Sustainability compliance as a growth opportunity

Avery Dennison is proactively working to develop the necessary technologies to enable the EU’s Green Transition and to turn compliance with sustainability legislation into a competitive advantage. Our end to end solutions such as the DPPaaS provide brands with the tools required to gain full visibility over their supply chains.

The benefits of digital product identification solutions for businesses

Adopting digital ID solutions will be a requirement to comply with the EU’s Digital Product Passport (DPP). But beyond mere compliance with DPP rules, Digital ID solutions can provide a range of other benefits for businesses, providing a competitive advantage with only one investment.

Technologies that enable unique item-level tracking and traceability can improve inventory management challenges and prevent overproduction and expiry. Digital product identification technology also empowers companies to dynamically calculate carbon emissions as their products move through the supply chain, offering a far more accurate picture of their carbon footprint.

Adopting digital solutions that enhance supply chain visibility and transparency will ensure that businesses comply with other sustainability legislation in the EU, including corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence reporting requirements.

Person scanning smart tag on clothing with phone.

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How digital product identification solutions are already helping businesses

Food: Digital solutions to save inventory

It is estimated that food retailers globally lose 7.1% of inventory before sale due to expiry, damage or spoiling. This is estimated to be a $163 billion cost to the world’s food industry.

Digital product identification solutions, like Avery Dennison’s RFID inventory management solutions can provide item-level visibility and real-time data on inventory from all facilities. With instant data on the location and status of every item in their inventory, food retailers can better manage their produce, reduce food waste and cut costs associated with such waste.

Reducing inventory waste is good for business

Chipotle is an American-owned chain restaurant. They use fresh ingredients with no preservatives, which means that they work with highly perishable food products.

Chipotle has adopted RFID technology to help them better manage inventory and prevent food waste. The technology allows the business to constantly measure inventory levels across all locations and shift surplus ingredients to other restaurants to mitigate waste and prevent economic losses.

(Avery Dennisson, The Missing Billions, 2022)

Vegetables and other produced arranged on a table.

Textiles: Reducing waste with digital product identification

The textiles industry is known for producing an excessive amount of waste. Europe alone generates an estimated 7 billion tons of textile waste each year, but only one percent is recycled into new textiles.

For textiles and clothing manufacturers, adopting digital ID solutions will help to reduce the level of waste produced as well as improving the consumer experience. Digital ID solutions like RFID tags enable inventory efficiency. Combining real-time, item-level visibility on inventory with historical consumer demand data can help manufacturers adopt more on-demand production systems, shifting away from overproduction.

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Improving the consumer experience

Swijin is a Swiss-based sustainable performance wear brand. Since 2023, the brand has featured Avery Dennison’s digital care labels, aiming to educate consumers about their garment’s history, sustainability story, guidance on garment care, and the best way to dispose of it after use.

(Avery Dennison, Threads of Change, 2024)

Women trying on jacket at a clothing store while a man looks at shoes behind her.

Sorting Textiles for Waste Management

TEXAID is a renowned European company specializing in the collection, sorting, repair, reselling, and recycling of used textiles. Digital identifiers, tracked via Avery Dennison’s atma.io connected product cloud, carrying vital fibre information, will help TEXAID process textile products into relevant resale or recycling streams.

(Avery Dennison, Threads of Change, 2024)

Automotive: Smart tracking along the assembly lines

Automotive manufacturers have started to implement RFID tags on all parts for enhanced tracking during the production process. Data carriers such as QR codes, RFID and NFC tags placed on individual parts can provide manufacturers with instant visibility on locations, helping to prevent equipment loss and avoiding supply chain disruptions.

This type of smart manufacturing is beneficial for enhancing traceability in recall situations. Digital twins can trace specific parts back to their individual point of production, and manufacturers can pinpoint exactly which parts are impacted. The end result is highly targeted and smaller recalls that are much less costly for manufacturers.

What is the Return on Investment?

Adopting digital ID technologies in automotive manufacturing makes good business sense. Avery Dennison’s white paper [Tracking Every Part] explains how connecting the physical to the digital in automotive manufacturing provides a multitude of benefits for manufacturers.

Reduces inventory, prevents overproduction, and enables just-in-time production.

Visibility of parts across the supply chain reduces disruptions in production.

Cuts waste in shipping and packaging, and identifies parts for recycling.

Speeds up vehicle production and increases capacity to produce profitable solutions.

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Putting Europe’s economy on the right track: learn more about how we can get there

Enabling circularity

Europe is facing a challenge to decarbonise its economy by 2050. EU regulators have mandated that businesses must act more sustainably. Avery Dennison is well-positioned to help drive this circular revolution. Europe can make sustainable business practices the profitable choice by leveraging Avery Dennison resources and the company’s materials science and digital identification technologies.

Europe’s waste problem

The EU has mandated that certain products must carry a ‘digital product passport’, containing key information about carbon footprint and end-of-life management. Avery Dennison has digital identification technologies that connect physical goods to the digital world, allowing businesses to comply with EU legislation—and adopt circular practices.

Sustainable supply chains: addressing business concerns

Decarbonisation shouldn’t equate to deindustrialisation. By connecting the physical to the digital, Avery Dennison digital identification technologies can help ensure that compliance with sustainability rules lead to profitable performance.

A vision for a more sustainable and competitive Europe

The dawn of a new legislative cycle in 2024-2029 will bring a new vision for the future. The 2024-2029 legislative cycle will come with a new priority: competitiveness. A winning EU Industrial Strategy will combine European Union (EU) competitiveness with circular business models.