A Comprehensive Review of Digital Product Passports in Sustainable Manufacturing: Current State, Challenges, and Future Directions

Abstract

Digital Product Passports (DPPs) are rapidly emerging as core infrastructure for sustainable manufacturing, enabling lifecycle transparency, circular economy practices, and regulatory compliance. This paper presents a comprehensive systematic review of 225 peer-reviewed studies and classifies the field across more than twenty attributes spanning study type, sector, data and information modeling, architecture, technology stack, governance, scalability, and sustainability impact. The analysis of the literature shows that the field is dominated by conceptual and framework papers, with limited empirical validation and fragmented modeling practices; blockchain is the most frequently proposed enabler but raises concerns about scalability, cost, and energy use, pointing toward hybrid architectures in practice. Regulatory alignment, especially within the EU, is accelerating, yet global standardization remains uneven, and formalized data models and modeling languages are inconsistently applied. Sustainability claims are widespread, but robust, comparable indicators and lifecycle assessments are rare, constraining evaluation of real-world impact. We synthesize these insights into a unified DPP lifecycle framework based on information inheritance (from components and processes to products and materials), and outline a research-and-policy agenda that prioritizes (i) harmonized open standards (e.g., AAS, RDF/OWL, sector schemas), (ii) hybrid, interoperable technical architectures, (iii) measurable impact metrics and verification, and (iv) inclusive, multi-stakeholder governance with clear roles and incentives. Advancing along these directions can transition DPPs from policy-driven pilots to scalable, auditable infrastructures for digital traceability, resource efficiency, and sustainable industrial transformation.