A lot of teams are treating DPP and Sunrise 2027 as separate projects:
- one owned by sustainability/compliance
- one owned by packaging/retail
That split is understandable, but it’s also the fastest way to create duplicative codes, conflicting datasets, and governance gaps.
This article is a practical playbook for building readiness without overbuilding.
Step one: align on what DPP is (and what it isn’t)
The European Commission’s own description is a good anchor: DPP is a digital identity card for products/components/materials, designed to store and expose relevant information supporting sustainability, circularity, and legal compliance, accessible electronically to multiple stakeholders.
This means DPP isn’t “a landing page.” It’s an information infrastructure decision.
Step two: accept the barcode reality
Sunrise 2027 is not “a trend.” It’s an industry target date for retail POS capability to scan 2D codes alongside 1D codes by end of 2027, with broad pilots already underway; during transition, dual marking (U.P.C. + 2D) is expected in many cases.
That reality has two implications:
- your packaging artwork roadmap must reserve space and governance for a 2D carrier,
- your systems roadmap must ensure the identity behind that carrier is stable and defensible.
Step three: define a Minimum Viable Identity dataset
Before you choose a “one code” future, define the minimum dataset you can reliably produce and maintain:
- identifiers,
- product composition basics,
- compliance-relevant claims/attributes,
- and lifecycle metadata (as required by category/market).
The key is not breadth; it’s reliability under change.
Step four: decide governance (this is where most programs break)
Most failures happen here:
- Who owns the truth?
- Who can change it?
- What’s the audit trail?
- How do suppliers feed it?
- How do you prevent country-by-country divergence?
Write governance down, test it in a pilot, and make the pilot prove the change-control loop.
Step five: run a pilot that tests the whole loop
The only pilot worth running is end-to-end: data → packaging → scanning at retail context → consumer experience → governance changes
Anything less is a demo, not readiness.
In-market proof: “digital product labels” are becoming normalized
#SmartFacts in Australia/New Zealand is a strong example of where market behavior is going: an industry-led program creating harmonized digital product labels, using next-generation barcodes so consumers can scan and receive standardized product information.
Different regulatory context than the EU, but the same habit formation: packaging becomes a gateway to trusted information.
Closing thought
The real competitive advantage is being able to say:
“We can produce a product identity you can trust, at scale, without chaos.”
If you can do that, DPP and Sunrise 2027 stop being compliance shocks and become operational leverage.
For a short DPP/2D pilot readiness checklist, email [email protected].