Empower.eco and Vestre Unveil New Digital Product Passport Pioneering Circular Economy In The Furniture Industry
Vestre, a leading furniture manufacturer known for its commitment to sustainability, has partnered with Empower.eco to launch a new innovative Digital Product Passport (DPP) design.
This new initiative is designed to increase transparency in the supply chain of Vestre’s furniture created from partly recycled materials and further advance circular practices. This serves as a prime example of how companies and manufacturers can proactively prepare for the upcoming EU legislation Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) which will require most products on the European market to have a Digital Product Passport (DPP).
Vestre’s FOLK furniture series and VROOM bicycle racks will be the first products to launch with this innovative feature, with an intention to introduce more products with the Product Passport QR codes.
Product Passport provides businesses with a tool to meet the increasing demand for transparency and traceability in their products and supply chain. By enabling businesses to upload information about their product’s origin, including the materials used and their production journey, Product Passport helps businesses to support their environmental claims and enables end-users to make informed decisions based on their ethical and environmental concerns.
Besides facilitating compliance with upcoming regulations, businesses can use DPPs as a tool to communicate their sustainability efforts and ensure their claims are verified.
With a whopping 70% of consumers being willing to pay more for products that can demonstrate a fully sustainable supply chain (Progressive Grocer, 2022), using a DPP early in the process showcase the commitment to transparency which may potentially increase brand trust among aware consumers.
“With the goal of becoming the world’s most sustainable furniture company, we at Vestre recognise that transparency is essential for driving positive change in the industry. At Vestre, we believe that not secrecy but openness, sharing and collaboration drive progress. And by sharing, our hope is that transparency will become a cornerstone in communication as the sustainability space becomes incredibly crowded.
Releasing DPPs for our products is a big part of this commitment, and we are proud to be pioneers in this field and set a new standard for transparency and sustainability in the furniture industry” — says Øyvind Bjørnstad, CSO at Vestre.
Empower.eco, with the help of EY Dobermann worked closely with Vestre to funnel their real-world experiences into the design of the DPP. This iterative process resulted in a precise and intuitive UI/UX design, providing users with a pleasant and smooth experience in tracking the product journey.
The furniture industry relies on limited natural resources like wood and synthetic materials that can harm the environment. A more sustainable approach to furniture design and material sourcing can advance the circular economy by focusing on simple, durable designs and sustainable sourcing options. This philosophy is part of Vestre’s DNA in creating sustainable furniture.
Empower technology provides DPP as a tool to carry this information from the material extraction to the end user and make it readily available.
“The Digital Product Passport is a key solution to help businesses meet the increasing need for transparency in their products and supply chains” — shares Wilhelm, CEO of Empower “We believe that high-quality, easily accessible information about products and claims is the key to understanding the challenges we face and to become more sustainable as a society. With the launch of the Digital Product Passport in collaboration with Vestre, Empower is providing a powerful tool for businesses to showcase their commitment to change”.
The full product launch is expected to take place this spring, and interested parties are encouraged to stay tuned for more information. Product Passport is an exciting step forward in the pursuit of a more sustainable future, and Empower.eco is proud to be at the forefront of this initiative together with Vestre.
Drop us an email at hi@empower.eco
About Vestre
Vestre is one of Scandinavia’s leading producers of urban furniture and has created social, sustainable meeting places for millions of people for over 70 years. Sustainability, locally produced materials, and the least possible environmental impact are pivotal to the company’s furniture production. Vestre is a Norwegian family business, the products are manufactured in Norway and Sweden, and are available in almost 200 different colours with a lifetime anti-rust warranty.
About Empower
EMPOWER, a Norwegian circular platform company uses digitization, cloud data, and blockchain technology to store and facilitate seamless sharing of information about plastic waste and map waste flows to ensure that the plastic ends up where it has the highest value and the lowest cost to society. Empower’s mission is to ensure that all materials have value and can be tracked from production to new resources and back into new sustainable products again, with a vision to close the tap on plastic waste and recreate a world without waste.
