To create a digital product passport for furniture, you typically need four types of documents: a material and parts list of the furniture item, information about the origins of raw materials such as wood and textiles, declarations from suppliers about substances listed as substances of concern in the EU, and information about repair, spare parts and end-of-life processing. Test reports or certificates complement these when they already exist, for example for fire safety or stability.
The detail that appears most frequently with furniture, and where companies typically get stuck, is information about substances of concern. This is not about the final product as a whole, but about the individual components: the upholstery fabric, the seat foam, the adhesive in the board material, the coating on the frame. Each of these components usually comes from a different supplier, and you must therefore obtain that declaration per component. This makes it different from most other items on the list, which you often already have in your own company.
The core of the list
The basis of a furniture passport consists of data that most manufacturers already record for production or purchasing: a description of the product, the materials it is made of, the dimensions and weight, and the name of the manufacturer or importer. This is supplemented with information about sustainability in a practical sense: can the product be repaired, can spare parts be ordered, and how should the furniture piece be best separated or processed after use. These are items that you can complete yourself with some research, because the knowledge about them is usually already present in the company.
Why substances of concern require separate attention
The regulation on which the furniture passport is based requires the reporting of substances that are on the European Candidate List of Substances of Very High Concern, when these are present in a concentration above a certain threshold in a component. For a manufacturer that does not process chemicals itself but does purchase upholstery, foam, adhesives and coatings, this means that the responsibility for that information largely rests with the suppliers. Without a declaration from that supplier, you yourself have no way of knowing whether a substance is present. This is precisely the point where a document list that looks complete on paper turns out to be incomplete in practice.
What you ask your suppliers
It is common to ask suppliers for a written declaration per delivered component or material, stating whether substances from the Candidate List are present and in what concentration. Larger suppliers often already have such a declaration ready, because other customers in other sectors ask the same question. For smaller suppliers, this is often new for both parties, and it can take some time before the declaration is complete. It is therefore advisable to ask this question early in the process, not only when the passport is being compiled. In the knowledge base with explanations for each situation there is more information about how this information relates to other rules concerning chemical substances.
Documents that are often already available
In addition to the material and substance information, there are documents that in particular already exist in project furnishing and export: a declaration of conformity where applicable, technical drawings or specifications, and warranty or maintenance information that is already provided to customers. For companies that already work with supplier assessments or a quality system, part of this documentation is therefore already available, only not yet bundled with the passport in mind.
When information is missing
The exact list of mandatory data per furniture product group will only be finalized once the corresponding delegated act is published; at this moment, a date for that is not yet definitive. This means that part of the documentation requirements can already be named with reasonable certainty, and part may still shift. For precise explanation of an obligation, and for the question of how you can best request missing information, the competent supervisory authority or a legal expert is the appropriate party; this article provides only a description of the regulation in general terms.
Getting started practically
A good first step is to make an overview of all components and materials that come together in a piece of furniture, with the name of the supplier behind each. This makes it immediately clear from whom which declaration still needs to be requested. If you would like to first see how furnipas.eu processes the data of manufacturer or importer into a passport, you can read that on the page on how data is processed, including how sensitive supplier information is handled on the page on data handling.
Would you like to first get an indication for your own situation, without having to create an account immediately? Then the free quick-scan in a few questions gives a first direction, and you can then continue reading in the topics that specifically apply to your company.