A few weeks ago, Cirmar took the stage at the DPP Festival in Hilversum, held on 24 September at the brand-new ORYN venue. The festival, organised by the Centre of Excellence for Digital Product Passports and the Centre of Excellence for Data Sharing & Cloud, together with TNO and GS1 Netherlands, brought together professionals from across the entire value chain. Retailers, manufacturers, policymakers, knowledge institutes and solution providers all gathered around one central question: how do we turn Digital Product Passports from a regulatory obligation into real-world value?
That question was exactly the angle of our pitch. As Cirmar, we have never framed the Digital Product Passport as a compliance exercise. The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation [ESPR] will make DPPs mandatory for certain product groups in the coming years, and we closely follow every legislative development. But companies that wait for the final delegated acts will find themselves scrambling with their data, their supply chain partners and their systems all at once. Our pitch at the festival was a simple invitation: start now, learn fast, and let the passport work for your business from day one. With our platform, thousands of DPPs are already in use across sectors ranging from safety footwear and cleaning products to solar energy. Each of them tells a story of material recovery, avoided emissions, or a business model quietly shifting from selling products to retaining value.
What struck us most during the rest of the day was how the conversation has matured. Two years ago, most discussions about DPPs revolved around definitions and feasibility. This year, frontrunners like HEMA, Decathlon and bol showed what implementation actually looks like: QR codes on textile products, repair and reuse services built on passport data, and e-commerce platforms preparing for a future where every product carries a digital identity. The newly published European technical standards and the emerging EU DPP registry were presented as concrete building blocks rather than distant promises. And with battery passports becoming mandatory as early as February 2027, the first real deadline is no longer theoretical. At the same time, sessions with companies like Tata Steel reminded everyone that base material suppliers face genuinely hard questions about data ownership, granularity and traceability. This is precisely why collaboration across the value chain, the central theme of the festival, is not optional but essential.
We left Hilversum energised. Not because everything is settled but because the direction is more clear. Our focus for the coming period is keeping our solutions aligned with the emerging standards, strengthening interoperability with partners across supply cycles, and helping more organisations take their first practical steps with C_passport®. The pitch in Hilversum was a moment on stage, but the real work happens every day in the companies we support. If the festival proved one thing, it is that the Digital Product Passport has moved from concept to practice and we are proud to be building that practice with a growing network of circular pioneers. Do you want to start with a DPP or interested in what it can offer for you? Book a demo here.