The raw material passport from self-declaration to certified document

The Raw Materials Passport was introduced in 2014 in the pursuit of the use of sustainable and circular products that are used by the energy network operators in the Netherlands.

The Raw Material Passport (GSP) is a means of increasing transparency with regard to products and components used in the energy networks. The raw material composition of a product is recorded in the Raw Material Passport, so that this can be used to facilitate discussions about sustainability and to make the product more sustainable in concrete terms.

The raw material composition of a product included in the Raw Material Passport also includes so-called 'circularity data' of the product, such as the 'content of recyclate' and the 'recyclability' of the product in question.

The next step that is now being taken is to ensure that the information included in the Raw Material Passport with regard to the mentioned circularity data is actually correct.
A certification scheme has been introduced for this by means of the Kiwa Covenant.

Certification of circularity data in raw material passport

The suppliers who supply their products to the network operators are themselves responsible for supplying information about raw material composition and circularity data in the Raw Material Passport.

Certification by Kiwa means that the specified circularity data with regard to the aspects "content of recyclate" and "recyclability" are independently assessed and validated and confirmed by issuing a Kiwa certificate.

The requirements for the certification, including the assessment system, are laid down in the Kiwa Covenant for the Raw Material Passport. Based on the Covenant, suppliers of the products are certified and receive the Kiwa Covenant certificate for the Raw Material Passport in the event of a positive assessment.

In this way, the Kiwa Covenant provides for an independent, transparent and impartial assessment with which the specified circularity data in the Raw Material Passport are validated.

Advantages of a Kiwa Covenant

The Kiwa Covenant is mainly intended for innovative products and processes for which the usual certification via an evaluation guideline would take too long. With certification based on a Kiwa Covenant, requirements are drawn up bilaterally – and therefore potentially quickly – between a limited number of parties. The development of an assessment guideline takes about one to two years and a European standard even five to seven years. A Kiwa Covenant can be ready within half a year, depending on the duration of any investigations and/or tests.

Certification procedure

Suppliers who supply products to the energy network operators that are provided with a Raw Material Passport can be certified:

  • Kiwa draws up a quotation for the certification based on the Covenant for the Raw Material Passport. The quotation specifies the costs for the entrance examination and the annual costs after the Covenant certificate has been issued;
  • After approval of the offer by the supplier, Kiwa starts with the admission investigation, which assesses whether all requirements of the Kiwa Covenant are met. The admission investigation takes place at the production location(s) of the supplier, whereby it is assessed, among other things, whether the business processes from incoming raw materials/materials up to and including delivery of the product are set up in such a way that it can be demonstrated that the values declared in the Raw Materials Passport with regard to "content of recyclate ” and “recyclability” are substantiated. If this is the case, this will be confirmed in the Kiwa Covenant certificate to be issued.

After the Kiwa Covenant certificate for the Raw Material Passport has been issued, an inspection takes place once a year per production location, during which it is again assessed whether the circularity data stated in the Raw Material Passport regarding “content of recycled material” and “recyclability” can be confirmed.

Assessment methodology

The Covenant for the Raw Material Passport includes the assessment methods for testing the correctness of the percentages of “recyclate content” and “recyclability” included in the Raw Material Passport. These assessment methods are based on international standards such as ISO 22095 “Chain of custody — General terminology and models; where separated storage/transportation of recycled material from virgin material is required for clear identification of recycled content” and IEC 62542 “Environmental standardization for electrical and electronic products and systems”. In the Covenant, these assessment methods are elaborated in chapter 2 for the recyclate content and recyclability respectively.

The Covenant only makes a statement about the correctness of the percentages of “content of recycled material” and “recyclability” included in the Raw Material Passport. Other data in the Raw Material Passport or other quality aspects of the products and components in question have not been taken into account.

Recycled content

For the validation of the percentages of recyclate in a product or part of a product specified in the Raw Material Passport, the specified percentages must be substantiated and demonstrated from the supplier's business processes. This concerns business processes from registering and checking the incoming raw materials and semi-finished products, the production of the components or products and the internal controls thereof, including storage and transport to the customers. It must be clearly and certain that the incoming raw materials or semi-finished products contain the percentages of recyclate as agreed with the supplier(s). This means that these supplied raw materials or semi-finished products must be supplied with an independent third party certificate. Annex IV of the Covenant indicates which type of third party certificates and declarations are accepted. An exception to this is the recyclate content for copper. Up to a percentage of 50% recyclate, a “Certificate of Honour” will suffice, which is a self-declaration by the buyer's supplier.

It is important that from the business processes mentioned, process registrations and calculations can be demonstrated:

  • what the precise composition of the components or products produced is;
  • that records of received and processed raw materials are available;
  • that the recycled origin of raw materials or semi-finished products has been substantiated via delivery under a certificate issued by an independent party;
  • that records of realized and sold products are available;
  • that the content of recyclate in products can be determined on the basis of the above registrations.

In the assessment by Kiwa, recycled material will be followed on a sample basis from sale to purchase (batch to batch)

A questionnaire has been included in the Covenant (Annex I) to substantiate the recylcate levels. If the questions can be answered positively, it can be expected that the stated recyclate contents will be assessed by Kiwa and subsequently validated after a positive assessment.

An example of a calculation model for the content of recyclate is included in Annex II of the Covenant. The supplier can use this to substantiate the percentage(s) of recyclate specified in the Raw Material Passport.

The assessment by Kiwa takes place directly on the basis of the specifications as included in the Raw Material Passport and as provided by the supplier. Although the Covenant certificates are so-called "product" certificates – after all, they concern products supplied to network operators – the validation takes place on the basis of assessment of the business processes that must be able to adequately substantiate the stated percentages of recyclate.

Recyclability

The following conditions must be met for demonstrating recyclability:

  • There is a functioning collection available with which discarded material is collected and distributed to a sorting or recycling installation;
  • There is a functioning sorting installation in the chain for sorting the product so that it can be recycled as a next step;
  • There is a functioning recycling installation available in the chain with which materials from which the product was constructed are separated and processed into new raw materials;
  • There is a demonstrable market for the recycled new raw materials.
  • For a product or part of a product in the Raw Material Passport, this leads to a statement as to whether or not it is recyclable.

Annex III of the Covenant includes a questionnaire for determining recyclability. Based on this and concrete substantiation by means of available documentation and registrations, the recyclability specified in the Raw Material Passport can be assessed by Kiwa and subsequently validated after a positive assessment.

Kiwa Covenant Raw Material Passport logo

The Kiwa Covenant logo may be used in connection with the raw materials passport in documentation, websites, leaflets, etc.