VeChain and Rekord advance to production with industrial-scale EU Digital Product Passports

VeChain and Rekord have transitioned from pilot projects to full production of Digital Product Passport infrastructure in partnership with the University of Sheffield AMRC, aimed at meeting EU regulatory deadlines for sustainable manufacturing.

VeChain and Rekord said they have moved from pilot to production as they roll out what they describe as industrial-scale Digital Product Passport (DPP) infrastructure for the European Union, partnering with the University of Shef...

field Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) to ready manufacturers for upcoming regulatory deadlines.

According to the companies’ announcement, the joint stack , combining VeChain’s VeChainThor public blockchain with Rekord’s API‑first trust layer , was expected to process more than 100,000 DPP events per month by mid‑December, placing the collaboration among the first providers to claim production‑scale capacity. The AMRC said the stack is one of the first that “can realistically meet ESPR and DPP requirements at industrial scale, using real‑time data instead of PowerPoint slides.”

The work is aimed squarely at meeting obligations introduced by the EU’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). Industry briefings and regulator timelines show ESPR entered into force in July 2024 and establishes the legal basis for mandatory DPPs. Large enterprises will begin to face DPP requirements from 2026, with the regime phased in across product categories through to 2030; priority categories include batteries, iron and steel, textiles, furniture, electronics and tyres. A central EU DPP registry and interoperable technical standards are expected to be operational by mid‑2026, industry sources say, reflecting the scale and complexity of assembling verified lifecycle data across global supply chains.

VeChain framed its role as providing the energy‑efficient, enterprise‑grade ledger to anchor immutable proofs and make passports instantly verifiable for partners and regulators. Rekord’s layer, the companies said, turns operational inputs , IoT telemetry, ERP events, satellite imagery and other signals , into privacy‑preserving proofs that can be validated on chain without exposing proprietary information. “Despite the urgency, most manufacturers are still in planning or pilot mode”, Rekord said. “Digital Product Passport initiatives and roadmaps significantly outnumber the production‑ready systems that will be live before the first enforcement dates. Our collaboration with VeChain and the AMRC is focused on closing that readiness gap by delivering an industrial‑scale stack that can be deployed in factories today.”

VeChain emphasised features it says make it suitable for volume enterprise use: a dual‑token model that separates a value token from a gas token to stabilise operating costs, native transaction primitives intended for high throughput, and developer‑friendly APIs intended to integrate with legacy workflows. The companies said passports can be linked to QR codes, NFC or RFID so a simple scan reveals a product’s verified lifecycle record, supporting compliance, carbon accounting, repair and take‑back schemes, resale flows and audit‑ready reporting.

The AMRC’s involvement brings factory‑floor testing and sectoral expertise: the centre, part of the UK High Value Manufacturing Catapult, works with aerospace, automotive, energy and medical device manufacturers and has run long‑standing industry collaborations with companies such as Boeing and Rolls‑Royce. The AMRC told reporters it is focused on helping manufacturers transition from fragmented supply chains to transparent, circular ecosystems that meet evolving EU requirements.

Regulatory context remains evolving. Technical foundations underpinning the DPP regime are being developed by European standards bodies, which industry documents say will produce harmonised data and interoperability standards through 2026. Separate EU measures , including the Deforestation‑free Regulation, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive , are converging with ESPR to make lifecycle traceability a core market access condition across the 27 member states.

Not all observers treat vendor claims uncritically. Industry commentators note that while production‑scale processing of verified events is a necessary step, widespread adoption will hinge on cross‑supply‑chain cooperation, harmonised standards, the availability of central registries and the ability of smaller suppliers to feed high‑quality data into new systems. A recent explainer on implementation timelines warns that achieving interoperable, audit‑grade DPPs will require significant coordination and that harmonised standards and registries must be in place for many categories by 2026 to meet the planned rollout.

VeChain, founded in 2015, and Rekord described the project as an example of tokenisation of real‑world assets, saying the infrastructure will enable regulatory compliance and unlock new circular business models. The AMRC characterised the collaboration as a practical strand of manufacturing research that couples real‑time data with verification technologies.

As enforcement approaches, the companies and the AMRC say their stack offers a route for manufacturers to move beyond pilots into live compliance. Whether that promise translates into broad uptake across complex, international supply chains will depend on the pace of standards work, the readiness of the central registries and the willingness of downstream and upstream partners to integrate with new DPP systems.

Source: Noah Wire Services