We live in a digital world where information about chemicals is expected to be in one place, accessible to everyone and up-to-date. Companies up and down the supply chain want answers to questions now. Not tomorrow, not in a few hours, but now. If chemicals were people, they would travel with documentation. Just as you have your Passport with you when you travel abroad, so too should chemicals. But what is even better than a physical passport? A digital one.
How Novalis utilizes Digital Product Passports from 3E Exchange to keep its supply chain sustainable and its stakeholders satisfied
Client
Novalis® Innovative Flooring is a multi-national Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) flooring company that shipped the first container of LVT from China to the United States 35 years ago. Novalis has locations spanning multiple regions, from North America to Asia and the company has a diverse group of stakeholders for its products. Indeed, there are architects and designers of the flooring, engineers who build the flooring, construction companies and installers who work with the flooring and ultimately end-use consumers. All of these stakeholders need to know what chemicals are in the products so that they may safely work with and interact with their products during storage, transportation, installation, use and end-of-life. Flooring should contribute to the safety of both commercial and residential buildings. For Novalis, safety intersects with sustainability.
Industry/Market
Manufacturing, Building Materials
Challenges
- Managing customer demands for sustainability
- Staying ahead of regulatory requirements that stem from the European Green Deal
- Collecting supplier data
Solutions
Results
- Novalis can use 3E Exhange to house its Digital Product Passports for instant accessibility to all required information
- Novalis can easily screen product ingredients against lists of regulated chemicals
- Novalis can manage risks, including the ban of its products during importation
“We think Sustainability is a journey not a destination. Every day we are trying to make our products better via different paths. Digital Product Passports, our latest initiative, will become a key element to make our product and our future more transparent and sustainable. We hope all our colleagues and friends join us in this journey.”
-John Wu, CEO, Novalis
The Role of Digital Product Passports in Sustainable Supply Chains
As with many industries, new requirements are always popping up. Recently, the European Green Deal (EGD) set a framework for a circular economy plan that takes into account the product lifecycle. Requirements are at different stages of implementation. For example, requirements for batteries are finalized, whereas those for textiles, construction and electronics are in the works. These requirements are all at different stages of finalization, and companies like Novalis must be on alert for changes that affect its supply chain.
There is a distinct need to have all of the information about every single product in one place. As a result, Novalis chose 3E Exchange Digital Product Passports (DPPs) to travel with their products from start to finish.
Just like your personal passport, these DPPs are unique to the product involved; instead of country stamps, they have information on a variety of required aspects of product safety, bolstered by technology.
DPPs include all necessary information for a particular product, including:
- Product and Manufacturer Details
- Chemicals of Concern and Composition
- Safe Use, Maintenance and Repair Information
- Carbon Footprint and other Environmental Impacts
- End-of-life Options and Instructions
DPPs have the flexibility to be updated by users as new requirements arise.
Understanding Digital Product Passports
Curated Customer-facing Information All in One Place
“Product transparency and traceability is one of the key elements of our sustainability strategy. We are convinced that the Digital Product Passport is the most important factor in creating a true circular economy.”
-Joost Luhmann, Sustainability Manager, Europe, Novalis
See it in action
Novalis leverages easy-to-use QR codes to provide immediate access to Digital Product Passports for their products.
Meeting Customer and Regulatory Demands
Novalis faces numerous challenges from both its customers and from regulatory requirements.
Customer demands
The main challenges that Novalis faces are from its customers. Customers now demand that companies provide sustainability documentation and they want to buy products that they can feel good about. They may lean toward the purchase of products that come from a company with a sustainable approach, perhaps one that supports the concept of a circular economy.
In a circular economy, products are no longer disposed of at the end of their useful life, rather they re-enter a sustainable cycle of product use. Considerations must now include how to prolong the lifetime of products. Novalis must be able to communicate information about topics such as initial product installation, product maintenance, the correct materials to install over LVT and, ultimately the safe removal of the LVT. In addition, there are a plethora of compliance requirements (e.g., the European Union’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), California’s Prop 65) that customers check for before investing in products. This is particularly true in the building products space, where customers demand sustainability reports and certifications like Declare, Health Product Declarations (HPDs) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) on carbon footprints.
Regulatory requirements
With the European Green Deal comes a level of complexity that companies like Novalis must face. Through the Sustainable Product Initiative, the durability, reliability and reusability of a product is the priority
and information regarding a product must be digitally available during the product’s lifetime. In addition, each product is required to have a unique physical identifier, for which Novalis uses QR codes that are linked to DPPs.
With the need to get ahead of the Green Deal, Novalis must have a tool that positions it for success.
Collecting supplier data
Customers often come to companies like Novalis with questions that require detailed supplier information. Collecting this information from suppliers seems like a simple “ask,” however, many challenges arise in
practice. For instance, Novalis is not in control of the turnaround time for its suppliers to respond to its requests and suppliers may receive multiple requests from different customers at the same time. Feeling this urgency, Novalis and its suppliers need a way to avoid confusion, answer questions clearly and ensure that customer business information is protected.
By using 3E Exchange, Novalis has a streamlined way to ask for information from suppliers. Information is in one format for the suppliers to send to Novalis, which simplifies information use.
The DPP solution and 3E Exchange
There are many reasons why Novalis publishes DPPs with 3E Exchange. One reason is that the DPPs allow Novalis to have all of the important information in one place; technical data, compliance information,
warranties, sustainability certificates and lifecycle management information are all included.
In addition, the passport information is publicly available through 3E Exchange, which allows those who are considering whether to use a certain product to view pertinent information.
DPPs support long-term recycling of product materials, which is a major priority for Novalis. DPPs also come with fully backed data security. The passport data is on Microsoft Azure and is SOC2 certified. DPPs comply with GDPR and have features such as SSO and customizable permission settings for protection.
“The biggest competitive advantage of 3E Exchange is to have the automatic chemical compliance check. We see this as the only way to establish a real circular economy
in our sector as we can verify with your digital product passports that we are not using any harmful substances in our products.”– Joost Luhmann, Sustainability Manager, Europe, Novalis
Long term results and emerging regulations
Two recent requirements noted below make 3E Exchange even more valuable to companies like Novalis.
- The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act prohibits the importation of goods, including PVC, from the Uyghur region of China into the United States unless
certain tracing criteria are met, and - Germany’s Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains (which is similarly concerned with human rights violations) sets supply chain tracking requirements for companies with German operations.
Achieving Compliance and Sustainability with 3E Exchange
Novalis is prepared to use DPPs housed in 3E Exchange to avoid scenarios where products are banned from importation by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and to achieve compliance with Germany’s regulation. By having supplier information stored in one place, with scannable QRs, Novalis is well-equipped to conquer new challenges that arise.
In addition, 3E Exchange will enable Novalis to keep certifications for its products in one place (including Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), GREENGUARD Certification, Health Product Declarations (HPDs) and Eurofins test results) so that it does not have to hunt for information when it receives requests from stakeholders. In addition, for most customers, Novalis can just send them to the DPPs, rather than having to respond to one-off requests.
One of the biggest benefits of 3E Exchange and DPPs is the ability to screen product ingredients against lists of regulated chemicals in European Union Regulations such as REACH.
It is clear that Novalis is looking long-term and wants to “stay ahead of the game” when it comes to the entire product lifecycle.
By using 3E Exchange, Novalis is able to:
- Adapt quickly to new regulations affecting the supply chain
- Ensure marketability of products
- Meet customer demand for purchasing sustainable products
- Collect supplier data to satisfy stakeholder questions more quickly
- Stay “ahead of the game” when it comes to the entire product lifecycle
“More than ever, we are thinking about the future. Digital Product Passports are living documents that stay with our products for their lifetime, allowing future owners to learn what our products are, how to prolong their lifespan and, eventually, how to responsibly dispose of them as our circular economy continues to develop.”
– Graham Capobianco, Sustainability Manager, North America, Novalis
Case study originally published December 2023.
