Integrating Social Sustainability in the Digital Product Passport

This thesis develops a structured methodology to integrate social sustainability indicators into the Digital Product Passport (DPP). Starting from a systematic literature review and an analysis of corporate sustainability reports, 56 indicators were identified and harmonised. Building on this evidence, the research proposes an original two-level integration model and a final taxonomy designed for digital traceability systems. First, indicators are organised into five macro-categories: Labour and Working Conditions, Human Rights and Governance, Community and Social Impact, Product Integrity and Supply Chain Transparency, and Consumer-related Aspects, derived from a qualitative synthesis of the literature and only conceptually aligned with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). The model is then operationalised along the product lifecycle (design, sourcing, manufacturing, logistics, use, end-of-life and cross-phase governance), to determine when indicators become measurable. In this phase, the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) are used as a regulatory reference to map who is responsible for data collection (S1 to S4 for stakeholders; G1 for governance). Subsequently, through quantitative and qualitative analysis, the indicators are classified according to two complementary dimensions: a)??their relevance level (core, potential core, specific), reflecting their recurrence and cross-sector applicability. b)??their scope of reference (product-related vs company-related), identifying whether each indicator describes a social attribute inherent to the product itself or to the organisation managing its lifecycle. This dual classification enables the prioritisation, standardisation and operational modelling of social indicators within DPP environments, supporting interoperability with Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems. Results provide a transferable and implementable approach that connects social metrics to their data sources, lifecycle timing and accountability, thereby enabling traceability, comparability and transparency of social performance within the DPP and Product Lifecycle Management systems. The main contribution lies in the two-level integration model, the final taxonomy (product/company and core tiers) and the responsibility mapping that links indicators to actors and lifecycle stages.