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Adoption View

Welcome to the EcoPass KIT Adoption View. This view provides business value, strategic benefits, and use cases for business stakeholders and decision-makers.

Target Audience

Business Managers, Product Owners, Solution Architects, Industry Experts, and Decision Makers.

Vision & Mission​

Vision​

Vision Statement

The EcoPass KIT will enable the distribution and usage of Digital Product Passports in Data Spaces.

The EcoPass KIT will be the key enabler for various stakeholders to use digital product passports, which represent a digital collection of specific information about a physical product in a standardized exchange format. This data is governed by agreed-upon ownership and access rights, which are conveyed through the Eclipse Data Space Connector (EDC). The primary purpose of the product passport is to enable the electronic registration, processing and sharing of product-related details among various entities in the supply chain, including several businesses and authorities. The demand for interoperable product passports exists worldwide, driven by the need to establish sustainable and transparent supply chains across different types of products, for which the adoption of standards will become crucial. It shall support the aggregation of product information relevant for Product Passports as well as the consuming of Product Passport information for specific business needs.

Mission​

Mission Statement

This KIT shall guide Business Managers, Product Owners, Solution Architects, Industry Experts, and Decision Makers in their evaluation of Data Spaces for Digital Product Passport use cases.

This KIT provides a comprehensive overview of the business context and benefits of product passports.

  • Offer guidelines for industry stakeholders.
  • Provide a detailed description and offer tools to implement product passports.

Business Value​

Value Proposition #1: Data Sovereignty​

The Catena-X EcoPass KIT aims to empower participants to share product pass-related data in a secure and sovereign way while ensuring the interoperability of the different applications involved in the process. To achieve this, the relevant Catena-X standards and data models are referenced, explained, and placed within a broader context of business processes.

Value Proposition #2: Consistent and verifiable foundation through standardization​

Using Catena‑X data models and standards for digital product passports is particularly valuable because they create a consistent and verifiable foundation for product-related data across the entire lifecycle.

  • Consistency of product data: The product passport requires comparable information (e.g., COâ‚‚ footprint, material composition). Catena‑X provides harmonized data formats and calculation rules, ensuring that all partners deliver data in the same structure and logic.
  • End-to-end traceability: Standardized data models enable continuous tracking of product information across all supply chain tiers, which is essential for documenting origin, production, and lifecycle data required by regulation.
  • Reliable aggregation of data: Product passport data must be collected, aggregated, and validated across multiple contributors. With shared standards, this can be done without reformatting or recalculating data at each step.
  • Regulatory readiness: The product passport will become mandatory (e.g., upcoming EU regulation), and standardized data models ensure that required information is structured, auditable, and compliant from the beginning.
  • Cost savings through standardization: Catena‑X data models eliminate the need for individual data formats, conversions, and repeated validations when exchanging product passport information between partners. In addition, product ecosystems typically involve a large number of partners across multiple tiers. By using a common standard, companies can reuse the same data model and integration approach for all partners, instead of building separate solutions for each connection. This significantly reduces implementation and maintenance effort across the network.

In short: Catena‑X standards make product passport data consistent, traceable, and regulation-ready across all partners, which is essential for implementing the product passport efficiently.

Benefits to suppliers and OEMs​

  • Standardized structure for regulatory on the example of battery passport data: Catena‑X defines a clear and agreed structure for all required battery passport data elements (e.g., carbon footprint, material composition, lifecycle data). This ensures that OEMs and battery suppliers can provide exactly the required information in a consistent format, without having to interpret regulatory requirements individually.
  • Efficient verification and auditability: Product passport data must be auditable and verifiable across multiple contributors. By using a shared standard, OEMs and suppliers ensure that data is structured in a way that supports validation, certification, and regulatory checks without additional rework at each step.
  • Cost reduction through reuse and scalability: As outlined above, implementing product passport requirements typically involves many partners across the supply chain. By using Catena‑X standards, OEMs and suppliers can apply the same data model and processes for all partners, avoiding individual solutions and repeated integration efforts.

Benefits to software vendors​

  • Reduced customer integration effort: Catena‑X connects OEMs, suppliers, and service providers in a shared data space. Supporting its standards allows software vendors to integrate directly into this ecosystem and serve multiple customers with one solution, instead of building isolated, customer-specific implementations.
  • Interoperability as a key differentiator: Catena‑X enables standardized and interoperable data exchange across the entire value chain, allowing certified solutions to seamlessly exchange product passport data with other systems. This makes solutions more attractive to customers.

How can the EcoPass KIT help to address regulatory challenges?​

  • Manufacturers are required to disclose information regarding the environmental impact of their products under the European Union's (EU) Ecodesign Directive. The EcoPass KIT can assist producers in adhering to this rule by offering a digital record of the environmental impact of their products.
  • Companies are required to provide information regarding their efforts to address forced labor and human trafficking in their supply chains under the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act (CTSCA). The EcoPass KIT's digital record of a company's supply chain operations can assist businesses to comply with this law.
  • Certain manufacturers of products are required to take back and recycle their products at the end of their functional lifespans under the German Waste Management Act (Kreislaufwirtschaftsgesetz). The EcoPass KIT, which offers a digital record of the goods that have been returned and recycled, can assist producers in adhering to this obligation.

Use Cases​

Battery Pass: A real-world example​

In the automotive industry, a Battery Passport or Digital Product Passport for batteries plays a crucial role in ensuring transparency, traceability, and sustainability in the battery supply chain. Here's a real-world example of how a digital product passport might be set up for a battery used in electric vehicles (EVs), including its benefits, illustrated below:

BP realWorldExample

  1. Battery Manufacturing: During the production stage, the battery manufacturer collects and records relevant data, such as the battery's unique identifier, type and model, manufacturing date and location, energy capacity and raw materials composition, including the content of critical elements like lithium, cobalt and nickel.
  2. Supply Chain Transparency: Information about the battery's sourcing, manufacturing and distribution processes is documented, ensuring compliance with environmental and social standards. This includes data on the origin of raw materials, labor practices and the environmental footprint of each stage of the supply chain.
  3. Vehicle Integration: When the battery is integrated into an electric vehicle, the Battery Pass is linked to the car's unique identification number (VIN), allowing seamless tracking and communication between the battery, the vehicle and relevant stakeholders.
  4. In-Use Performance Tracking: As the vehicle is used, the Battery Pass continuously collects data on the battery's performance, such as its state of charge, charging cycles and degradation over time. This information is essential for the vehicle owner, car manufacturer and service providers to monitor the battery's health and optimize its lifespan.
  5. End-of-Life Management: When the battery reaches the end of its useful life, the Battery Passport provides detailed instructions for proper disposal and recycling, ensuring compliance with regulations and facilitating the recovery of valuable materials. The data stored in the Battery Passport helps recycling facilities to efficiently process the battery, reducing waste and promoting a circular economy.

Throughout this process, the Battery Passport serves as a single, secure, and easily accessible source of information for various stakeholders, such as vehicle manufacturers, suppliers, service providers, regulators and vehicle owners. By implementing a digital product passport like the Battery Pass in the automotive industry, companies can promote transparency, traceability, and sustainability, ultimately contributing to a more eco-friendly and circular economy.

Battery Pass: Catena-X Standard explained​

The CX‑0160 Battery Passport standard specifies how battery‑related information is modeled, provisioned, discovered and accessed within the Catena‑X dataspace for:

  • Traction, industrial and similar batteries that fall under the scope of the EU Battery Regulation or comparable regulatory schemes.
  • End‑to‑end lifecycle usage within the automotive battery value chain (manufacturing, use phase, second‑life, end‑of‑life and recycling).
  • Provisioning of both complete digital battery passports and partial, lifecycle‑specific data contributions, based on Catena‑X digital twins and the joint Catena‑X/IDTA Battery Passport aspect models.

The standard distinguishes three different use cases:

  • Use Case (1) - Provisioning of near-complete battery passport: Typically used in situations where the data provider manufactures the battery, but the battery passport will be published by the data consumer. This can happen depending on the contractual situation and depending on who is the economic operator of the battery and who is putting it onto the EU market.
  • Use Case (2) - component supplier integration (for example cells, housing, battery packs): Typically used to provide data from a component supplier to a battery manufacturer.
  • Use Case (3) - DPP-Service provider view: Complete exchange of DPPs to service provider, which provides it public.

Please note that Use Case 2 is not available in the current version of the standard and will be added later.

Semantic Models​

Core Semantic Models​

Model NameVersionPurposeLink
io.catenax.generic.digital_product_passport6.1.0Generic Digital Product Passport (DPP) – baseline model for any product passport in Catena-X, covering metadata, identification, characteristics, sustainability, materials and commercial information.CX SLDT
io.catenax.battery.battery_pass6.1.0Battery Passport aspect model aligned with the EU Battery Regulation; used for traction, industrial and similar batteries across the full lifecycle.CX SLDT
io.catenax.material.chemical_material_passport3.0.0Chemical Material Passport – passport-style model for chemical substances and materials, providing composition and safety-relevant information used as input to product passports.CX SLDT
urn:samm:io.admin-shell.idta.batterypass.digital_nameplate:1.0.0#1.0.0Part 1 of the Common Catena-X and IDTA Battery Pass (IDTA 02035-2) - applicable to describe the basic information for identification for battery passportsIDTA Github
urn:samm:io.admin-shell.idta.batterypass.handover_documentation:1.0.0#1.0.0Part 2 of the Common Catena-X and IDTA Battery Pass (IDTA 02035-2) - applicable to describe documents and meta data for battery passportsIDTA Github
urn:samm:io.admin-shell.idta.batterypass.carbon_footprint:1.0.0#1.0.0Part 3 of the Common Catena-X and IDTA Battery Pass (IDTA 02035-3) - applicable to describe the product carbon footprint for battery passportsIDTA Github
urn:samm:io.admin-shell.idta.batterypass.technical_data:1.0.1#1.0.1Part 4 of the Common Catena-X and IDTA Battery Pass (IDTA 02035-4) - applicable to describe the technical data for battery passportsIDTA Github
urn:samm:io.admin-shell.idta.batterypass.product_condition:1.0.1#1.0.1Part 5 of the Common Catena-X and IDTA Battery Pass (IDTA 02035-5) - applicable to describe the product condition for battery passportsIDTA Github
urn:samm:io.admin-shell.idta.batterypass.material_composition:1.0.1#1.0.1Part 6 of the Common Catena-X and IDTA Battery Pass (IDTA 02035-6) - applicable to describe the material composition for battery passportsIDTA Github
urn:samm:io.admin-shell.idta.batterypass.circularity:1.0.0#1.0.0Part 7 of the Common Catena-X and IDTA Battery Pass (IDTA 02035-7) - applicable to describe the circularity information for battery passportsIDTA Github

Standards​

Industry-Specific Standards

For industry-specific standards, refer to the Industry Extensions section.

Supported Standards​

StandardVersionDescriptionCompliance LevelLink
CX-01431.3This standard gives a baseline for products declared under the ESPR with a generic product passport and additional product models.OptionalCX-0143
CX-01601.0The Battery Passport Standard describes the existing use cases and the required models as well as Digital Twins that have to be added to for Batteries.MandatoryCX-0160

Tutorials & Resources​

Old deprecated reference application

For previous versions of this KIT a reference application was mentioned and used as example. This application has been deprecated and should no longer be seen as valid reference. For some insights into the application of the KIT for generic product passports have a look at the EcoPass KIT of the Industry Core Hub.

NOTICE​

This work is licensed under the CC-BY-4.0.

  • SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
  • SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2024 ZF Friedrichshafen AG
  • SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2024 Robert Bosch GmbH
  • SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2024 Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft (BMW AG)
  • SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2024 T-Systems International GmbH
  • SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2024 SAP SE
  • SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2024 CGI Deutschland B.V. & Co. KG
  • SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. (represented by Fraunhofer IPK)
  • SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2024 BASF SE
  • SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2024 Henkel AG & Co. KGaA
  • SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2024 Contributors to the Eclipse Foundation
  • SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2024 Volkswagen AG
  • SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Mercedes Benz Group AG
  • Source URL: https://github.com/eclipse-tractusx/eclipse-tractusx.github.io