The Digital Product Passport (DPP) in practice at Vogel's (2)
The Digital Product Passport (DPP). Soon you won't be able to avoid it as a manufacturer, distributor or retailer. Vogel's has already taken action and embraced the DPP. Vogel's is not only a market leader in audio, video and multimedia accessories, but also a leader in corporate social responsibility. The DPP therefore fits seamlessly with their sustainable ambitions.
How did Vogel's approach the realization of the DPP, what challenges did they encounter and what advantages do they now experience? PIM Master Alexander Robijn talked about this with Lian Moerenhout-Broekhuijsen, Product Group Manager at Vogel's. Read it in the interview below.
Read the previously published article on DPP here: The Digital Product Passport (DPP): time for action (1)
Vogel's is a leading company that develops high-quality TV mounts, monitor supports and LED suspension systems for the consumer and business markets. Vogel's and XSARUS have had a successful partnership around managing their product information for many years. They use the inriver PIM system, which currently includes some 2,600 SKUs. The partnership with XSARUS, the use of inriver PIM and Vogel's energetic ambitions have contributed to the realization of the DPP.
Mapping the ecological footprint
What prompted Vogel's to create the Digital Product Passport?
At Vogel's, we are constantly striving to reduce our impact on the environment. Corporate social responsibility is one of our spearheads and sustainability is an important factor in this. The Digital Product Passport fits perfectly with our sustainable ambitions and helps us to be transparent about the ecological footprint of our products. We have incorporated the DPP into our so-called ecosheets.
What was the first step in creating these ecosheets?
We created a Design Manifesto Sustainability in which we focus on longevity, minimal impact, for & from recycling and logistics. One of our sub-goals belonging to 'minimal impact' is to continuously reduce the footprint of our components. This led to the question: so what exactly is the footprint of our products? To answer this question, in 2022 we partnered with Ecochain. Their Mobius software allows us to detail the carbon footprint of our products.
How was the carbon footprint mapping process?
It was an intensive process. Component by component, material by material and production step by production step were analyzed. This resulted in a detailed calculation of the Global Warming Potential (GWP) expressed in 'kg CO2 equivalent'. We also analyzed older product lines to see improvements. For our full-motion brackets, for example, we saw a significant improvement over the previous line. The environmental impact of the packaging decreased by 92% and the environmental impact of the total product decreased by 77%.
The big steps have been taken. With our other products, too, we want to start and maintain a downward trend. With the new data, we determined which components and processes had a high environmental impact and could start working on improvements. The principle of our calculation method has been validated externally. Currently, we are still in the process of having the footprint of all products externally validated.
From a mountain of data to transparent ecosheets
How did you make this information transparent to the outside world?
Suddenly we had a huge amount of data about our environmental impact available and we wanted to be transparent about it. So we sat down with the Marketing & Communications department to see what information could be made interesting and understandable to the public. This is how the design of the ecosheet came about: three pages full of details about the structure of the environmental impact per product.
How do you generate the ecosheets?
Because we have so many different products, it is impossible to manually create an ecosheet for every product. Fortunately, XSARUS had a solution for that. In the past, XSARUS has already ensured that product leaflets with product specifications are automatically generated in inriver PIM and displayed on the website. For the ecosheets, we wanted to apply the same process.
We export the environmental impact data from Mobius, which is the input for a conversion document in Excel. This document links the values to the correct attributes and applies the correct amount of decimals. It then passes this data to inriver. In inriver, we created as many as 54 new attributes. These are populated by import from Excel and by automatic calculations of multiple values. Inriver generates the ecosheet and makes it visible online on the product detail pages. This entire process is also integrated with our Bynder DAM system, where the PDFs are automatically placed and metadata tagged.
Challenges and solutions
What challenges did you run into?
One of the biggest challenges was determining the content of the ecosheets, since there is no manual for them. Adhering to some ISO and NEN standards provided some guidance. But we want to be frontrunners in the market, which means we had to think and test a lot ourselves. What information should be calculated dynamically? What data should be taken over statically? A time-consuming job to find answers to such questions and also to check all the ecosheets. Because loading dynamic content into a standard template can sometimes lead to unexpected results. For example, because space is limited and a value for a product or language turns out to be too long. That means you have to do a lot of checking.
In retrospect, is there anything you guys would have done differently with the knowledge of today?
Currently, all ecosheets are generated at the SKU level, as we also generate our product leaflets at the SKU level. In retrospect, it would have been more convenient to do this at the product type level, since all SKUs within a product type have the same environmental impact. Also, we generate all ecosheets in seven languages, and not all of them are always needed. Because everything is automatic, we now have more ecosheets than we use. In a follow-up step, we may be able to contain this more intelligently.
What are the main benefits you experienced by using the DPP?
Collecting the data took time, but fortunately the existing technology in inriver could be used to generate the ecosheets. It was an intensive process, but we are enormously proud of the result. The biggest benefit is the transparency we now offer about the environmental impact of our products. Our ecosheets are consistent and easy to update. We have an attribute 'Generate ecosheet' within inriver at the SKU level. With the click of a button, we update the ecosheets and they are instantly available in seven languages on our website. They appear automatically in the visitor's language preference. This reduces the risk of manual errors and makes managing large quantities of products more efficient.
Vogel's inspires
The story of Vogel's shows that the realization of the DPP is an intensive project, but that the efforts are well worth it. Vogel's is among the leaders in sustainability. In the form of ecosheets, Vogel's was one of the first in the Dutch market to realize the DPP. The organization shows that innovation and corporate social responsibility can go hand in hand. An inspiring example for other organizations in the sector.