ABSTRACT. Ecodesign has become a key concept for introducing environmental considerations in product development. However, this integration remains challenging due to diverse and often overlapping regulatory requirements, different product systems, and limited transferability of generic guidelines across technological contexts. There is, therefore, a necessity for structured methodologies capable of translating high-level ecodesign principles into actionable, product-specific strategies. Among the sustainability dimensions ecodesign must increasingly address is, for example, the responsible use of Critical Raw Materials (CRMs), defined as materials with high economic importance and significant supply risk, which are embedded in a wide range of technological products. Their growing demand and the environmental burdens associated with extraction have elevated CRM management to a strategic priority, which ecodesign can tackle by enabling reduced CRM content, improved material efficiency, and enhanced end-of-life recoverability. This article presents a structured methodology for developing product-specific ecodesign guidelines that bridges the gap between high-level sustainability principles and practical engineering decision-making. The proposed approach seeks to (i) identify sustainability priorities across the product life cycle, (ii) integrate both theoretical and practical knowledge during guideline development, and (iii) support the prioritization and validation of ecodesign strategies under realistic implementation conditions. In sum, the primary objective of this work is to provide a transferable framework that is readily adaptable across products and sectors

ABSTRACT. The aim of this article is to analyse the perceptions of companies in the Portuguese textile and clothing sector regarding the implementation of the Digital Product Passport (DPP), a digital information tool whose mandatory introduction is provided for in the European Regulation on Ecodesign for Sustainable Products (ESPR, Regulation (EU) 2024/1781). The research seeks to answer five key questions: (i) What is the current level of awareness and adoption of the DPP amongst Portuguese textile companies? (ii) What are the main barriers, perceived benefits and preferred technologies for its implementation? (iii) How do companies assess the regulatory, financial and operational impact of the DPP? (iv) How do companies perceive the role of the DPP in combating greenwashing? (v) What is the expected impact of the DPP on consumer behaviour and the sector’s competitiveness?The study is based on a descriptive analysis of primary data collected via a structured questionnaire administered to 138 companies in the Portuguese textile sector, contextualising the results in the light of the European regulatory framework and relevant academic literature.

ABSTRACT. Objective of the study The transition towards climate neutrality and sustainable industrial systems has intensified the need for innovative solutions that address environmental, economic, and social challenges across product value chains. In the context of electric mobility, lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) play a pivotal role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions (IEA, 2023); however, their production, use, and end-of-life management raise significant sustainability concerns. These include the high environmental impacts associated with energy-intensive manufacturing processes, the criticality and supply risks of raw materials such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel (Gaines, 2018), and the current predominance of linear value chain models. In response, European policy frameworks, such as the European Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan, emphasise sustainability, transparency, and circularity in industrial systems (European Commission, 2020). The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation and the EU Battery Regulation have since introduced the Digital Product Passports (DPPs) as a key instrument to support these objectives (European Commission, 2022). This article explores the role of DPPs, particularly Digital Battery Passports (DBPs), as enablers of sustainability and circularity in LiB value chains, examining how DPPs can enhance traceability, transparency, and lifecycle management. Methodology This study adopts a qualitative research approach based on an extensive literature review and policy analysis. Academic publications, industry reports, and European regulatory documents were reviewed to identify key sustainability challenges and opportunities across LiB value chains at all lifecycle stages, from raw material extraction to end-of-life management. In parallel, the study examines the concept and technological foundations of DPPs, including enabling technologies such as blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT), and digital identifiers, and analyses existing initiatives and pilot projects, such as Catena-X, to assess their potential to support sustainability and circularity in practice. Results The LiB value chain is characterised by a set of interrelated sustainability pressures that demand systemic digital solutions. In 2023, electric cars accounted for approximately 18% of global vehicle sales, with battery demand driving intense pressure on the critical raw materials (CRMs) supply chain: lithium accounted for around 85% of total lithium end-use demand, cobalt for approximately 70%, and nickel for about 10% (IEA, 2024). Lithium, cobalt and nickel are classified by the EU as both critical and strategic raw materials, with supply risks compounded by concentrated extraction geographies (Australia, Chile, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo) and energy-intensive refining processes. These dynamics create significant vulnerabilities in the electric vehicle (EV) battery supply chain and generate substantial environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions, ecosystem disruption, and water and soil pollution. Against this backdrop, the EU has enacted an ambitious regulatory architecture designed to decarbonise industry and accelerate the circular transition. The European Green Deal commits the EU to at least a 55% reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050. The Circular Economy Action Plan establishes a product policy framework for value chains, including batteries and vehicles, targeting decoupled economic growth and circular production systems. The EU Battery Regulation introduces mandatory digital battery passports for industrial, light means transport, and EV batteries exceeding 2 kWh, with full implementation required by February 2027 – making batteries the first product category for which a DPP becomes legally binding at the EU level (European Commission, 2022). The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation further establishes the broader framework for DPPs across product categories, with ecodesign criteria and minimum performance standards for sustainable products. DPPs are shown to function as comprehensive digital repositories that record battery lifecycle information – including raw material origin, chemical composition, carbon footprint, state of health, maintenance history, and end-of-life handling instructions – and make this data accessible to diverse stakeholders through standardised digital interfaces (e.g., QR codes, decentralised identifiers). Across the LiB value chain, DPPs enable manufacturers to document CRM provenance and demonstrate regulatory compliance; operators and users to access performance and maintenance data; service providers to optimise repair and repurposing decisions; and recyclers to efficiently identify material composition and select appropriate recovery processes. Regulatory authorities benefit from improved data availability for monitoring compliance and evaluating policy effectiveness (Berger et al., 2022). The enabling technology ecosystem for DPPs encompasses blockchain-based distributed ledgers for tamper-proof data recording and supply chain traceability; IoT connectivity for real-time data capture and state-of-health monitoring; Decentralised Digital Identifiers and Verifiable Credentials for secure identity management and data access control; RFID systems and QR codes for physical-digital product linking; and the Asset Administration Shell (ASS) standard for interoperable, modular data exchange. Prominent industry initiatives – including Catena-X, the GBA Battery Passport, Battery Pass, CIRCPASS, and commercial platforms such as Circulor, Minespider, and iPoint – illustrate the growing momentum toward DPP operationalisation and the emergence of scalable solutions aligned with EU regulatory requirements. Critically, the analysis identifies persistent gaps in current DPP approaches. Data availability, quality, and standardisation remain significant barriers, particularly in complex and globalised value chains. Concerns related to data confidentiality and intellectual property may also limit data sharing among stakeholders. Most existing battery passport implementations focus predominantly on environmental data (carbon footprint, recycled content, chemical composition), while providing insufficient coverage of social sustainability dimensions, including supply chain labour conditions, community impacts of CRM mining, and social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) indicators. A genuinely circular value chain is also not automatically more sustainable: rigorous sustainability assessment requires high-quality data inputs and validated evaluation methodologies spanning all three sustainability pillars (Voulgaridis et al., 2024). Theoretical Implications This paper advances the theoretical understanding of DPPs as integrated sociotechnical instruments of circular economy theory, industrial ecology, and digital innovation. It frames DPPs as dynamic lifecycle knowledge infrastructures – beyond mere compliance tools - that activate circular economy strategies, including product life extension, remanufacturing, repurposing, and cascaded resource use at scale. The analysis shows that the value of DPPs depends not only on data completeness but on quality, accessibility, standardisation, and integration across heterogeneous value chain actors (Berger et al., 2022). The paper highlights the importance of aligning DPP frameworks with multi-dimensional sustainability assessment. The bias towards environmental indicators reflects a tension between measurability and comprehensiveness in sustainability science. Incorporating social and economic dimensions through Social LCA and lifecycle costing (LCC) represents a key theoretical frontier. The paper further contributes to Industry 5.0 debates by situating DPPs within a people-centred, resilience-oriented conception of sustainable industrial systems (Panza et al., 2023). Practical Implications For industry practitioners, the findings underscore the strategic importance of investing in DPP-compatible data architectures ahead of the February 2027 compliance deadline. Manufacturers across the LiB value chain must build data collection and reporting capabilities beyond current practice. Platforms such as Catena-X and the GBA Battery Passport offer collaborative frameworks for standardised data exchange that can reduce compliance costs and enhance interoperability. For policymakers and regulators, the analysis highlights the need to complement the EU Battery Regulation’s technical requirements with social data standards, comprehensive sustainability assessment, and SME support mechanisms. Strengthening the interface between DPP data and circular-economy policy instruments – including extended producer responsibility schemes, recycled-content mandates, and second-life battery market facilitation – will be essential to realising the transformative potential of the DPP framework. For circular economy stakeholders engaged in second- and third-life battery applications, DPPs address the information asymmetries constraining these markets. Battery passports recording state-of-health data, cycle history, and remaining capacity can reduce transaction costs and support new business models in battery leasing, refurbishment, and modular remanufacturing. Limitations This study is primarily conceptual and based on a literature review, with findings not empirically validated through primary industry data. The DPP regulatory landscape continues to evolve rapidly, and the specific delegated acts defining detailed data requirements have not been fully adopted at the time of writing. The paper does not provide a detailed technical assessment of individual technology components. The analysis of social sustainability gaps in current DPP approaches, whilst important, is necessarily limited by the nascent state of S-LCA standardisation for battery value chains. Finally, the paper's focus on the EU regulatory context may limit the direct applicability of its conclusions to jurisdictions with different governance frameworks. Innovation The primary innovative contribution of this paper lies in its multi-dimensional analysis of DPPs as lifecycle knowledge infrastructures for LiB value chains, grounded in the EU regulatory ecosystem. Unlike previous studies that have predominantly focused on environmental or technical aspects of DPP design, this paper explicitly identifies a gap in social sustainability coverage and argues for an integrated three-pillar sustainability assessment approach as a prerequisite for realising DPPs' full transformative potential. The paper further innovates by systematically mapping DPP functionality against all major LiB lifecycle stages — including the under-researched third-life battery phase — and by analysing how DPPs can activate circular business models specific to the EV sector, such as battery-as-a-service, state-of-health-based repurposing markets, and closed-loop CRM recovery. The synthesis of the enabling technology ecosystem within a coherent digital governance framework, and the critical analysis of the challenges, provides a structured roadmap for researchers and practitioners, positioning DPPs as foundational enablers of a digitally intelligent, decarbonised, and genuinely sustainable European battery value chain.

ABSTRACT. The increasing adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) (Atzori et al., 2010) devices in experimental and laboratory environments has led to a growing reliance on middleware platforms such as Node-RED that simplify interaction with heterogeneous data sources and communication protocols. While Node-RED lowers the barrier to data interaction and workflow development, its transition from individual experimentation to shared institutional use introduces a distinct layer of operational complexity (Thuluva et al., 2020). In multi-user contexts, the provisioning, isolation, and lifecycle management of runtime environments become critical concerns that extend beyond application-level logic.

Generic container technologies enable isolated deployments, yet their operational model is centered on command-line interaction and infrastructure expertise which misaligns with the needs of research users whose primary focus lies in experimentation rather than systems administration. As a result, essential processes, such as instance provisioning, access control, backup management, and configuration standardization, are frequently handled through informal or fragmented practices, undermining reproducibility and governance.

This work positions lifecycle management as a first-class component of IoT experimentation. It introduces OCHER as a domain-specific orchestration layer designed to formalize and abstract the management of isolated Node-RED instances within collaborative institutional contexts. Rather than extending container technologies themselves, OCHER reframes their use through a structured operational mediation layer that prioritizes reproducibility, controlled access, and environment uniformity. In doing so, the work articulates the conceptual boundaries of domain-focused infrastructure abstraction in IoT-centered research settings.

ABSTRACT. Industrial transformation increasingly depends on the capacity of industrial ecosystems to respond collectively to technological, competitive, regulatory and skills-related change. This article examines how a coordinated portfolio of strategic initiatives can support the emergence and development of collective capabilities within such an ecosystem. Drawing on a longitudinal embedded case study of the Qualification Programme for Resilience, Growth and Innovation (WP01) of PRODUTECH R3, the analysis covers the evolution of a portfolio of interconnected initiatives in the Portuguese Production Technologies Industry between 2023 and 2026. The findings identify a portfolio-based capability-building process through which shared strategic challenges are translated into intelligence needs, strategic understanding, future priorities, capability gaps and coordinated interventions that create the conditions for collective capability emergence. The portfolio combines initiatives in sector intelligence, technological foresight, artificial intelligence, skills, financing, internationalisation, institutional conditions, business resilience and governance. Results suggest that its strategic value derives not only from individual project outputs, but also from complementarities among interventions and their potential contribution to emerging collective ecosystem capabilities. The article contributes to ecosystem-level portfolio research by showing how portfolio logic can connect strategic intelligence, shared priority setting, capability-gap identification and coordinated intervention in support of collective capability building. It offers practical implications for cluster organisations and policymakers seeking to connect strategic intelligence with coordinated intervention and the longer-term development of collective capabilities for industrial transformation.

ABSTRACT. The transition towards a circular economy is reshaping product development, yet safety-critical defence equipment remains largely excluded from sustainable design research. In particular, hard ballistic protection systems continue to be developed under linear design paradigms that prioritise ballistic performance while overlooking environmental sustainability and user-centred ergonomics. This study addresses this gap by proposing and validating a novel sustainable product development methodology that integrates eco-design, circular economy principles, digital anthropometry and additive manufacturing within a unified design framework for modular ballistic protection equipment. The methodology combines three-dimensional body scanning, statistical avatar selection, computer-aided design, virtual prototyping and fused filament fabrication to create ergonomically optimised ballistic plates while substantially reducing material consumption, prototyping effort and development waste. Anthropometric analyses of male and female military personnel enabled the development of gender-specific front plates alongside gender neutral back and lateral plates, achieving improved ergonomic fit through a modular architecture that simultaneously enhances reparability, reuse and recyclability. Beyond product innovation, the proposed approach demonstrates how digitalisation can transform the sustainability of the development process itself by replacing multiple physical design iterations with virtual modelling and simulation. This represents a significant theoretical contribution by positioning digital technologies as eco-design enablers operating at both product and process levels, thereby extending circular product development theory to safety-critical defence applications. The study further demonstrates that ergonomics and circularity are mutually reinforcing rather than competing design objectives, showing how user-centred design can increase product longevity while supporting resource efficiency. The proposed framework provides a transferable methodology for integrating environmental performance, digital engineering and human-centred design into the development of advanced protective equipment, contributing to the implementation of the European Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation and advancing sustainable innovation in defence manufacturing.

ABSTRACT. Growing environmental concerns associated with petroleum-based plastics, together with increasing regulatory pressure and consumer demand for sustainable materials, have accelerated research into renewable and biodegradable polymer alternatives. Among emerging bio-based resources, exopolysaccharides (EPS) produced by microalgae have attracted significant attention as versatile biopolymers with promising film-forming capabilities. These extracellular polymers combine biodegradability, biocompatibility, and functional versatility, making them suitable for the development of biodegradable films for food packaging and other short-life applications. Microalgal EPS possess complex chemical structures containing rare sugars, uronic acids, and functional groups that confer desirable physicochemical properties, including high water-binding capacity, rheological functionality, and interfacial activity. These characteristics enable their processing into biodegradable materials and functional biopolymer films. At the same time, microalgae cultivation offers the possibility of integrating biopolymer production with environmental remediation processes, particularly through the use of wastewater as a nutrient source. In this context, the present work aims to provide an integrated and sustainability-oriented analysis of microalgal EPS production, their processing into biodegradable biopolymer films, and the potential of wastewater-based cultivation as a circular and resource-efficient strategy. By connecting upstream biological production with downstream material processing, the study highlights how wastewater valorization, strain selection, and cultivation stress factors influence polymer composition, film performance, and overall sustainability. Particular emphasis is placed on linking material properties with environmental and techno-economic considerations within circular bioeconomy frameworks.