What Goes In Your DPP. The Data, The Suppliers, And How To Get Both.
Three posts into this series and I still get the same question from clients: "Okay, but what actually goes on the passport?" Fair question. Let's get into it.
What's confirmed, and what isn't yet
Here's the honest bit most guides skip: the delegated act that sets the exact data fields for textiles hasn't been adopted yet.
It's expected sometime in Q4 2027, and delegated acts can't apply earlier than 18 months after they come into force. So don't let anyone sell you a definitive textile field list dressed up as settled law. I can't confirm exact mandatory fields for textiles, because they don't exist in force yet.
What is settled is the shape of it. The Ecodesign Regulation (ESPR) sets out the categories of performance and environmental information a Digital Product Passport is built to carry: durability, reparability, recyclability, presence of substances of concern, and environmental footprint data among them. Whatever textile specific fields land, they'll sit inside that structure.
What the industry is already building toward
Every serious tracker following the textile delegated act expects fibre composition, the chemicals used in dyeing, supplier locations down to the mill, and end of life recycling instructions to be core fields.
I'd treat this as a strong steer, not a guarantee.
If a supplier or a platform tells you these fields are already legally mandatory for textiles today, that's not accurate yet. Ask them to point you to the delegated act itself.
Getting this data out of your suppliers, practically
This is the part that actually eats your time, and it's the part I spend most of my client hours on. A few things that work.
Ask for it in your next contract renewal, not as a favour. Build a clause that says DPP relevant data (fibre content, mill location, chemical inputs) gets supplied in an agreed format, updated when it changes.
Tier your suppliers before you ask anything. Your Tier 1 cut and sew relationship is a different conversation to your Tier 3 fibre supplier three steps removed.
Start with Tier 1, they usually already have or can get what you need from further up the chain.
Use a short, specific questionnaire, not a general sustainability survey. Suppliers answer specific requests faster than open ended ones.
Expect gaps, and plan around them. Almost none of my clients have complete Tier 2 and 3 data on day one. That's normal. What matters is a credible plan to close the gap, not a perfect spreadsheet by Friday.
What this means for you
Start collecting now, even without the final field list. Fibre composition, mill locations and chemical inputs will matter whatever the delegated act says, because they're the backbone of every ecodesign requirement ESPR has published so far.
Waiting for perfect certainty just means starting the supplier conversations later than your competitors.
Sources
If you want help building your supplier data request before the textile delegated act lands, book a free DPP readiness call.
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