According to which method must I measure the values for the passport?

What you concretely have to do

What is expected of you

Follow the established measurement method once it is available

For furniture, a delegated act must still be issued that specifies which ecodesign requirements apply and, linked to that, which information is included in the digital product passport (Articles 5 to 7 of the ESPR, Regulation (EU) 2024/1781). Article 39 of that same regulation provides that values resulting from those requirements must be measured or calculated according to a reliable, accurate and reproducible method. In practical terms, for a company with 10 to 100 employees, this means there is currently no concrete measurement method to follow — that will come with or after the delegated act for furniture. What is already established is the principle: the method must be verifiable, not an internal assessment or a marketing claim.

Take into account harmonised standards or common specifications

Article 39 provides that the Commission may designate harmonised standards, or in the absence thereof establish common specifications, with which the measurement obligation is met. For a furniture manufacturer, this means that the method is not invented per company: an established standard or specification will be issued that can be referred to. For a medium-sized company, the practical consequence is that the own quality department or external adviser, once that standard is known, must examine which test setup, measuring equipment or calculation model is prescribed in it — and whether the current laboratory or current test partner can work with it.

Ensure that measurements align with the product information that goes into the passport

The values determined using the method in Article 39 are the same values that ultimately end up in the digital product passport as part of the information requirements from Article 7. This raises, among other things, the question what data will be included in the product passport for furniture: every value listed there must be traceable to a measurement or calculation according to the prescribed method, not to an estimate or an average from a product brochure. For a company with a limited quality department, this means that the choice of test method and the choice of passport fields to be completed are not independent of each other.

Identify which topics will later have their own measurement method

Various parts of the future passport lend themselves to their own, specific method. Consider the way in which the formaldehyde emission class of a piece of furniture is determined, the calculation behind the recyclability percentage, or the way in which a possible CO2 footprint of a piece of furniture is established. Article 39 is the umbrella provision stating that there must be a reliable method; the delegated act for furniture will specify per information element which method exactly that is. For a company, the practical consequence is that one measurement protocol is not sufficient, but that per subject it must be examined which standard or test method applies.

Where things go wrong in practice

Internal test results are taken over as-is. A manufacturer has had its own laboratory tests carried out according to a method that is standard internally, but which does not comply with the method that the delegated act will later prescribe. The results are then factually not usable for the passport, even though they were carried out scientifically correctly.

Supplier data is passed on without method verification. A component — for example a board, a foam filling or a textile component — comes with a test report from the supplier, but no one checks whether that report was drawn up according to the method that will later be prescribed. This is particularly an issue with questions that relate to recording material per component, where multiple suppliers each provide their own test reports.

Confusion between "calculated" and "measured". Some values, such as a recyclability percentage, are the result of a calculation based on material composition, not a physical measurement. If a company has tests performed where a calculation model is expected — or vice versa — the result does not align with what the method requires.

Old measurement results are used for too long. A test report from several years ago is reused for the product passport without checking whether the product has changed in the meantime or whether the measurement method has since been adjusted. This also touches on the question how up-to-date the data in the product passport must bewhether an outdated measurement can result in a product passport that in fact no longer corresponds to the delivered product.

No distinction between standards for different materials. For a piece of furniture with multiple materials — wood, metal, textiles, plastics — sometimes a single measurement method is applied to the whole, while individual materials may each require their own test method. This applies for example to recording data on textiles and upholstery, where a different approach is needed than for a wooden or metal frame.

What you can put in order now

• For each information element in the product passport: which measurement method or calculation method was used, and on which standard or specification it is based, as soon as these are known.
• The test reports or calculation documents themselves, with date, executing party (internal laboratory, external testing body or supplier) and the product sample or product series to which the test related.
• An overview of which parts of a piece of furniture were tested by your own organization and which were supplied by a supplier, including the associated reports.
• Agreements with suppliers on the measurement method to be used, so that supplied values align with what the product passport will require.
• A version log of measurement methods used, so that if a standard changes, it remains traceable which value was determined according to which method.
• A link between test results and the data ultimately included in the product passport, so that during an audit it is clear which source belongs to which product passport value.