From Data Templates to Material Passports and Digital Product Passports

Abstract

AbstractLack of data and difficulty in tracking materials and elements are two major obstacles in the construction industry that hinder the realisation of a circular economy. Data templates, material passports (MPs), and digital product passports (DPPs) are passport instruments that provide valuable information about buildings. Data templates deliver digital standardised data structures for MPs (digital data sets describing building characteristics of, e.g. elements) and DPPs (cross-sectoral passports developed by the European Union to collect product data for sustainability).MPs, which are associated with the built environment, help urban miners and building owners assess the value and reuse potential of building materials and elements. Several initiatives, such as Madaster, Concular, and Platform CB’23, have produced data templates and MPs for new and existing buildings. Challenges to their use include the lack of standardisation of data templates and MPs and difficulties in collecting and tracing data needed to create and maintain MPs through a building’s life cycle. Standardisation would foster the implementation of passports, but aligning existing concepts and identifying overlaps remains a present challenge. Future research and practice suggest that using geographic information systems, laser scanning, and computer vision will help deploy MPs more effectively in practice.