs consolidate key product data—such as material composition, origin, and disposal advice—into one digital format that is accessible in real time to all stakeholders.
Are you seeing more demand from large enterprises or mid-size manufacturers? How are adoption patterns varying globally?
Although compliance timelines and regulatory requirements vary, both SMEs and large enterprises remain on edge as they navigate the initial steps towards complying with the EU regulation. Off the back of this, it is unsurprising that we are seeing demand coming from both large enterprises and SMEs when it comes to DPP adoption.
Patterns of adoption are largely in line with the ESPR's prioritised industries, with textiles being one of the first. We are also seeing interest from other industries where the companies themselves value the DPP use cases beyond compliance, such as sustainability and circularity use cases.
Where do you see the manufacturing industry in the next five years, and what role will Protokol play in shaping that future?
Over the next five years, the manufacturing industry is poised for a major transformation driven by tightening sustainability regulations, growing consumer demand for transparency, and technological innovation. One of the most significant shifts will be the widespread adoption of DPPs, which will become an important tool for facilitating enhanced circularity of products across a variety of industries. We expect to see an increase in demand for products that are made from more sustainable materials, for manufacturers that utilise more sustainable materials, produce less waste, and have a smaller environmental footprint. Added to this, we also expect to see increased demand for remanufacturing, and for the reuse of components alongside higher rates of product refurbishment and repair.
As regulatory frameworks like ESPR become more stringent and expand globally, manufacturers will be compelled to shift from linear production models towards closed-loop systems. This transition will demand digital infrastructure that can ensure data integrity, interoperability, and scalability.
With increasing global focus on ESG compliance, how are manufacturers integrating sustainability and transparency into their operations and supply chains?
As the EU's circularity movement and varied regulatory demands work their way down to enterprises across industries, manufacturers across sectors are integrating DPPs to give more visibility of products across the value chain for multiple stakeholders.
Due to the detailed data DPPs provide, they can support and inform future (more sustainable) design decisions. Via DPPs, sustainability attributes (e.g., carbon footprint, water usage, biodegradability) can be digitally captured and shared from the outset, enabling better product stewardship and circularity across the item's value chain.
Furthermore, concerning increased sustainability, DPPs facilitate new, sustainable business models—such as resale, repair, and recycling—by offering stakeholders (such as resellers or consumers) the product data they need to keep materials in use longer. This aligns manufacturers with circular economy goals and reduces their dependence on sourcing new resources.
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.