GS1 Exchange 2026: Substantiating environmental claims, getting hands-on with product data

“From regulation to implementation”: that is the motto of the GS1 Exchange “Data for Sustainability” on 4 November 2026 at the GS1 Germany Knowledge Center in Cologne. The event is about how companies can make sustainability data usable and implement EU requirements such as the PPWR, EmpCo, EUDR and CSRD, with keynotes from industry, retail and academia and a dedicated session on each of these topics. benelog is there with its own booth and introduces itself in the Partner Pitches in the morning. Sven Böckelmann, our Tech Lead and Co-Chair of the GS1 GSMP Visibility SMG, also speaks in the EmpCo session about how environmental claims can be substantiated.

Why correct figures are not enough

Since September 2026, the burden of proof for environmental claims lies with the advertiser. At first that sounds simple: whoever makes a claim must have the data to back it. Sven's example shows why that alone is not sufficient.

A PET bottle is advertised as “made from 80 % recycled material”. The figure is correct, but only for the body of the bottle. The cap and the label contain no recycled content. If this qualification is missing, a correct figure turns into an inadmissible claim. Robust evidence must therefore also state what a figure applies to and what it does not.

This applies all the more in the Digital Product Passport. Anyone who looks there wants to know exactly. Sven shows how such information can be represented with EPCIS 2.0 and GS1 Digital Link so that it remains traceable, using a working example.

A product passport you can touch

For the booth, Sven has brought along three of his daughter's doll dresses. For each garment there is a laminated card with a product image, a QR code and a simple NFC tag, once for the model and once for exactly this one piece. Whoever scans it is taken via a GS1 Digital Link to the product passport, either to the information that applies to all dresses of this model or to that of the individual item. The passport is built on the GS1 Web Vocabulary, just like the example passports on our Digital Product Passport page.

The real highlight is in the dresses themselves. Sven has ironed tags into them that generate a new, encrypted proof with every scan. These are Trusted Tags. They make it possible to check whether a garment is genuine and the link has not simply been copied from a card. Whoever holds the real piece in their hands can also do more than just read: register the product to themselves or report a problem with it.

Textiles are among the product groups the EU is addressing first with the Digital Product Passport. A doll's dress is a small but complete example of this.

What lies behind the scan

A GS1 Digital Link does not just lead to a single page. Behind it is a list of references, the so-called linkset. It records where the link can lead: to the product passport, to care instructions, to information about recycling or to certificates. Which destination someone sees depends on who is asking and for what purpose.

This is where Sven puts the linkset to work.

From example to your own application

With epc.is  (opens in a new tab), benelog is launching a free beta around the GS1 Exchange that lets companies publish their own Digital Product Passport. Every product gets a Trusted Link there: a GS1 Digital Link under the company's own GS1 Company Prefix, in a QR code, a DataMatrix or an RFID tag. With a Trusted Tag, the authenticity of the product can also be verified.

Read more about the requirements for environmental claims on our EmpCo page.