Luxembourg to Start Real Life Testing of an International Standard for a Digital Circularity Fingerprint for Products

The Ministry of the Economy of Luxembourg just launched phase two of the development of an international standard. It provides information on the circularity of products to all stakeholders involved along their value chains. A first viable version of the standard is being tested in real life, allowing to identify the most suitable governance model, the audit scheme and reliable IT systems for its management.

Luxembourg started the Circularity Dataset Initiative in 2018 to address the difficulty for industry and consumers to access reliable data on the circular properties of a product. A lot of circularity information is missing, as its generation and handling requires too many human and financial resources. Furthermore, trade secrets are hindering transparency and reporting standards are lacking, forcing manufacturers to send out different data sets in diverse formats to customers and product platforms.

To tackle these challenges, the Luxembourg government is working with multinational and regional manufacturers and platforms to develop, at an international level and at every stage of product manufacturing or transformation, a "Product Circularity Data Sheet" (PCDS). Every producer can adapt this standardized way of presenting data to its own systems. The initiative focuses on making basic circularity data widely available in a decentralized way while avoiding disclosure of proprietary information.

Since the inception of the initiative for which a dedicated website has been created (www.pcds.lu), more than 50 renowned companies from 12 different countries have joined the project. Luxembourg recently confirmed its position as a testing ground and competence centre for the circular economy when the Parliament passed a bill that allow businesses to claim state subsidies of up to 30% of the cost of investment projects, with an increase of 20% for projects that are defined as being part of the circular economy. This is the first time in Europe that a bonus for projects respecting a clear definition of circularity is integrated into a subsidy law.

On 8th of December, the latest developments of the PCDS will be presented together with industry experts during a webinar, as an official side event to the World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF), a yearly landmark event that brings together business leaders, policymakers and experts to present the world's best circular economy solutions. Registration is free of charge and open to everyone.