01
Carbon footprint per product
Production emissions including the electricity mix of smelting – the decisive lever. Site-wide averages will foreseeably not suffice; product- or batch-specific values are what is wanted.
Industry · Aluminium
The product passport for aluminium: where the electricity mix becomes a product property.
Aluminium belongs to the first priority group of the ESPR working plan: the delegated act is expected for 2027, putting the obligation at ~2028/29. Hardly any material has a wider carbon spread – smelting with coal power or hydropower, primary or secondary metal makes a factor-of-ten difference. And this is exactly the data automotive, construction and packaging want to see today.
- 2027Delegated act expected
- ~2028/29Obligation at the earliest (act + ~18 months)
- Carbon factorThe electricity mix of smelting dominates the footprint
- Already todayBuyers from automotive, construction & packaging request carbon and recycled-content data
01 — Situation
Why aluminium is in the spotlight.
The first ESPR working plan (April 2025) lists aluminium in the priority group of intermediate products – right next to iron & steel. The logic: aluminium is energy-intensive to produce, recyclable almost without loss, and embedded in key industries from automotive to construction to packaging. The Digital Product Passport is meant to make visible the differences that vanish in today’s data sheets.
As of July 2026: the delegated act for aluminium is expected for 2027; after the usual transition period of ~18 months, the obligation would therefore apply from ~2028/29 at the earliest. The dates are indicative – steel has shown that delegated acts get postponed. You will find the continuously updated status in the DPP timeline.
The market, however, is not waiting for Brussels: car manufacturers are already writing carbon caps and recycled-content quotas into their specifications, construction clients demand EPDs, packaging customers demand recycled-content evidence. Whoever cannot deliver robust product data today loses tenders long before the DPP becomes mandatory.
02 — Requirements
What data the aluminium DPP is likely to require.
The delegated act will settle this definitively – but from the ESPR, the working plan and the requirements of large buyers, these categories are emerging:
02
Recycled content
Share of secondary aluminium (pre- and post-consumer considered separately) – the metric packaging and automotive customers already demand contractually today.
03
Alloy composition
Alloy and composition per batch – the precondition for grade-pure recycling and buyers’ material approvals.
04
Origin & input material
Traceability across smelter, remelter and semi-finished stage – imported input material must bring the same data as EU-made goods.
05
Identifier & format
Unique identifier per EN 18219, machine-readable data formats and registration in the EU DPP registry – see DPP standards for details.
06
Circularity information
Data on recyclability and recovery routes – an obvious passport content for a material that can be cycled indefinitely.
Is your biggest buyer already asking for carbon values per delivery?
In the aluminium chain, the customer is usually faster than the legislator. In a short call, we will show you how to serve customer requests and the coming DPP obligation with one data model.
03 — Approach
Aluminium readiness in five steps.
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1
Applicability check
Analyse your portfolio and customer structure: which products fall under the expected act, and which data requirements arrive regardless from automotive, construction and packaging?
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2
Energy & material data audit
Take stock of carbon, energy, melting and analysis data – from energy management and melt logs to LIMS and ERP. The core question: how does the electricity mix get into the product calculation?
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3
Recycled-content accounting
Capture secondary shares robustly and auditably: input-material bookkeeping, pre-/post-consumer separation, handling of mass-balance approaches.
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4
Data model & integration
DPP data model per alloy/batch, connection to ERP and quality systems, identifier concept per EN 18219, exports for customer portals and the EU registry.
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5
Pilot product passport
A real product – e.g. a coil, section or casting – with a complete carbon and recycled-content data record as a blueprint and as a selling point in the next audit.
04 — FAQ
Frequently asked questions from the aluminium industry.
When does the Digital Product Passport become mandatory for aluminium?
The delegated act is expected for 2027; with the usual transition period of ~18 months, the obligation would apply from ~2028/29 at the earliest. These dates are indicative and may shift – the only fixed dates so far are the battery passport (18 Feb 2027) and the EU DPP registry (live since 20 July 2026). In practice, however, large buyers are already enforcing their data requirements today.
We only process semi-finished goods – do we need to collect our own carbon data?
You need both: the upstream data from your suppliers (smelter, remelter) and the emissions of your own processing stage. The DPP makes you the link – you take over the input material’s passport data and enrich it with your process data. Without structured supplier data, that does not work.
Is a site-wide average value enough for the carbon footprint?
Foreseeably not in the long run. Customer specifications increasingly demand product-specific values, and the delegated act will prescribe calculation rules. We recommend building data collection so that values can be derived per alloy and batch – averages then become a special case, not a system break.
We already have EPDs and ASI certification – is that enough?
As a data basis: very good. As a DPP: no. EPDs are documents; the product passport is a machine-readable data record with a standardised identifier, registration obligation and tiered access rights. But the content from EPD and certification processes flows straight into the DPP data model – the groundwork pays off twice.
Imported input material from third countries – whose problem is the data?
Yours, as soon as you place the product on the EU market. The passport does not ask where the smelter stood – the data has to come along. The earlier data requirements enter purchasing contracts and supplier evaluations, the lower the risk that cheap input material later becomes a market-access problem.
Contact
Your buyers are already asking – the delegated act trails behind.
Tell us briefly what you make and who your buyers are – you will get an honest assessment of which data you need first and how far your systems carry you today.
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