Enhancing Traceability in Sustainable Manufacturing by Linking Digital Product Passports with Digital Process Passports

As industries move towards transparency in sustainability reporting, Digital Product Passports (DPPs) have emerged as a key mechanism for sharing product-related information across value chain. The prevailing consensus on DPPs is that they are generated when a product is placed on the market. However, for DPPs to be truly effective, they must be grounded in accurate, real-world data—particularly from upstream processes such as manufacturing, where products are physically realized. Manufacturing processes are inherently variable due to fluctuations in machines, systems, and supply chains. These variations cumulatively impact part production, leading to inconsistencies in energy usage, material consumption, and waste generation. Capturing and representing this variability is vital not only for accurate sustainability assessments to be reported in DPPs, but also for accurately tracing sources of environmental impacts back to the factory floor. To enable this traceability, we propose the use of Digital Process Passport (DPrP) as a standardized artifact for mapping manufacturing activities at the unit process level, enabling the creation of inventories that account for manufacturing activities, and supporting the generation and reporting of realistic sustainability assessments via DPPs. The potential of DPrPs for supporting accurate sustainability reporting via DPPs is demonstrated using a case study on a battery manufacturing process. The case study showed the potential of DPrPs to structure and trace sustainability information which can lead to more transparency in reporting and use of sustainability insights to improve manufacturing systems.