Sustainably sourced. Responsibly made. Environmentally friendly.
These claims have become familiar across retail, but as expectations around environmental accountability evolve, a new question is emerging: Can retailers actually prove what they're promising?
From the materials used in a product to its environmental footprint and end-of-life potential, the demand for accurate, accessible sustainability information is growing. And with new regulations on the horizon, retailers may soon need to demonstrate much more than good intentions.
Recent developments from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and sustainability technology provider Sphera suggest that product transparency is entering a new era, one where data, technology and traceability could become central to how retailers operate, compete and build consumer trust.
From sustainability promises to product-level proof
For years, retailers have invested in sustainability commitments, responsible sourcing programmes and environmental reporting. But demonstrating the sustainability credentials of individual products presents a different challenge.
In November 2026, UNEP highlighted the growing importance of Digital Product Passports (DPPs), following a series of webinars exploring how businesses can prepare for a more transparent and data-driven approach to product sustainability. Digital Product Passports are designed to bring together information about a product's materials, origins, environmental characteristics and other relevant attributes into an accessible digital record.
Under the EU's Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, DPP requirements will be introduced progressively for specified product categories, with the exact information required depending on the applicable rules.
For retailers, this represents more than another regulatory development. It raises questions about how product information is collected, verified and shared across increasingly complex supply chains. A retailer might know where a product was manufactured, but can it reliably trace the materials used to produce it? Can it demonstrate the environmental impact of those materials? And can that information be accessed consistently across suppliers, internal systems and customer-facing channels?
The challenge is shifting from making sustainability commitments to building the infrastructure needed to substantiate them.
Technology is catching up with the transparency challenge
As expectations grow, technology providers are developing new solutions to help businesses manage the complexity of product sustainability data.
On 10 November 2026, Sphera announced the launch of new AI-powered sustainability and product compliance capabilities designed to help organisations assess product environmental impacts and respond to evolving regulations. The technology supports activities including product carbon footprint calculations, lifecycle assessments and the identification of lower-impact materials.
The announcement also highlights the scale of the challenge.
According to Sphera's survey of 300 product stewardship leaders across the UK, US and Germany, 40% identified data quality as a major challenge, while 39% pointed to systems and scalability. Interestingly, 42% cited market access and customer requirements as factors driving investment decisions, compared with 39% citing compliance and risk reduction.
These findings suggest that product sustainability data is becoming more than a reporting obligation. It is increasingly relevant to commercial decision-making. For retailers managing thousands of products across multiple categories and suppliers, the implications are significant. AI could help automate parts of the data collection and assessment process, identify inconsistencies and make complex environmental information more accessible. But technology alone cannot guarantee transparency. The reliability of any system ultimately depends on the quality of the information it receives.
If retailers cannot trust their product data, can they expect consumers to trust their sustainability claims?
Could transparency become retail's next competitive advantage?
Regulation may be accelerating the shift towards product transparency, but the potential implications extend beyond compliance. Digital Product Passports could change how retailers communicate product information, support circular business models and differentiate their offerings.
Imagine a customer scanning a product to access verified information about its materials, repairability or recycling options. For fashion retailers, greater visibility could support resale and repair initiatives. For electronics retailers, access to product specifications and component information could make refurbishment and responsible disposal easier. For retailers operating across multiple markets, more consistent product data could also support procurement decisions and supplier accountability.
However, access to more information does not automatically translate into greater consumer trust. Retailers will need to consider how sustainability data is presented, which information customers actually value and whether environmental credentials meaningfully influence purchasing decisions.
There is also a commercial question.
If competing products offer similar quality and pricing, could verified sustainability information become a meaningful differentiator?
Or will transparency eventually become a basic expectation, with retailers judged less on the information they provide and more on the environmental performance it reveals?
The biggest challenge may be behind the scenes
While Digital Product Passports are often discussed as a consumer-facing innovation, some of the most significant challenges sit within retail operations. Product information is frequently spread across manufacturers, suppliers, logistics partners and internal systems. Environmental data may be incomplete, inconsistent or recorded in incompatible formats.
Creating a reliable digital record therefore requires more than attaching a QR code to a product. It demands investment in data infrastructure, supplier collaboration, interoperability and governance. For senior retail leaders, this creates important strategic considerations.
Who is responsible for ensuring product sustainability data is accurate? How should retailers work with suppliers that lack the technology or resources to provide detailed environmental information? And how can businesses integrate new transparency requirements without creating additional operational complexity?
The answers will differ across sectors, but the underlying challenge is shared.
Retailers cannot deliver meaningful product transparency without visibility across the wider value chain.
This is where collaboration between technology providers, manufacturers and retailers becomes critical. The opportunity is not simply to build better sustainability reporting systems, but to establish more connected, reliable product information that can support decisions throughout a product's lifecycle.
Beyond compliance: What comes next for sustainable retail?
The developments highlighted by UNEP and Sphera point towards a broader shift in retail sustainability. For years, environmental progress has often been communicated through corporate targets, annual reports and overarching commitments.
Increasingly, the conversation is moving towards individual products and the evidence behind their environmental credentials. This could have far-reaching implications for how retailers source, manufacture, market and sell products, but there is an important distinction between collecting sustainability data and using it to create meaningful environmental improvements.
A Digital Product Passport does not automatically make a product more sustainable. Nor does an AI-powered assessment guarantee a reduction in environmental impact. The real opportunity lies in what retailers do with the information.
Can better data help businesses identify high-impact materials, improve product design, reduce waste or extend product lifecycles?
Can it inform more responsible sourcing decisions and help retailers understand where their sustainability investments will have the greatest impact?
And crucially, can retailers turn greater transparency into measurable environmental progress?
As product-level sustainability requirements evolve, these questions are likely to become increasingly important.
Retail sustainability is entering a new phase, one where environmental claims will increasingly need to be supported by accessible, reliable and verifiable data. Digital Product Passports and AI-powered sustainability tools could help retailers navigate that transition, but the technology is only part of the equation. The priority should be building the data foundations, supplier relationships and internal capabilities needed to turn transparency into action because in the future, the most important sustainability question may not be what retailers promise to achieve but what they can prove they've achieved.