Towards Model-based Definition of Digital Product Passports Supporting Sustainable Smart Product Lifecycles

Sustainability has emerged as a key priority across industries, requiring robust mechanisms to enhance transparency and accountability throughout the lifecycle of smart products. The Digital Product Passport (DPP) presents a solution for achieving these goals by aggregating critical product-related data. However, practical implementation encounters significant obstacles, including fragmented data sources and disparate system integrations. This paper presents an approach that uses the Systems Modelling Language (SysML) to overcome these challenges. First, the DPP's essential components are defined and derived from data generated during product development. Implications from the development of the DPP are summarized and contrasted with the potential of a Model-based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approach. The proposed approach establishes traceable relationships between model elements and DPP attributes, enabling seamless data flow. To validate the feasibility and effectiveness, as an example a 3D printer was developed to create an instantiation.