Using Primary Data to Comply with Upcoming Product-Level Regulations

Article key points:

• Worldly now supports calculation of French Eco Scores within the Product Impact Calculator. 
• Upcoming EU regulations, such as Product Environmental Footprint (PEF), Digital Product Passport (DPP), and French Eco Scores, will soon require detailed product-level environmental data.
• Companies that proactively collect and analyze primary supply chain data are gaining competitive advantage.
• Automating product data collection and calculations at scale is critical for meeting these regulations.
• Primary data collection isn’t mandatory yet but is expected to become increasingly important as regulations evolve.

Are you prepared to comply with upcoming regulations?

Brands, retailers, and manufacturers across a variety of industries are already grappling with meeting mandatory requirements for evaluating and reporting on the environmental impact of their products. A few of the most prominent of these regulations include the European Commission’s Product Environmental Footprint (PEF), the European Union’s Digital Product Passport, and France’s Eco Score (“Coût Environnemental” in French).   

One of the trickiest parts of the regulatory landscape is just how uncertain it is. Product impact requirements already vary from one country or region to another, and on top of that, each regulatory body continues to change its implementation timeline. 

With the degree of uncertainty and the speed of changes, the smartest thing companies can do is prepare for the time when one or all of these regulations become mandatory. Brands, retailers, and manufacturers are sitting on the sidelines while compliance is still voluntary are opening themselves up to hidden supply chain risks—not to mention a game of catch-up once these regulations and others like them are required. 

Keep reading to learn more about the most pressing regulations companies that do business in Europe are facing, and how the ability to not only collect and analyze your supply chain’s primary data, but quickly convert it into the required formats, will put you ahead of others who take a wait-and-see approach.

Key regulations on the horizon

The Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) is a standardized methodology developed by the European Commission to measure the environmental impact of products throughout their lifecycle. It covers 16 distinct environmental categories, providing a robust and verifiable way to prevent greenwashing and help consumers make informed decisions.

The Digital Product Passport (DPP), mandated by the EU’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, is designed to increase transparency and sustainability across the product lifecycle. By 2027, many product categories will need digital tags that include detailed lifecycle data, environmental metrics, and repairability information accessible via QR codes or RFID tags.

The French Eco Score, now officially called the Environmental Cost (“Coût Environnemental”), is a French-specific labeling system requiring apparel and textile brands to clearly communicate the environmental impacts of their products to consumers. It uses 16 key indicators including carbon emissions, water use, and additional sustainability factors unique to the apparel industry.

Even if you don’t sell to European markets today, the EU is setting the global standard for product environmental requirements in the future. You can also future-proof your business to allow for compliantly selling into the EU if the opportunity, or need, arises. 

What it takes to meet European product impact and labeling requirements

The most imminent and pressing regulation that apparel manufacturers, brands, and retailers will need to meet is the French Eco Score. To do this will require inputting specific information about each product, including: 

• Product name
• Product category
• Materials
• Materials composition 
• Product weight
• Country of manufacture

After collecting these data points, those who make, distribute, or sell products can calculate each product’s French Eco Score using the Ecobalyse calculator (France’s open source Eco Score tool). However, doing so one product at a time will be so time consuming that it may prove impossible to sustain. 

Worldly’s Product Impact Calculator (PIC) makes it simple and seamless to calculate your products’ French Eco Scores, and to do so in bulk rather than on a one-off basis. The Worldly PIC maps the information in your account to the Ecobalyse calculator and produces a French Eco Score that’s then available in the Product Library on Worldly. 

Primary supply chain data: Not yet required but likely coming

Currently, French Eco Scores do not use primary supply chain data in their calculations. However, this is just the first in a wave of many product environmental score labeling requirements. As regulations evolve and become more sophisticated, primary supply chain data is likely to play a larger role. Brands, manufacturers, and retailers that are already equipped to measure and report on their primary supply chain data will be much better positioned than those who’ve done only the minimum required up to that point. 

Challenges of meeting French Eco Score requirements

The French government has created the open source Ecobalyse tool to help brands, manufacturers, and retailers calculate their French Eco Scores, but this tool isn’t without its downsides. 

Currently, companies that want to calculate their French Eco Scores using just the Ecobalyse calculator may struggle with some of these challenges, among others:  

Time-consuming, one-at-a-time calculations: Manually calculating Eco Scores individually is resource intensive and perhaps not even possible for brands with extensive product portfolios.

Data consistency and accuracy: Collecting accurate, consistent data from complex supply chains presents significant challenges, especially without automation.

Staying current with regulatory changes and new requirements: The French Eco Score, and other upcoming regulations, aren’t yet final. Companies will need to stay on top of changes to the reporting requirements as laws become more mature and fully implemented. 

How Worldly streamlines French Eco Score and other product labeling requirements

Fortunately, calculating French Eco Scores and other, future, product lifecycle assessment-based scores doesn’t have to be manual and time-consuming. Worldly streamlines the process from primary data collection all the way to French Eco Score outputs—and has already done the heavy lifting to prepare for future requirements when they come. 

Here are four specific ways Worldly helps companies prepare for today’s requirements and those of the future. 

      1. Worldly has already mapped data to French Eco Scores

Worldly has completed extensive mapping and alignment with regulatory standards, enabling seamless integration with platforms like Ecobalyse. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel; you can make the most of the groundwork already laid out for you. Enter your data—or use the data you’ve already collected on the platform—and Worldly’s Product Impact Calculator outputs your French Eco Scores along with the downloadable image you may feature on your product labels and product pages.

     2. Worldly enables French Eco Score calculation at scale

Worldly’s PIC supports bulk uploads, allowing you to calculate French Eco Scores for thousands of SKUs simultaneously. Move beyond cumbersome manual calculations and efficiently comply with evolving regulations.

    3. Worldly eliminates the need for custom APIs or integrations

With the Worldly PIC, you can make the most of a  platform you’re already using to manage your  supply chain’s environmental and sustainability data to instantly produce fully compliant French Eco Scores. Achieve maximum compliance value without additional technical integrations, and even better, be fully prepared to comply with future regulations that draw from the same data you’ve already collected with Worldly. 

   4. Worldly future-proofs your operations for the time when new regulations emerge

While French Eco Scores are on the horizon for mandatory compliance in the near future, Worldly’s ability to help doesn’t stop there. Using the same data and extensive data mapping, Worldly will be able to produce scores and results for any number of new requirements with minimal effort, and only incremental additional data collection, if required. Once your inventory is uploaded into the Product Library, Worldly can produce outputs associated with future requirements using the information you already collect. 

Use Worldly for industry-leading material impact data 

Worldly is the exclusive platform of Cascale’s Higg Index, including the Higg Facility Environmental Module (FEM), the Higg Facility Social & Labor Module (FSLM), and the Higg Materials Sustainability Index (MSI). This means Worldly hosts the largest and most credible database of material impacts and processes across the apparel, textile, outdoor, home goods, and other industries—and that our methodology is intrinsically aligned with PEF framework, which is likely to be the basis of many future regulations. 

With Worldly, companies benefit from globally aligned, industry-vetted data, ensuring unparalleled accuracy and readiness for ever-evolving sustainability standards and regulations.

Reduce your risk, accelerate your environmental and social impact, and prepare for future regulations all in a single platform with Worldly. Contact us today to get started.