Innovation venture of Covestro awarded: Niaga® wins Circular Economy Prize

Niaga^®, an innovation venture of Covestro, is the winner of the 2022 European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Community Circular Economy Prize in the Digital Products Passports (DPP) category. The EIT Circular Economy Community awards relevant start-ups and SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) with significant new solutions accelerating the circular economy.

The DPP of the venture is a universal and interoperable platform that provides ingredient transparency about a product for all stakeholders across industries and across Europe. It provides factual, objective, measurable information on product ingredients, components, provenance, and attributes like CO₂ footprint, recycled content and recyclability.

Sascha Bloemhoff, Marketing Director at Niaga^® and responsible for the DPP: “Most systems today are linear, tracing only high-level data. Such systems lack crucial pieces of ingredient information needed to close the loop. Detailed ingredient knowledge is a must, if we want to avoid downcycling of valuable materials during recycling, whatever the product or industry: electronics, clothing or the building sector.”

Martin Snijder, Circular Economy Orchestrator at EIT Climate-KIC: “The DPP radiates circularity in every aspect, as do Niaga®’s core activities. The DPP is under development and managed by an experienced and convincing team. The jury hopes the minimum transparency level of the Niaga^® DPP will become the standard in Europe.” 

Winning the prestigious prize is the recognition of the Niaga^® DPP as a key enabler for circularity and underlines the importance of material stewardship, transparency and traceability in achieving a truly circular economy. Lynette Chung, Chief Sustainability Officer at Covestro: "In order to achieve a fully circular economy, we need to connect stakeholders and transport knowledge along the value chain, and support consumer trust and demand for more sustainable product offerings. It's why we're particularly proud of our innovation venture's DPP being recognized as a key enabler for a no-waste, circular economy. The DPP provides essential infrastructure for a sustainable future and is a viable solution that also protects users' IP sensitive information."

Sascha Bloemhoff adds: "It is our mission to design out waste. Our key learning in our journey has been that to make return, and with it, reuse, repair, refurbishment, and recycling possible we need the full disclosure of a product's ingredient, material, and component information. Moving from theory to practice, pointed us in the direction of our universal and interoperable product passport. Because our DPP revolves around ingredient transparency – not just traceability – it's a solution that helps to put valuable materials centre stage. Because in a true circular economy what is a polyester sweater today, could become a car seat tomorrow and a mattress in the future."