Balancing of environmental attributes in product ecosystems

Abstract

The disclosure relates to the field of sustainable industrialization, in particular the monitoring and balancing of environmental impact within product ecosystems including production chains to produce products and processing chains including recycling and / or re-use chains. The present disclosure relates to a methods, apparatuses and computer elements for monitoring or validating environmental attribute(s) associated with produced output product(s), methods, apparatuses and computer elements for monitoring an environmental impact associated with a participant of a product ecosystem and methods, apparatuses and computer elements for registering environmental attribute data associated with output product(s) resulting from a recycling process as entry in a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network.

Description

[0001] BALANCING OF ENVIRONMENTAL ATTRIBUTES IN PRODUCT ECOSYSTEMS

[0002] TECHNICAL FIELD

[0003] The disclosure relates to the field of sustainable industrialization, in particular the monitoring and balancing of environmental impact within product ecosystems including production chains to produce products and processing chains including recycling and / or re-use chains. The present disclosure relates to a methods, apparatuses and computer elements for monitoring or validating environmental attribute(s) associated with produced output product(s), methods, apparatuses and computer elements for monitoring an environmental impact associated with a participant of a product ecosystem and methods, apparatuses and computer elements for registering environmental attribute data associated with output product(s) resulting from a recycling process as entry in a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network.

[0004] TECHNICAL BACKGROUND

[0005] Production ecosystems undergo dynamic change to reduce environmental impact. Production ecosystems are exposed to dynamic changes regarding the input materials used within production chains of the product ecosystem to produce products and the processing chains available for processing produced products, for example via recycling and / or re-use. Since the input materials and processing chains contribute to the environmental impact of the output products produced by the ecosystem, the produced output products as well as the environmental impact of participants of the product ecosystem, transparency on the environmental impact can aid in improving production chains and / or processing chains to reduce the environmental impact of the product ecosystem, produced output products and product ecosystem participants. However, this transparency is hindered by the lack of systems allowing a trusted and verifiable balancing of environmental impact of the input materials, produced products and ecosystem participants. Hence, there is a need to provide methods and systems allowing a trusted and verifiable monitoring of environmental impact associated produced output products of the product ecosystem.

[0006] SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0007] Disclosed is in one aspect a computer-implemented method for monitoring environmental attribute(s) associated with produced output product(s), wherein the output product(s) are produced from one or more input material(s) by a production, the method comprising:

[0008] • gathering input material passport(s) associated with the input material(s) from a decentral network based on input material identifier(s) associated with the input material(s),

[0009] • gathering environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) from a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network based on the gathered input material passport(s),

[0010] • determining environmental attribute data associated with the produced output product(s) based on the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) and environmental attribute data associated with the production of the output product(s), • generating transaction data being associated with a transfer of the output product(s) to one or more output product consumer(s), the transaction data including the determined environmental attribute data associated with the produced output product(s) and decentral participant identifier(s) associated with the output product consumer(s),

[0011] • providing the generated transaction data to the distributed ledger network for access to the environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) via the distributed ledger network.

[0012] Disclosed is in a further aspect an apparatus for monitoring environmental attribute(s) associated with produced output product(s), wherein the output product(s) are produced from one or more input material(s) by a production, the apparatus comprising:

[0013] • a decentral network interface configured to gather input material passport(s) associated with the input material(s) from a decentral network based on input material identifier(s) associated with the input material(s),

[0014] • a distributed ledger network interface configured to gather environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) from a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network based on the gathered input material passport(s),

[0015] • an environmental attribute data determination unit configured to determine environmental attribute data associated with the produced output product(s) based on the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) and environmental attribute data associated with the production of the output product(s),

[0016] • a transaction data generator configured to generate transaction data being associated with a transfer of the output product(s) to one or more output product consumer(s), the transaction data including the determined environmental attribute data associated with the produced output product(s) and decentral participant identifier(s) associated with the output product consumer(s),

[0017] • a distributed ledger network interface configured to provide the generated transaction data to the distributed ledger network for access to the environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) via the distributed ledger network.

[0018] Disclosed is in yet a further aspect a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for validating environmental attribute data associated with produced output product(s), wherein the output product(s) is / are produced from one or more input material(s) by a production, the method comprising:

[0019] • gathering input material passport(s) associated with the input material(s) and / or output product passport(s) associated with the output product(s),

[0020] • gathering environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) and environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) from a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network based on the gathered passport(s), • validating the environmental attribute data by comparing the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) with the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s),

[0021] • providing the result of the validation.

[0022] Disclosed is in yet a further aspect an apparatus for validating environmental attribute data associated with produced output product(s), wherein the output product(s) is / are produced from one or more input material(s) by a production, the apparatus comprising:

[0023] • a decentral network interface configured to gather input material passport(s) associated with the input material(s) and / or output product passport(s) associated with the output product(s),

[0024] • a distributed ledger network interface configured to gather environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) and environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) from a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network based on the gathered passport(s),

[0025] • a data validation unit configured to validate the environmental attribute data by comparing the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) with the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s),

[0026] • a data providing interface configured to provide the result of the validation.

[0027] Disclosed is in yet a further aspect a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for validating environmental attribute data associated with produced output product(s), wherein the output product(s) is / are produced from one or more input material(s) by a production, the method comprising:

[0028] • providing transaction data associated with the output product(s),

[0029] • gathering - based on the provided transaction data - transaction data associated with child transaction(s) referenced in parent transaction(s) associated with the provided transaction data,

[0030] • gathering environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) based on the provided transaction data,

[0031] • gathering environmental attribute data included in the child transaction(s) based on the gathered transaction data associated with the child transaction(s),

[0032] • validating the environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) by comparing the gathered environmental attribute data included in the referenced transaction(s) with environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s),

[0033] • providing the result of the validation.

[0034] Disclosed is in yet a further aspect an apparatus for validating environmental attribute data associated with produced output product(s), wherein the output product(s) is / are produced from one or more input material(s) by a production, the apparatus comprising:

[0035] • a data providing interface configured to provide transaction data associated with the output product(s), • a distributed ledger network interface configured to gather - based on the provided transaction data

[0036] - transaction data associated with child transaction(s) referenced in parent transaction(s) associated with the provided transaction data,

[0037] • a data gathering interface configured to gather environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) based on the provided transaction data and environmental attribute data included in the child transaction(s) based on the gathered transaction data associated with the child transaction(s),

[0038] • a data validation unit configured to validate the environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) by comparing the gathered environmental attribute data included in the referenced transaction(s) with environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s),

[0039] • a data providing interface configured to provide the result of the validation.

[0040] Disclosed is in yet a further aspect a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for monitoring an environmental impact associated with a participant of a product ecosystem, wherein the product ecosystem includes production chain(s) to produce output product(s) and / or recycling chains to recycle end-of-life product(s) and wherein the participant operate(s) production(s) producing output product(s) from one or more input material(s), the method comprising:

[0041] • providing decentral participant identifier(s) associated with the participant of the product ecosystem,

[0042] • gathering - based on provided decentral participant identifier(s) - transaction(s) associated the decentral participant identifier(s) from a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network,

[0043] • gathering environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s), environmental attribute data associated with the production of the output product(s) and environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) from the gathered transaction(s),

[0044] • monitoring the environmental impact associated with the participant by comparing the gathered environmental attribute data associated with input material(s) with the gathered environmental attribute data associated with output product(s) and associated with the production of the output product(s),

[0045] • providing the monitoring result.

[0046] Disclosed is in yet a further aspect a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for registering environmental attribute data associated with output product(s) resulting from a recycling process of an end-of-life product or component(s) thereof as entry in a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network, the method comprising:

[0047] • gathering - based on end-product or component identifier(s) associated with the end-of-life product or component thereof - end-product passport(s) and / or component passport from a decentral network,

[0048] • gathering environmental attribute data associated with the end-product(s) and / or the component(s) thereof from a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network based on the gathered passport(s), • generating - based on the gathered environmental attribute data - transaction data to detach environmental attribute data(s) associated with the end-of-life product and / or the component(s) thereof from the end-of-life product and / or the component(s) thereof and providing generated transaction data to the distributed ledger network,

[0049] • collecting data associated with the recycling operation including environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s),

[0050] • generating - based on the environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) - transaction data to store the environmental attribute data as an entry in the distributed ledger of the distributed ledger network,

[0051] • providing the generated transaction data to the distributed ledger network for access to the environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) via the distributed ledger network.

[0052] Disclosed is in yet a further aspect an apparatus for registering environmental attribute data associated with output product(s) resulting from a recycling process as entry in a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network, the apparatus comprising:

[0053] • a decentral network interface configured to gather - based on end-product or component identifier(s) associated with the end-of-life product or component thereof - end-product passport(s) and / or component passport from a decentral network,

[0054] • a distributed ledger network interface configured to gather environmental attribute data associated with the end-product(s) and / or the component(s) thereof from a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network based on the gathered passport(s),

[0055] • a transaction data generator configured to generate - based on the gathered environmental attribute data - transaction data to detach environmental attribute data(s) associated with the end- of-life product and / or the component(s) thereof from the end-of-life product and / or the component(s) thereof and providing generated transaction data to the distributed ledger network,

[0056] • a data collector configured to collect data associated with the recycling operation including environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s),

[0057] • a transaction data generator configured to generate- based on the environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) - transaction data to store the environmental attribute data as an entry in the distributed ledger of the distributed ledger network,

[0058] • a distributed ledger network interface configured to provide the generated transaction data to the distributed ledger network for access to the environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) via the distributed ledger network.

[0059] In yet another aspect disclosed is a computer element, in particular a computer program product or a computer readable medium, with instructions, which when executed on one or more computing node(s) are configured to carry out the steps of any of the methods disclosed herein. In yet another aspect the present disclosure relates to a computer element with instructions, which when executed on one or more computing node(s) is configured to carry out the steps of the method(s) of the present disclosure or configured to be carried out by the apparatus(es) of the present disclosure.

[0060] Any disclosure, embodiments and examples described herein relate to the methods, the apparatuses, systems, and computer elements lined out above and below. Advantageously, the benefits provided by any of the embodiments and examples equally apply to all other embodiments and examples.

[0061] Embodiments

[0062] In the following, embodiments of the present disclosure will be outlined by ways of embodiments and / or examples. It is to be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to said embodiments and / or examples.

[0063] To reduce environmental impact, such as carbon footprint, associated with produced output product(s), reliable and trustworthy determination of such environmental impact as well as transparency of such environmental impact is crucial.

[0064] By using material passports to provide data for accessing environmental attribute data in combination with distributed ledger network comprising distributed ledger(s) storing such environmental attribute data , transparency on such environmental attribute data as well as transparency on the amount of environmental attribute debt transferred to the downstream output product consumer may be achieved over the complete production chain associated with the production of the output products. By hiding the identity of the parties involved in the transfer as well as the identity of the material or product transferred between the parties, a high level of confidentiality may be obtained while still allowing to reliably balance environmental attribute data within the distributed ledger network. This high level of confidentiality may allow to store environmental attribute data of a complete production and / or recycling chain of a product ecosystem within the distributed ledger without allowing any transparency on the participants and materials / products involved in such production and / or recycling chain. The transparency on the environmental attribute data may add in establishing a reliable and trustworthy calculation of environmental attribute data associated with produced output products by ensuring that environmental attribute data associated with input material(s) and production process(es) used to produce the output product is considered (e.g. added) upon determination of the environmental attribute data associated with the output product. In addition, transparency on the environmental impact of output products may help in steering the overall environmental impact of the product ecosystem or the environmental impact of participant(s) of the product ecosystem by encouraging the use of recycled input material or input material containing a recycled content to achieve a reduction in environmental impact of produced output products (e.g. an environmental attribute credit or a reduced environmental attribute debt due to the use of input materials having a reduced environmental impact). By storing environmental attribute data associated with input materials and output materials as immutable transactions within a distributed ledger and by linking such transactions with passports associated with such input materials and output products, balancing of environmental attribute(s) may be enabled. Such balancing allows product ecosystem participants as well as third parties, such as auditors and governments, to verify the environmental impact of a received input materials (corresponding to output products produced by upstream participant(s)) by checking whether the environmental attribute debt(s) associated with the received input materials and production processes used to produce such received input materials have been correctly considered during determination of the environmental attribute data associated with the received input materials. The transparency on environmental attribute data associated with received input material(s) allows to determine the correctness of the environmental attribute data associated with received input materials in a reliable and trustworthy matter, hence avoiding the use of incorrect environmental attribute data associated with input materials when determining the environmental attribute data associated with output products. This may ensure that environmental attribute data associated with produced end-products are determined in a reliable and trustworthy manner, hence allowing to use such data to steer the environmental impact of the product ecosystem or participant(s) of the product ecosystem directly or indirectly.

[0065] By storing environmental attribute data within a distributed ledger and by referencing transactions associated with input material(s) used to produce an output product within the transaction associated with the output product, balancing of environmental attribute(s) may be enabled. Such balancing allows product ecosystem participants as well as third parties, such as auditors and governments, to verify the environmental impact of a given output product by checking whether the environmental attribute debt(s) associated with input materials and production processes have been correctly considered during determination of the environmental attribute data associated with the output product. The transparency on environmental attribute data associated with input material(s) and output product(s) in combination with the immutability of the distributed ledger provides an incentive for product ecosystem participants to correctly consider the environmental attribute debt associated with input material(s) and production processes when determining the environmental impact of a produced output product, hence avoiding that environmental attribute debt(s) of input material(s) and / or production processes are not considered or are considered multiple times to lower the environmental impact of the produced output product.

[0066] By storing environmental attribute data within a distributed ledger and mirroring the transfer of input materials and output products in the physical world with transactions in the distributed ledger, the flow of environmental attribute data may be monitored for a given participant of the product ecosystem. Such monitoring allows product ecosystem participants as well as third parties, such as auditors and governments, to determine the environmental impact of a given participant by checking whether the environmental attribute debt(s) associated with input materials and production processes have been correctly considered during determination of the environmental attribute data associated with the output product. The transparency on environmental attribute data associated with input material(s) and output product(s) in combination with the immutability of the distributed ledger provides an incentive for product ecosystem participants to correctly consider the environmental attribute debt associated with input material(s) and production processes when determining the environmental impact of a produced output product, hence avoiding that environmental attribute debt(s) of input material(s) and / or production processes are not considered or are considered multiple times to lower the environmental impact of the produced output product.

[0067] By detaching the environmental attribute data from the end-of-life product or components thereof upon recycling of such end-of-life product or components thereof, the environmental attribute debt associated with such end-of-life product or component(s) thereof may be disregarded, hence avoiding the accumulation of environmental attribute debts of end-of-life products or components thereof on recycled material, resulting in increased environmental impact of such materials. Instead, the detachment allows to consider only environmental attribute debts resulting from the recycling process upon determination of the environmental attribute data for the recycled material. Avoiding such accumulation of environmental attribute debt allows to reward recycling if such recycling results in reduced environmental impact compared to virgin material, hence allowing to improve the circularity within a product ecosystem.

[0068] Various units, entities, nodes or other computing components may be described as “configured to” perform a task or tasks. Configured to shall recite structure meaning “having circuitry that” performs the task or tasks on operation. The units, circuits, entities, nodes or other computing components can be configured to perform the task even when the unit / circuit / component is not operating. The units, circuits, entities, nodes or other computing components that form the structure corresponding to “configured to” may include hardware circuits and / or memory storing program instructions executable to implement the operation. The units, circuits, entities, nodes or other computing components may be described as performing a task or tasks, for convenience in the description. Such descriptions shall be interpreted as including the phrase “configured to.”

[0069] In general, the methods, apparatuses, systems, computer elements, nodes or other computing components described herein may include memory, software components and hardware components. The memory can include volatile memory such as static or dynamic random-access memory and / or nonvolatile memory such as optical or magnetic disk storage, flash memory, programmable read-only memories, etc. The hardware components may include any combination of combinatoric logic circuitry, clocked storage devices such as flops, registers, latches, etc., finite state machines, memory such as static random-access memory or embedded dynamic random-access memory, custom designed circuitry, programmable logic arrays, etc.

[0070] Input material may refer to any good which is bought from suppliers and brought to the respective production. The input material may include starting material used in the production process of the production to produce the product. An input material can be on any step along the value chain. This means, the output product of the one production plant may be used as input material of another production plant. Likewise, the output product produced by an entity may be used by an entity consuming the produced output product as input material. Input material may include recycled input material. The input material may include input material containing a recycled content, a biobased content or a renewable content. The input material may include biodegradable input material. The input material may comprise or be any input material entering the production. The input material may comprise or be any input material provided at any entry point of the production.

[0071] Output product may include any product produced from one or more input materials by a production. The output product may be produced via one or more process steps. The process steps may involve chemical reactions and / or physical processes and / or assembly processes. The input material may be used in one or more of such production step(s). The output product may comprise or be any product produced by a production and provided at any exit point of the production. The output product may be used as input material to produce one or more product(s). The product(s) may be produced by one or more downstream participants which may use the output product(s) produced by one or more upstream participants as input material(s). The output product may be associated with an output product identifier. The output product identifier may be a digital or virtual output product identifier. The output product identifier may uniquely identify the output product within the entity producing the output product. The output product identifier may uniquely identify the output product within the decentral network. The output product identifier may be associated with an identifier element physically connected to the output product. The identifier element may encode the digital output product identifier. The output product identifier may include an output product name, an output product number, a LOT number, a batch number, a serial number, etc..

[0072] The production may include a chemical production producing one or more chemical output product(s). The production may include a discrete production one or more discrete output product(s). The chemical production may be a chemical production network that chemically converts input materials via chemical intermediates to chemical products (e.g. output products) that exit the chemical production network. The chemical production network may include a complex production network producing multiple chemical products in multiple production or value chains. A production or value chain may include one or more process(es) configured to produce one chemical product or chemical product class from one or more input material(s). The chemical production network may include connected, interconnected and / or nonconnected production chains. The production chains included in the chemical production network may be defined by the physical system boundary of the chemical production network. The system boundary may be defined by location or control over production processes. The system boundary may be defined by the value chain with staggered production processes to an end product, which may be controlled by multiple entities jointly or separately. The chemical production network may include a waste collection and sorting step, a recycling step such as pyrolysis, a cracking step such as steam cracking, a production step to produce chemical products or intermediates from provided inbound material(s), a separation step to separate intermediates of one process step and further processing steps to convert such outputs to chemical product(s) leaving the system boundary of the chemical production network. The chemical production network may produce from input materials multiple intermediates and from intermediates one or more chemical products. Input material may enter the chemical production network at entry points. The input material may be fed to the chemical production network at the start of the production process or at any intermediate stage of the production process e.g. of the production chain producing the output material. Chemical products may leave the chemical production network at exit points (or feed-out points).

[0073] The input material(s) may be associated with input material passport(s). The output product(s) may be associated with output product passport(s). The passport (e.g. input material passport or output product passport) may refer to a data set having a defined semantic structure. The defined semantic structure may be obtained by applying a semantic model, such as an aspect model, to collected data associated with the respective input material or output product. The passport may include the input material identifier or output product, at least one decentral passport identifier and data associated with the input material or output product (e.g. input material data or output product data). The passport may include one or more authentication mechanisms associated with the decentral passport identifier(s) and the input material data or output product data. The passport may relate to one or more authorization mechanisms associated with the decentral passport identifier(s) and the input material data or output product data. The one or more authorization mechanisms may include authorization rules determining if access to the at least a part of the and the input material data or output product data is granted. The may be associated with one or more digital representations of the and the input material data or output product data. The digital representations may be regarded as access element(s) providing access to the passport or parts thereof. The digital representation may include a decentral identifier and access data. The access data may include a locator or pointer, such as am url or uri, to a dedicated storage, such as a dedicated storage address, associated with the data owner of the chemical product passport. The pointer or locator may point directly to the dedicated storage. The pointer or locator may point to a data providing network node associated with the dedicated storage. The access element may include one or more authentication mechanisms associated with the decentral identifier(s) and the access data. The access element may be associated with one or more authentication mechanisms associated with the decentral identifier(s) and the access data. The access element may be provided to a decentral registry storing access elements. The decentral registry may be associated with a data providing network node. This may allow to control access to such registry and access to access element(s) stored in such registry by the data owner of the passports associated with such access elements via the data providing network node.

[0074] The data owner may be an entity having access to the passport and controlling access by data consuming services of the decentral network to the passport. The data owner may be the input material producer or the output product producer. Via the decentral passport identifier and its unique association with the data owner and passport access to the passport may be controlled by the data owner. The passport may be accessible for the data owner. The data owner may hence directly or indirectly own the passport. The passport may be stored in a data base of or associated with the data owner. The passport may be stored in a data base accessible by the data owner. The data owner may control access to the passport via the data providing service associated with the data owner. The data owner may control access to the passport. The passport may be associated with the data owner. The data owner may be the owner of the passport or the passport owner. The passport may be stored in a data base of or under control by the data owner.

[0075] The environmental attribute data may specify the environmental impact of the input material or output product, respectively. The environmental attribute data may include environmental attribute(s). The environmental attribute(s) may be data point(s) or data set(s) digitally specifying any property or characteristic related to the environmental impact. Such property may be a property or characteristic of input material(s) and / or an output product(s). The environmental attribute may indicate an environmental performance of an input material(s), the production and / or the produced output product(s). The environmental attribute may be derived from properties of the input material(s), the production and / or the output product(s). The environmental attribute may be associated with the environmental impact of one or more material(s) at any stage during their lifecycle. The stages of the material or product lifecycle may include the stages of providing raw material, producing products, such as intermediate products or end products, using products, treating end-of-life products, recycling end-of-life products, disposing end-of- life products, reusing components from end-of-life products or any subset of stages. The environmental attribute may be tracked through any activity of one or more entities participating at any stage of the lifecycle of one or more material(s) or product(s). Environmental attributes associated with any activity of one or more entities participating at any stage of the lifecycle of one or more material(s) or product(s) may be accumulated or aggregated.

[0076] The environmental attribute may include one or more characteristic(s) that are attributable to environmental or sustainability impact of the input material(s) and output product(s). The environmental attribute may include environmental, technical, recyclability or circularity characteristics(s) associated with the environmental impact of the input material(s)and / or the output product(s).

[0077] Environmental characteristic(s) may specify or quantify ecological criteria associated with the environmental impact of an input material and / or an output product. Environmental characteristic(s) may be or may be produced or derived from measurements taken during the lifecycle of input material(s) and / or output product(s). Environmental characteristic(s) may for example include impact categories such as carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions or global warming potential, primary energy demand, cumulative energy demand, biotic and abiotic resource consumption, air emissions, stratospheric ozone depletion potential, ozone formation, terrestrial and / or marine acidification, water consumption, water depletion, water availability, water pollution, noise pollution, freshwater and / or marine eutrophication potential, human carcinogenic and / or non-carcinogenic toxicity, photochemical oxidant formation, particulate matter formation, terrestrial, freshwater and / or marine ecotoxicity, ionizing radiation, agricultural and / or urban land occupation, land transformation, land use, indirect land use, deforestation, biodiversity, mineral resource consumption, and / or fossil resource consumption. Environmental characteristic(s) may be calculated from combinations of one of more environmental characteristics. Environmental characteristic(s) may for example include material or product characteristics related to the production of the material or product like recycled content, biobased content, renewable content, biodegradable, vegan, halal, kosher, palm oil-free, natural or the like.

[0078] Technical characteristic(s) may specify or quantify material or product performance at least indirectly associated with the environmental impact. Technical characteristic(s) may for example include product composition data, bill of materials, product specification data, product component data, product safety data, application property data, application instructions or product quality data. Technical characteristic(s) may be or may be produced from measurements taken during the lifecycle of one or more material(s) or product(s). Technical characteristics may be determined at any stage of the material or product lifecycle and may characterize the material or product performance for such stage or up to such stage. Technical characteristic(s) may for example include composition data, input in the production process, bill of materials, product or material specification data, product or material component data, product or material safety data, application property data, application instructions or product or material quality data. Technical characteristic(s) may for example include physical, chemical or further properties of the material or product.

[0079] Circularity characteristic(s) may specify or quantify the material or product life cycle characteristics associated with circular uses. Circularity characteristic(s) may be or may be produced from measurements taken during the lifecycle of one or more material(s) or product(s). Circularity characteristic(s) may be or may be produced from circular data recorded in one or more prior lifecycle(s) including reuse. Circularity characteristics may be determined at any stage of the material or product lifecycle and may characterize the reuse or recycling performance for such stage or up to such stage. Circularity characteristic(s) may relate to technical, mechanical, chemical and / or biological recycling. Circularity characteristic(s) may for example include recycling data, reuse rate, recycling rate, recycling loops, reused product performance, reused material or product quality or the like. Further circularity material characteristics may be derived by combining circularity characteristic(s).

[0080] Recyclability characteristic(s) may specify or quantify the material or product life cycle characteristics associated with recycling uses. Recyclability characteristic(s) may include the composition of the material including specifically tailored constituents making the material suitable for recycling. Recyclability characteristic(s) may be or may be produced from measurements taken during the lifecycle of one or more materials or product(s). Recyclability characteristic(s) may be or may be produced from recycling data recorded in one or more prior lifecycle(s). Recyclability characteristics may be determined at any stage of the material or product lifecycle and may characterize the recycling performance for such stage or up to such stage. Recyclability characteristic(s) may for example include recycling data, recyclability data, efficiency of recycling or the like.

[0081] The environmental attribute data may include emission data. Emission data may include data relating to the carbon footprint of the input material or output product, or to a Product Carbon Footprint (PCF). Emission data may include data relating to greenhouse gas emissions e.g. released in production of the input material or the output product. Emission data may include data related to greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions may include emissions such as carbon dioxide (CO2) emission, methane (CH4) emission, nitrous oxide (N2O) emission, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) emission, perfluorocarbons (PFCs) emission, sulphurhexafluoride (SF6) emission, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) emission, combinations thereof and additional emissions. Emission data may include data related to greenhouse gas emissions of an entities or companies own operations (production, power plants and waste incineration). Scope 2 may comprise emissions from energy production which is sourced externally. Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) may sum up greenhouse gas emissions and removals from the consecutive and interlinked process steps related to a particular input material or output product. Cradle-to-gate PCF may sum up greenhouse gas emissions based on selected process steps: e.g. from the extraction of resources up to the factory gate where the output product leaves the company.

[0082] The input material(s) and output product(s) may be part of a product ecosystem. The product ecosystem may include chemical products. The product ecosystem may include production chains to produce an output product. The output product may be a chemical product, an intermediate chemical product, a component, a component assembly or an end-product. The product ecosystem may include processing chains to process used output products resulting from the use of produced output products. Processing chains may include recycling chains to recycle at least part of the used output product or a component thereof. Processing chains may include re-use chains to re-use the used output product. The product ecosystem may include various participants, such as raw input material producers, chemical product producers, chemical product users, end-product producers, end-product users, EOL product collectors and recyclers. The product ecosystem may allow to use recycled materials resulting from recycling of end-of-life end products to produce new products, such as chemical products. The product ecosystem may be associated with the production and / or re-use and / or recycling of physical products.

[0083] The participants of the product ecosystem may be connected via a decentral network. The decentral network may be a peer-to-peer network. The decentral network may include one or more decentral network node(s) configured to perform data transactions. The decentral network node(s) may be associated with participants of the product ecosystem. The data transactions may be based on a transaction protocol including authentication and / or authorization mechanism(s). Based on the authentication and / or authorization mechanism(s) a peer-to-peer network between decentral network node(s) of the decentral network may be established. The one or more authentication mechanism(s) may be associated with or linked to decentral identifier(s). The one or more authentication mechanism(s) associated with decentral identifier(s) may be provided to decentral network node(s). The one or more authentication mechanism(s) associated with decentral identifier(s) may be accessible by decentral network node(s). The decentral configuration allows for more efficient use of computing resources and strengthens control by each data owner of the decentral network.

[0084] Data providing network node(s) may be configured to provide access to data stored in a dedicated storage associated with the respective data providing network node(s). The data stored in the dedicated storage may include the data related to end products or components thereof containing the recyclable material. The data stored in the dedicated storage may include the generated chemical product passport(s). The data providing network node(s) may be configured to provide access to such data upon request by data consuming network node(s). The access to such data may be under control of the data providing network node associated with the respective data. The data providing network node may be configured to authenticate the data consuming network node and / or to authorize access to such data by the data consuming network node.

[0085] Data consuming network node(s) may be configured to request access to data stored in a dedicated storage associated with the data providing network node(s). Data consuming network node(s) may be configured to determine access elements associated with produced product(s), for example by querying the decentral network, in particular decentral registries storing access elements. The data consuming network node may be associated with a participant of the product ecosystem.

[0086] The participants of the product ecosystem may be connected via a distributed ledger network. The distributed ledger network may be a peer-to-peer network with a plurality of nodes. Each node may comprise a peer-to-peer application including a distributed ledger. Each node may comprise a peer-to- peer application including of a shared database. Each node may comprise the same distributed ledger or shared database. The distributed ledger may be configured to store data, e.g. environmental attribute data and optionally amount data, with certain proofs or signatures. The distributed ledger may further be configured to store computer code in the form of executable means. In particular, an executable means may be invoked by a transaction to the (unique) communication address of the executable means in so called ‘smart contracts’. This executable means may be processed on the plurality of node(s) of the peer- to-peer network. That executable means (e.g. smart contracts) or processing logic may be stored and executed in so called ‘crypto conditions’ of the Interledger protocol (ILP) such that not necessarily all code of an executable means needs be stored in a smart contract such as Ethereum smart contract or Solana programs. Alternatively, the executable means (smart contract) may be stored and executed on a decentral computation market (e.g. Ethereum Computation Market, Trubit, Golem, Cryplets Microsoft).

[0087] The distributed ledger or shared database may be readable by participating entities (participants), such as any entity of a product ecosystem including raw material manufacturers, chemical product manufacturers, part manufacturers, assembly manufacturers, end-product manufacturers, end-product users, end-of-life product collectors and recyclers, of the peer-to-peer network. The distributed ledger or shared database may be readable by participating entities in the validation of environmental attribute data, such as end product users and auditors. The distributed ledger or shared database may be readable at least by a part of the participants of the peer-to-peer network. The distributed ledger, at least the public part (i.e. may be without private contracts) may be read at least by each participant of the peer-to-peer network. Peer-to-peer network nodes may send messages to or write messages to the peer-to-peer application. A message or transaction sent to an executable means may start the execution of a code of the executable means while using data (transaction criterions and / or other data) stored in the executable means. For instance, sending transaction data indicating generation of new units of a previously generated token, such as the environmental credit token, to such executable means may result in generation (e.g. minting) of further units of such a token.

[0088] Information among peer-nodes may be exchanged by a peer-to-peer messaging system. This means a peer node may send a message to another peer node to submit an information or to trigger an action. Messages may be clear text, signed, hashed, time-stamped and / or encrypted. This means that not all data exchanged among peer nodes need be stored on the decentralized register.

[0089] The peer-to-peer application might be built upon the following elements: peer-to-peer network comprising Consensus System / Protocol, Data Structure, Merkle Trees, Public Key Signatures and / or Byzantine Fault Tolerance. It may replicate data based on a consensus principle. It may be auditable and traceable. The peer-to-peer application may include a distributed ledger comprising at least two blocks coupled to each other (e.g. a block chain). The block chain may be a distributed , peer-to-peer-based register in which environmental attribute data may be stored. The block chain may be a permissionless block chain. The block chain may be permissioned. The block chain may be public. The blockchain may be a consortium block chain. The block chain may be a private block chain. Alternatively, the peer-to-peer application may be formed by multiple block chains which are connected via mechanisms, such as side chains or smart contracts. A peer-to-peer node may run one or more different block chain client(s). Data of the peer-to- peer application may be stored on the “decentral ledger technology”. The decentralized ledger may steer (encrypted) data storage accessible via the internet, such as in decentral data storage, object store and database (e.g. Interplanetary File System (IPFS) or storj), or in a distributed Blockchain database (e.g. BigChainDB). Access to encrypted data by third party entities may be managed via an access means formed as one or more smart contract(s) on the block chain.

[0090] The transaction data may be generated and sent to the distributed ledger network via a peer-to-peer module. The peer-to-peer module may provide an interface module, such as an application programming interface (API), and a decentral application for communication with the computer nodes of the peer-to- peer network orthe peer-to-peer application, such as a block chain or a smart contract on the block chain, e.g. the peer-to-peer module may not comprise the peer-to-peer application and may not be a node of the peer-to-peer network. This allows reducing the required processing power of the peer-to-peer module. For instance, such a peer-to-peer module can either send clear text or encrypted information or generate a secure connection (e.g. tunnel) to a peer-to-peer gateway (or so called “remote node”) in order to communicate with the peer-to-peer network. A decentral application of software may comprise local algorithms at least configured to create and transmit data, such as the transaction data, to the peer-to- peer application via the API. The decentral application (so called “DApp”) is at least configured to generate and transmit said data. For instance, the peer-to-peer module might be a so called “light node” or a decentral application (DApp) connected to a remote node. Data and messages may be signed or encrypted. Data and messages may be transmitted via a cryptographically secured tunnel or a secured internet connection to a peer-to-peer node running the peer-to-peer application, such as the block chain. To securely deploy an executable means and or data into a device a trusted execution environment, such as Intel SGX or TPM or Direct Anonymous Attestation module, may be integrated with a peer-to-peer module.

[0091] Alternatively, the peer-to-peer module may be a peer-to-peer node comprising at least a part of the peer- to-peer application. For instance, the peer-to-peer module may comprise the total data content of the peer-to-peer application. The peer-to-peer module may comprise the decentral application, the API and the peer-to-peer application, such as the block chain or decentral ledger.

[0092] The peer-to-peer network may comprise one or more validating peers or full node(s). Such validating nodes may be configured to perform a validation process, e.g. creating new entries in the distributed ledger or shared database. The peer-to-peer network node may further comprise one or more observing nodes. The observing nodes may be configured to validate transactions to establish a trust level but does not validate all transactions which is done by the validating peer. The peer-to-peer network may comprise one or more nodes participating in the proof-of-work consensus algorithm. The consensus algorithm may include one or more protocol(s) through which all nodes in a distributed system can reach a joint agreement on the current state of the decentral network. The consensus algorithm may include proof-of- work consensus algorithms, proof-of-stake consensus algorithms, proof-of-history consensus algorithms, practical byzantine fault tolerance (PBFT), delegated proof of stake, proof of burn, proof of capacity, proof of elapsed time, proof of activity, proof of weight, proof of importance, leased proof of stake or a combination thereof. Such nodes may append new blocks to the blockchain or store data in the distributed ledger.

[0093] Data stored on the distributed ledger may be stored in clear text. Data stored on the distributed ledger may be encrypted and the keys may be handled via the distributed ledger. Transactions of units of tokens may be stored in clear text on the block chain. Environmental attribute data and amount data may be stored in clear text on the block chain. Privacy preserving, secure transactions or execution of computer code may be achieved with cryptographic tools, such as zero knowledge (zk) proofs or zk Succinct Non- interactive Arguments (zk-SNARK). Transactions or algorithms may be separated into two parts: an executable means (e.g. a smart contract) on the distributed ledger and a further executable means (e.g. a private contract). A privacy preserving protocol may ensure the privacy of data and the correctness of code execution (SNARK verification may be done via the smart contract on chain). The private contract computation may be done by a set of nodes, off-chain computers or done in measured launch environment or a secure hardware enclave for attestation and sealing that cannot be manipulated by other software code running on the devices. Alternatively, secure Multi-Party-Computing (sMPC) systems may be used for transactional privacy. Examples for privacy preserving protocols and computation include HAWK and MIT Enigma. Use of zero knowledge proof (zk Proofs) allows to verify that the algorithm is executed correctly in a private contract without disclosing the input data to the verifying party, zk Proofs may be stored in and / or validated by the peer-to-peer application. In addition, selective privacy may be achieved by sharing keys to decrypt transactions for reporting and auditing purposes.

[0094] In an embodiment, the input material passport(s) are gathered via access element(s) associated with the input material passport(s). The access element(s) are stored in decentral registries of the decentral network and are under control of the data owner of the input material passport(s) associated with the access element(s) stored in the respective registry. Hence, access to the decentral registry storing access element(s) associated with input material passport(s) may be controlled by the data owner of the input material passport(s), for example via a decentral data providing network node associated with the decentral registry. This ensures that only authorized data consuming network node(s) can access and query the decentral registry to determine its contents, hence ensuring required security within the decentral network in terms of input material(s) used within a product ecosystem and output product(s) produced by such product ecosystem. The access elements may be associated with the input material passport(s) via the decentral passport identifier included in the input material passport. For instance, the access element as well as the input material passport may include the decentral passport identifier.

[0095] In an embodiment, the input material passport(s) include(s) decentral passport identifier(s), data related to transaction(s) being stored as entry / entries in the distributed ledger and being associated with the input material(s) and data related to the input material(s). The decentral identifier may comprise any unique identifier(s) uniquely associated with the producer of the chemical product, and the respective chemical product. The decentral identifier may include one or more Universally Unique Identifier(s) (UUID) or one or more Digital Identifier(s) (DID(s)). The decentral identifier may be issued by a central or decentral identity issuer. The decentral identifier may include authentication information. Via the decentral identifier and its unique association with the with the producer of the chemical product and the chemical product, access to the chemical product passport may be controlled by the producer of the chemical product. This contrasts with central authority schemes, where identifiers are provided by such central authority and access to data is controlled by such central authority. Decentral in this context refers to the usage of the identifier as controlled by the data owner. Data related to transaction(s) stored as entry / entries in the distributed ledger may include transaction identifier(s) of such transaction(s). The transaction identifier may uniquely identify the transaction within the distributed ledger network. The transaction identifier may correspond to a hash of the transaction data. Data related to the input material(s) may include input material identifier data, property data associated with the input material, input material name data, input material producer data, input material declaration data, input material safety data, emission data associated with the input material, recyclate content data associated with the input material, biobased content data associated with the input material, biodegradability data associated with the input material, production data associated with the input material, certificate of analysis data associated with the input material, certificate data associated with the input material, life cycle data associated with the input material, storage instruction data associated with the input material, assembly instructions associated with the input material, operating conditions associated with the input material or a combination thereof.

[0096] Input material identifier data may include a batch number, a serial number, a LOT number or a combination thereof. Property data may include at least one measured chemical and / or physical property of the produced input material and / or at least one chemical and / or physical property determined from collected data associated with the production of the input material. The data may be collected before, during and / or after production of the input material. The collected data may be used to determine at least one physical and / or chemical property of the input material. For instance, the at least one physical and / or chemical property may be determined from sensor data obtained from sensor(s). The data may be collected with a suitable sensor configured to measure the chemical and / or physical property. The chemical property may be a property of the input material that becomes evident during, or after, a chemical reaction. Hence, the chemical property may be any quality that can be established only by changing the chemical identity of the input material. Examples of chemical properties include heat of combustion, enthalpy of formation, toxicity, chemical stability in a given environment, flammability, oxidation state(s), ability to corrode, combustibility, acidity and basicity, chemical composition, recyclate content used for producing or manufacturing the product, bio-based content used for producing or manufacturing the product, renewable content used for producing or manufacturing the product and / or pH value. The physical property may be any property of the input material that is measurable. Hence, the value of a physical property describes a state of the input material. Examples of physical properties include absorption, brittleness, boiling point, capacitance, color, concentration, continuous discharge, density, ductility, physical dimensions, distribution, efficacy, elasticity, electric charge, electrical conductivity, electrical impedance, electric potential, flow rate, fluidity, hardness, capacity, inductance, intrinsic impedance, luminance, luminescence, luster, mass, melting point, opacity, permeability, permittivity, plasticity, pulse discharge, power, pressure, radiance, resistivity, reflectivity, refractive index, solubility, specific heat, strength, stiffness, temperature, tension, thermal conductivity, thermal resistance, weight, viscosity, volume and / or wave impedance. The measured at least one physical and / or chemical property may be obtained by sensors configured to measure such property. The sensor may be included in a measuring device. The sensor may correspond to the measuring device. Recyclate content data and / or bio-based content data may comprise any data related to the recyclate content or the biobased content used for providing or manufacturing the input material. Production data may comprise any data related to the production of the input material. Production data may include monitoring and / or control data associated with the production of the input material. Production data may be acquired priorto, during and / or after production of the input material.

[0097] In an embodiment, the distributed ledger stores transactions associated with input material(s), wherein the transactions include environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s). The transactions may be stored as entries within the distributed ledger. The transactions may be stored within blocks. The environmental attribute data may be stored within the transaction, e.g. may be stored in plain text within the distributed ledger. Hence, transparency on the environmental attribute data may be achieved. However, the identity of the participants involved in the transfer of input material or output product as well as the identity of the transferred input material or output product may be disguised to ensure the required secrecy to avoid an undesired transparency on the supply chain for a given endproduct.

[0098] The transaction(s) stored in the distributed ledger may be linked to transfer(s) of physical entities of input material(s) to the entity operating the production. Hence, the transaction(s) may mirror the transfer of input material in the physical world. The transaction(s) may signify a transfer of input material from an input material owner to the entity operating the production. The transaction(s) may be stored prior to, upon or after physically transferring the input material as entries in the distributed ledger. Mirroring the physical transfer of input materials in the distributed ledger allows to immutably record the environmental attribute data (which may also be regarded as an environmental attribute debt for the output product produced from such input material) associated with such transferred input material in the distributed ledger. Such immutable recording int he distributed ledger may allow to ensure that environmental attribute debts arising from input material(s) are correctly considered upon determination of the environmental attribute data associated with the produced output product. This may reduce fraud during determination of environmental attribute data of output products and may improve the reliability and trustworthiness of such environmental attribute data.

[0099] In an embodiment, gathering the environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) includes retrieving data related to transaction(s) from the gathered input material passport(s) and gathering environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) based on the retrieved data related to the transaction(s). Data related to the transaction(s) may include transaction identifier(s) associated with such transaction(s). The transaction identifier(s) may be used, for example by a peer-to- peer module, to query the distributed ledger of a member node of the distributed ledger network for such transaction(s) including the transaction identifier(s). The environmental attribute data included in such transaction(s) may be obtained by parsing the transaction(s) returned from the member node in response to the query. In an embodiment, the distributed ledger is a blockchain. The blockchain may include one or more blocks. A block may include one or more transaction(s).

[0100] In an embodiment, the decentral network associated with the input material passport(s) is different from the distributed ledger network. Use of separate decentral networks allows to ensure data security and data privacy without having to implement complex authentication and / or authorization rules. For instance, participants of the first decentral network may not have access to the second decentral network and vice versa. This avoids that environmental attribute data along a value chain within a product ecosystem is shared with participants not being involved in the life cycle including production, use and end-of-life treatment steps of the end product.

[0101] In an embodiment, the environmental attribute data includes data related to carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions or global warming potential, primary energy demand, cumulative energy demand, biotic and abiotic resource consumption, air emissions, stratospheric ozone depletion potential, ozone formation, terrestrial and / or marine acidification, water consumption, water depletion, water availability, water pollution, noise pollution, freshwater and / or marine eutrophication potential, human carcinogenic and / or non-carcinogenic toxicity, photochemical oxidant formation, particulate matter formation, terrestrial, freshwater and / or marine ecotoxicity, ionizing radiation, agricultural and / or urban land occupation, land transformation, land use, indirect land use, deforestation, biodiversity, mineral resource consumption, and / or fossil resource consumption. The environmental attribute data may include data related to the carbon footprint of the input material, such as carbon footprint data. The environmental attribute data may be associated with a defined unit to allow validation of the data by comparison.

[0102] In an embodiment, the environmental attribute data associated with the production of the output product(s) is determined based on energy consumption associated with the output product production and / or produced output product yield and / or emissions generated upon transport of the input material(s) to the production and the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s). The energy consumption generated during production may be associated with emissions generated by such energy consumption. Emissions may be associated with the production of the consumed energy. Emissions may be associated with emissions generated during production of the output product.

[0103] In an embodiment, the decentral participant identifier(s) associated with the output product consumer includes public key(s) associated with or controlled by the downstream output product consumer. The public key may uniquely identify the output product consumer within the distributed ledger network.

[0104] In an embodiment, the transaction data further includes data related to the output product(s). Data related to the output product may include output product identifier(s), decentral passport identifier(s) associated with the output product passport, the amount of transferred output product, the output product name, a hash value produced by hashing the output product passport or parts thereof or a combination thereof. The decentral passport identifier allows to link the transaction to the respective output product passport, allowing to verify that the transaction is indeed associated with such output product. The hash value may allow to verify the integrity of the output product passport.

[0105] In an embodiment, the transaction data is generated prior to, upon or after transfer of the physical entity / entities of the output product(s) to the output product consumer(s).

[0106] In an embodiment, the generated transaction data is provided to a member node of the distributed ledger network for storage of the transaction data as entry in the distributed ledger of the distributed ledger network. The entry may correspond to a transaction stored in the distributed ledger. The member node may validate the received transaction data. The member node may be part of a consensus protocol running a consensus on validated transactions. Upon completion of the consensus, the validated transactions may be stored as entries in the distributed ledger. The consensus protocol may result in formation of blocks which include one or more validated transactions. The blocks may be appended to the existing blockchain.

[0107] In an embodiment, the method further includes a step of generating - based on determined environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) - transaction data to store an environmental attribute credit associated with the use of recycled input material(s) and / or the production of output product(s) containing recyclable material as an entry in the distributed ledger of the distributed ledger network. The environmental attribute credit may correspond to a difference between the environmental attribute data of output products produced using recycled input material(s) and / or containing recyclable material and the environmental attribute data of output products not produced from recycled input materials and / or not containing recyclable material. Such credit may be allocated to a decentral participant identifier associated with the participant claiming the credit. This may allow to monitor created credits and reward participants depending on the amount of allocated credit. Such rewarding may allow to improve the circularity of the product ecosystem as it may encourage the use of recycled input material(s) and / or the production of output products including recyclable materials.

[0108] In an embodiment of a method for validating environmental attribute data associated with produced output product(s), the passport(s) are gathered via access element(s) associated with the passport(s), wherein the access element(s) are stored in decentral registries of the decentral network and are under control of the data owner of the passport(s) associated with the access element(s) stored in the respective registry. The access elements may be associated with the passport(s) via the decentral passport identifier included in the respective passport(s). For instance, the access element as well as the respective passport may include the decentral passport identifier.

[0109] In an embodiment of a method for validating environmental attribute data associated with produced output product(s), the input material passport(s) include(s) decentral passport identifier(s), data related to transaction(s) being stored as entry / entries in the distributed ledger and being associated with the input material(s) and / or the output product(s) and data related to the input material(s), and / or wherein the output product passport(s) include(s) decentral passport identifier(s), data related to transaction(s) being stored as entry / entries in the distributed ledger and being associated with the output product(s) and / or the input material(s) and data related to the output product(s). Data related to transaction(s) stored as entry / entries in the distributed ledger may include transaction identifier(s) of such transaction(s). Data related to the input material(s) may include the data previously listed. Data related to the output product(s) may include output product identifier data, property data associated with the output product, output product name data, output product producer data, output product declaration data, output product safety data, emission data associated with the output product, recyclate content data associated with the output product, biobased content data associated with the output product, biodegradability data associated with the output product, production data associated with the output product, certificate of analysis data associated with the output product, certificate data associated with the output product, life cycle data associated with the output product, storage instruction data associated with the output product, assembly instructions associated with the output product, operating conditions associated with the output product or a combination thereof.

[0110] Output product identifier data may include a batch number, a serial number, a LOT number or a combination thereof. Property data may include at least one measured chemical and / or physical property of the produced output product and / or at least one chemical and / or physical property determined from collected data associated with the production of the output product as previously outlined with respect to the input material. Production data may comprise any data related to the production of the output product. Production data may include monitoring and / or control data associated with the production of the output product. Production data may be acquired prior to, during and / or after production of the output product.

[0111] In an embodiment of a method for validating environmental attribute data associated with produced output product(s), the distributed ledger stores transactions associated with input material(s) and output product(s). At least a part of the transactions include environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) and at least a further part of the transactions include environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s). The transaction(s) stored in the distributed ledger may be linked to transfer(s) of physical entities of input material(s) to the entity operating the production as previously mentioned.

[0112] In an embodiment of a method for validating environmental attribute data associated with produced output product(s), gathering environmental attribute data associated with input material(s) includes determining transaction identifier(s) of transaction(s) associated with the input material(s), gathering the transaction(s) associated with the input material(s) from the distributed ledger based on the determined transaction data and gathering the environmental attribute data from the gathered transaction(s). The transaction identifier(s) may be determined from the gathered input material passport(s). In an embodiment of a method for validating environmental attribute data associated with produced output product(s), gathering environmental attribute data associated with output products(s) includes determining transaction identifier(s) of transaction(s) associated with the output products(s), gathering the transaction(s) associated with the output products(s) from the distributed ledger based on the determined transaction data and gathering the environmental attribute data from the gathered transaction(s). The transaction identifier(s) may be determined from the gathered output product passport(s).

[0113] In an embodiment of a method for validating environmental attribute data associated with produced output product(s), gathering environmental attribute data associated with input material(s) includes gathering transaction(s) associated with input material(s) based on data related to the output product(s) and gathering the environmental attribute data from the gathered transaction(s). Environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) may be gathered by determining transactions associated with output product(s) based on the data related to the output product(s). The determined transactions may include one or more transaction identifier(s) of transaction(s) associated with input material(s) used to produce the output product. Hence, referencing of associated transactions within other transaction(s) allows to determine transaction(s) associated with the input material(s) based on data related to the output product without requiring any data related to the input material(s).

[0114] In an embodiment of a method for validating environmental attribute data associated with produced output product(s), gathering environmental attribute data associated with output product(s) includes gathering transaction(s) associated with output product(s) based on data related to the input material(s) and gathering the environmental attribute data from the gathered transaction(s). Environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) may be gathered by determining transactions associated with input material(s) based on the data related to the input material(s). The transaction identifier(s) of the determined transactions may be used to determine transactions which reference such transaction identifier(s). Hence, referencing of associated transactions within other transaction(s) allows to determine transaction(s) associated with the output product(s) based on data related to the input material(s) without requiring any data related to the output product(s).

[0115] In an embodiment of a method for validating environmental attribute data associated with produced output product(s), comparing the gathered environmental attribute data includes

[0116] • retrieving environmental attribute(s) associated with the input material(s) from the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) and determining total amount(s) of the retrieved environmental attribute(s),

[0117] • retrieving environmental attribute(s) associated with the output product(s) from the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) and determining total amount(s) of the retrieved environmental attribute(s), • comparing the determined total amount(s) of environmental attribute(s).

[0118] Total amounts may be determined by summing up matching environmental attribute(s) included in different transaction(s) associated with the respective input material(s) or output product(s). The total amount(s) may be compared per environmental attribute. Comparison may include determining a deviation. The deviation may be determined per environmental attribute or per group of environmental attribute(s). The deviation may be compared to given threshold value(s) to determine whether the environmental impact is considered validated or not. The threshold value(s) may reflect a deviation in total amount(s) per environmental attribute or per group of environmental attribute(s).

[0119] In an embodiment of a method for validating environmental attribute data associated with produced output product(s), comparing the gathered environmental attribute data includes

[0120] • providing composition data associated with the output product(s),

[0121] • retrieving environmental attribute(s) associated with the input material(s) from the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) and determining total amount(s) of the retrieved environmental attribute(s) based on composition data associated with the output product(s),

[0122] • retrieving environmental attribute(s) associated with the output product(s) from the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) and determining total amount(s) of the retrieved environmental attribute(s),

[0123] • comparing the determined total amount(s) of environmental attribute(s).

[0124] Composition data may include the amounts of input materials used to produce a given output product. The use of composition data may allow to validate the environmental attribute data associated with a given output product since this requires consideration of the stoichiometry. The composition data may be included in the output product passport. The composition data may be provided via a communication interface to the entity performing the validation. This may ensure that only trusted and authorized entities have access to sensitive composition data.

[0125] In an embodiment of a method for validating environmental attribute data associated with produced output product(s), the environmental attribute data is validated if the environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) at least partly matches the environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s). Matching may be determined based on a validation score. The validation score may be obtained from the comparison of the total amount(s) of environmental attribute(s). The validation score may be determined per environmental attribute. The validation score may indicate the difference between the compared total amount(s). The environmental attribute data may be considered as validated if the validation score is above or below a given threshold value.

[0126] In an embodiment of a method for validating environmental attribute data associated with produced output product(s), the method further includes a step of gathering amount data associated with the input material(s) and amount data associated with the output product(s) from the distributed ledger of the distributed ledger network based on the gathered passport(s). The amount data may be included in the transaction(s) associated with the input material(s) and output product(s). The transaction(s) may be gathered based on the data included in the passport(s) as previously described.

[0127] In an embodiment of a method for validating environmental attribute data associated with produced output product(s), the method further includes a step of validating the mass balance between input material(s) and produced output product(s) by comparing the gathered amount data associated with the input material(s) with the gathered amount data associated with the output product(s) and providing the result of the validation. Validation of the mass balance may ensure that flows of input material(s) and output product(s) can be accounted for at all times, hence avoiding “loss” of input material(s) and / or output product(s) from the product ecosystem due to improper disposal, for example of waste end-of-life products.

[0128] In an embodiment of a method for validating environmental attribute data associated with produced output product(s), the transaction data associated with the output product(s) includes transaction identifier(s) of transaction(s) associated with the output product(s).

[0129] In an embodiment of a method for validating environmental attribute data associated with produced output product(s), gathering transaction data associated with child transaction(s) includes determining output product transaction(s) associated with the output product(s) based on the provided transaction data and determining transaction data associated with the child transaction(s).

[0130] In an embodiment of a method for validating environmental attribute data associated with produced output product(s), transaction data associated with the child transaction(s) is repeatedly determined based on transaction data associated with parent transaction(s). This may allow to determine all input material(s) and environmental attribute data associated with the production of the output product and input materials as previously described. The number of repetitions may define the depth of the validation and may hence decide the number of production steps to be incorporated in the validation of the environmental attribute data.

[0131] In an embodiment of a method for validating environmental attribute data associated with produced output product(s), comparing the gathered environmental attribute data includes

[0132] • retrieving environmental attribute(s) from the gathered environmental attribute data included in child transaction(s) and determining total amount(s) of the retrieved environmental attribute(s),

[0133] • retrieving environmental attribute(s) associated with the output product(s) from the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) and determining total amount(s) of the retrieved environmental attribute(s),

[0134] • comparing the determined total amount(s) of environmental attribute(s). Total amounts may be determined by summing up matching environmental attribute(s) included in different transaction(s) associated with the respective input material(s) or output product(s). The total amount(s) may be compared per environmental attribute. Comparison may include determining a deviation. The deviation may be determined per environmental attribute or per group of environmental attribute(s). The deviation may be compared to given threshold value(s) to determine whether the environmental impact is considered validated or not. The threshold value(s) may reflect a deviation in total amount(s) per environmental attribute or per group of environmental attribute(s).

[0135] In an embodiment of the method for monitoring an environmental impact associated with a participant of a product ecosystem, the decentral participant identifier(s) include public key(s) associated with or controlled by the participant. The public key(s) may uniquely identify the participant with the product ecosystem as well as within the distributed ledger network. This may allow to monitor the environmental impact using such public key(s) without rendering the identity of the participant transparent. This may ensure a high level of security while at the same time allowing transparency on actions of the participant, such as production of output products, impacting the environment.

[0136] In an embodiment of the method for monitoring an environmental impact associated with a participant of a product ecosystem, comparing the gathered environmental attribute data includes

[0137] • retrieving environmental attribute(s) associated with the input material(s) from the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) and determining total amount(s) of the retrieved environmental attribute(s),

[0138] • retrieving environmental attribute(s) associated with the production of the output products(s) from the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the production of the output products(s) and determining total amount(s) of the retrieved environmental attribute(s),

[0139] • retrieving environmental attribute(s) associated with the output product(s) from the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) and determining total amount(s) of the retrieved environmental attribute(s),

[0140] • comparing the determined total amount(s) of environmental attribute(s) associated with the input material(s) with the sum of the total amount(s) of environmental attribute(s) associated with the production of the output product(s) and the output product(s).

[0141] Total amounts may be determined by summing up matching environmental attribute(s) included in different transaction(s) associated with the respective input material(s) or output product(s). The total amount(s) may be compared per environmental attribute. Comparison may include determining a deviation. The deviation may be determined per environmental attribute or per group of environmental attribute(s). The deviation may be compared to given threshold value(s) to determine whether the environmental impact is considered validated or not. The threshold value(s) may reflect a deviation in total amount(s) per environmental attribute or per group of environmental attribute(s).

[0142] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the following, the present disclosure is further described with reference to the enclosed figures. The same reference numbers in the drawings and this disclosure are intended to refer to the same or like elements, components, and / or parts.

[0143] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a participant network of a product ecosystem associated with a distributed ledger network for exchange of environmental attribute data associated with input materials and output products produced from such input materials in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0144] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a participant network of a product ecosystem associated with a decentral peer-to-peer network for exchange of passports associated with input materials and output products produced from such input materials in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0145] FIG. 3 illustrates a detailed view of distributed ledger network nodes of the distributed ledger network illustrated in FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0146] FIG. 4A illustrates a transfer of environmental attribute data associated with an output product from an output product producer to a downstream participant of a product ecosystem via a distributed ledger network illustrated in FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0147] FIG. 4B shows a sequence diagram of a method for generating transaction data and storing the transaction data as an entry in a distributed ledger of the distributed ledger network of FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0148] FIG. 5 illustrates a schematic illustration of providing access via a decentral data providing network node associated with a data owner to a product passport associated with a produced output product using a decentral data consuming network node associated with an output product consumer via a decentral network in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0149] FIG. 6 illustrates a first example of a digital access element including a decentral identifier and access data in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0150] FIG. 7 illustrates a second example of a digital access element including a decentral identifier and access data in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0151] FIG. 8A illustrates a block diagram of transfers of input materials and a produced output product containing the input materials between participants of a product ecosystem in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0152] FIG. 8B is a block diagram illustrating the transactions associated with the input material and output product transfers shown in FIG. 8A in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8C illustrates an example system for monitoring the environmental impact associated with output products produced from one or more input materials by a production in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0153] FIG. 8D illustrates an example system for verifying or monitoring the environmental attribute data associated with a received input material in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0154] FIG. 9 illustrates system for validating environmental attribute data flows within a linear product ecosystem comprising several participants involved in supplying input materials and producing output product(s) using said input materials in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0155] FIG. 10A illustrates an example system for validating and / or monitoring environmental attribute data flows within a circular product ecosystem comprising several participants involved in supplying input materials and producing output product(s) using said input materials in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0156] FIG. 10B illustrates a further example system for validating and / or monitoring environmental attribute data flows within a circular product ecosystem comprising several participants involved in supplying input materials and producing output product(s) using said input materials in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0157] FIG. 11A illustrates an example system for monitoring the environmental impact associated with a participant of the product ecosystem in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0158] FIG. 11 B illustrates an example system for monitoring the environmental impact associated with output product(s) produced from one or more input material(s) by a production in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0159] FIG. 12 illustrates an example system for monitoring the environmental impact associated with a single output product produced from one or more input material(s) by a production in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0160] FIG. 13 illustrates example method for monitoring the environmental impact associated with output product(s) produced from one or more input material(s) by a production in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0161] FIG. 14 illustrates example method for validating environmental attribute data associated with output product(s) produced from one or more input material(s) by a production in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 15A illustrates an aspect of the method illustrated in FIG. 14 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0162] FIG. 15B illustrates a further aspect of the method illustrated in FIG. 14 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0163] FIG. 16 illustrates a further example method for validating environmental attribute data associated with output product(s) produced from one or more input material(s) by a production in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0164] FIG. 17 illustrates an example method for validating environmental attribute data associated with a participant of a product ecosystem in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0165] FIG. 18 illustrates an example method for registering environmental attribute data associated with a recycled material as an entry in a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0166] FIG. 19A and FIG. 19B illustrate examples of a system for validating transaction data including environmental attribute data associated with a recycled material in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0167] FIG. 20 illustrates an example method for validating transaction data associated with output products produced from a recycling process in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0168] DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0169] The following embodiments are mere examples for implementing the methods, the systems or the computer elements disclosed herein and shall not be considered limiting.

[0170] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a participant network 100 of a product ecosystem associated with a distributed ledger network 136 for exchange of environmental attribute data associated with input materials and output products produced from such input materials. The distributed ledger network 136 may include one or more decentral network participants 102 to 114. The decentral network participants 102 to 114 may be part of a product ecosystem. The product ecosystem may include chemical products. The product ecosystem may include production chains to produce an end-product. The product ecosystem may include recycling chains to recycle at least part of an end-of-life (EOL) product. The participant network 100 may include the following product ecosystem participants: input material supplier(s) 104, chemical product producer(s) 102, chemical product consumer(s) 106, OEMs (original equipment manufacturer(s)) 108, end-product user(s) 110, EOL product collector(s) 112 and recycler(s) 114. The participant network 100 may include a chemical supply chain including input material supplier(s) 104 and chemical product producer(s) 102. The product ecosystem may allow to use materials resulting from recycling of end-of-life products to produce new products, such as chemical products. The product ecosystem may be associated with the production and / or recycling of physical products. The product may be a chemical product, an intermediate chemical product, a component, a component assembly, an end product, an end-of-life product or a recycled product.

[0171] The participant(s) of the distributed ledger network 136 may be associated with the production the product and / or recycling of the product. The decentral network participant 102 to 114 may referto a manufacturer of physical products, such as input material supplier 104, chemical product producer 102, chemical product consumer 106, OEM 108, a user of physical goods, such as end-product user 110, and / or a participant of a recycling chain associated with the physical product, such as EOL product collector 112 and recycler 114. The decentral network participant may be associated with a decentral participant identifier. The decentral participant identifier may uniquely identify the decentral network participant within the distributed ledger network 136. The decentral participant identifier may correspond to a or be derived from the public key associated with the respective decentral network participant 102 to 114. The decentral participant identifier may signify an account on the distributed ledger network 136 being associated with the respective decentral network participant.

[0172] The participant(s) of the participant network 100 may be connected via material flows 130. The material flows 130 may correspond to the flow of output product from one participant of the participant network 100 to the downstream participant of the participant network 100. The material flows 130 may refer to a continuous or a discontinuous flow of output product. The output product produced by one participant of the participant network 100, such as chemical product producer 102, may be used as input material by the respective downstream participant, such as chemical product consumer 106. The flow of output product may include any means of transportation suitable to transport the output product from the participant producing the output product to the downstream participant. The means of transportation may include pipes, containers, barrels, packages. The material flows 130 may be associated with raw materials used to produce chemical products, such as virgin raw materials supplied by input material supplier 104 and / or recycled materials produced by recycler 114. The material flows 130 may be associated with chemical intermediate products and / or chemical products produced by chemical product producer 102. The material flows 130 may be associated with discrete products, such as parts, components, part assemblies and end-products. Discrete products may be produced from chemical products produced by chemical product producer 102. Discrete products, such as end-products, may be produced from further discrete products. Discrete products may be produced by chemical product consumer 106 and OEM 108. The material flows 130 may be associated with end-products and end-of- life products. The material flows 130 may be associated with virgin materials (e.g. materials not having undergone a recycling process), recycled materials, chemical intermediate products, chemical products and / or discrete products. At least part of the participants of the participant network 100 may be associated with or may have access to distributed ledger network nodes 116 to 128. While only one distributed ledger network 136 is shown in FIG. 1 , the participants of the participant network 100 may have access to at least one additional distributed ledger network (not shown). At least part of the participants of the participant network 100 may be associated with distributed ledger network nodes 116 to 128. The distributed ledger network nodes 116 to 128 may form distributed ledger network 136. Distributed ledger network 136 may be a peer-to-peer network. The peer-to-peer network may not comprise a central instance and / or third party organization. Nodes 116 to 128 of distributed ledger network 136 and / or participants 102 to 114 may be connected to other node(s) of distributed ledger network 136 and / or participant(s) of distributed ledger network 136. For instance, at least one physical standard network (wired and / or wireless) may be used for connection. For communicating via the at least one physical standard network suitable transceiver modules may be arranged in the respective entities / devices. Nodes 116 to 128 may have equal rights which may distinguishes them from a server-client structure.

[0173] With reference to FIG. 3, nodes 116 to 128 may implement a distributed ledger server 304, 310, 316, a database layer 302, 308, 314 and a consensus algorithm 306, 312, 318. The distributed ledger server 304, 310, 316 and a consensus algorithm 306, 312, 318 may be part of a distributed ledger control layer which serves as a distributed ledger anchoring. The same distributed ledger server 304, 310, 316, a database layer 302, 308, 314 and a consensus algorithm 306, 312, 318 may be implemented on each of nodes 116 to 128, e.g. each node may comprise the same content and the same code (including one or more executable means) may be executed on each node. Only a part of the entire nodes 116 to 128 of the distributed ledger network 136 may implement the distributed ledger server, database layer and consensus algorithm as illustrated in FIG. 3 and / or only a part of the nodes of distributed ledger network 136 may be configured to execute algorithms of a smart contracts. Since the validation / verification requires a considerable computational effort, it may be advantageous for reasons of efficiency, if only a part of the nodes 116 to 128 perform the execution of executable means and / or validation algorithm(s) and / or authentication algorithm(s).

[0174] With continued reference to FIG. 3, the database layer 302, 308, 314 may store the distributed ledger. The distributed ledger may be inspected by all participants 102 to 114 of the distributed ledger network 136. In one example, each of nodes 116 to 128 may store the (entire) distributed ledger, such as the blockchain. In another example, only part of the distributed ledger may be provided on a node (light node). The distributed ledger may be a block chain. However, the following remarks can be easily transferred to other distributed ledgers, such as a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG). A directed acyclic graph, such as IOTA or Tangle, means that blocks (or nodes of the graph) are coupled to each other via directed edges. Thereby, direct means that the (all) edges have (always) a same direction similar to time. In other words, it is not possible to step back. Eventually, acyclic means that loops do not exist. The block chain may be a permissionless or permissioned block chain. The block chain may be a public block chain, a hybrid block chain, a consortium block chain or a private block chain. The distributed ledger may be formed from multiple block chains which are connected via mechanisms, such as side chains or smart contracts or bridges. Interoperability among block chains may be established. The block chain may be formed by at least two interconnected blocks. The first block may also be called genesis block. Each block (except for the first block) may refer to each previous block. A new block may be created by a computationally intensive process (for example, so called “mining” or through another appropriate process, such as voting) and will be particularly provided to all nodes 116 to 128 of the peer-to-peer network. In particular, a (newly) received transaction may be validated, saved and published in the current block of the block chain.

[0175] With continued reference to FIG. 3, the distributed ledger network 136 may be configured to perform one or more consensus algorithms. The nodes 116 to 128 may be configured to perform the consensus algorithm on transactions received from the distributed ledger server 304, 310, 316 and to broadcast the results of the consensus to other nodes. The consensus algorithm 306, 312, 318 may be connected to distributed ledger server layer distributed ledger server 304, 310, 316 to allow exchange of information between the algorithm and the server, for example on whether a consensus was reached on a proposed new entry to the distributed ledger or a proposed new block or not. The consensus algorithm(s) may be used to process received transactions. The consensus algorithm(s) may be used to process validated transactions. The consensus algorithm(s) may be performed by at least a part of the nodes of the distributed ledger network 136. The consensus algorithm may include one or more protocol(s) through which all full nodes in the distributed ledger network 136 can reach a joint agreement on the current state of the network. The consensus algorithm may include proof-of-work consensus algorithms, proof-of-stake consensus algorithms, proof-of-history consensus algorithms, byzantine fault tolerance algorithms, delegated proof of stake algorithms, proof of burn algorithms, proof of capacity algorithms, proof of elapsed time algorithms, proof of activity algorithms, proof of weight algorithms, proof of importance algorithms, leased proof of stake algorithms or a combination thereof. For instance, the consensus algorithm may include a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm. In another instance, the consensus algorithm may include a combination of a proof-of-history and a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm. In yet another instance the consensus algorithm may be a byzantine fault tolerant agreement protocol over collectively trusted subnetworks.

[0176] Providing separate layers may be advantageous, as database functions are geared at high throughput, e.g., for data loading and retrieval, access and querying, whereas distributed ledger functions usually provide lower throughput, yet ensure data immutability, tamper resistance, evidence, decentralized consensus over state, and replication of state across diverse nodes.

[0177] Returning to FIG. 1 and with continued reference to FIG. 3, the distributed ledger network 136 may be configured to perform data transactions 132. Such data transactions 132 may be associated with material flows 130 between participants of the participant network 100. Data transactions 132 may include data transactions between peer-to-peer modules (or clients) as described later on and the distributed ledger network 136. For instance, peer-to-peer modules may be configured to generate transaction data and provide the generated transaction data to distributed ledger network 136, for example as described in the context of FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B.

[0178] The transaction data may be associated with the storage of environmental attribute data of input materials and / or output products in the distributed ledger, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8A to FIG. 18. Such transaction data may, for example, result in generation of an asset object for environmental attribute data, such as environmental footprint data, associated with the input materials and / or output products stored as an entry in the distributed ledger.

[0179] The environmental attribute data may specify the environmental impact of the input material or output product, respectively. The environmental attribute data may include environmental attribute(s). The environmental attribute(s) may be data point(s) or data set(s) digitally specifying any property or characteristic related to the environmental impact. Such property may be a property or characteristic of input material(s) and / or an output product(s). The environmental attribute may indicate an environmental performance of an input material(s), the production and / or the produced output product(s). The environmental attribute may be derived from properties of the input material(s), the production and / or the output product(s). The environmental attribute may be associated with the environmental impact of one or more material(s) at any stage during their lifecycle. The stages of the material or product lifecycle may include the stages of providing raw material, producing products, such as intermediate products or end products, using products, treating end-of-life products, recycling end-of-life products, disposing end-of- life products, reusing components from end-of-life products or any subset of stages. The environmental attribute may be tracked through any activity of one or more entities participating at any stage of the lifecycle of one or more material(s) or product(s). Environmental attributes associated with any activity of one or more entities participating at any stage of the lifecycle of one or more material(s) or product(s) may be accumulated or aggregated.

[0180] The environmental attribute may include one or more characteristic(s) that are attributable to environmental or sustainability impact of the input material(s) and output product(s). The environmental attribute may include environmental, technical, recyclability or circularity characteristics(s) associated with the environmental impact of the input material(s)and / or the output product(s).

[0181] Environmental characteristic(s) may specify or quantify ecological criteria associated with the environmental impact of an input material and / or an output product. Environmental characteristic(s) may be or may be produced or derived from measurements taken during the lifecycle of input material(s) and / or output product(s). Environmental characteristic(s) may for example include impact categories such as carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions or global warming potential, primary energy demand, cumulative energy demand, biotic and abiotic resource consumption, air emissions, stratospheric ozone depletion potential, ozone formation, terrestrial and / or marine acidification, water consumption, water depletion, water availability, water pollution, noise pollution, freshwater and / or marine eutrophication potential, human carcinogenic and / or non-carcinogenic toxicity, photochemical oxidant formation, particulate matter formation, terrestrial, freshwater and / or marine ecotoxicity, ionizing radiation, agricultural and / or urban land occupation, land transformation, land use, indirect land use, deforestation, biodiversity, mineral resource consumption, and / or fossil resource consumption. Environmental characteristic(s) may be calculated from combinations of one of more environmental characteristics. Environmental characteristic(s) may for example include material or product characteristics related to the production of the material or product like recycled content, biobased content, renewable content, biodegradable, vegan, halal, kosher, palm oil-free, natural or the like.

[0182] Technical characteristic(s) may specify or quantify material or product performance at least indirectly associated with the environmental impact. Technical characteristic(s) may for example include product composition data, bill of materials, product specification data, product component data, product safety data, application property data, application instructions or product quality data. Technical characteristic(s) may be or may be produced from measurements taken during the lifecycle of one or more material(s) or product(s). Technical characteristics may be determined at any stage of the material or product lifecycle and may characterize the material or product performance for such stage or up to such stage. Technical characteristic(s) may for example include composition data, input in the production process, bill of materials, product or material specification data, product or material component data, product or material safety data, application property data, application instructions or product or material quality data. Technical characteristic(s) may for example include physical, chemical or further properties of the material or product.

[0183] Circularity characteristic(s) may specify or quantify the material or product life cycle characteristics associated with circular uses. Circularity characteristic(s) may be or may be produced from measurements taken during the lifecycle of one or more material(s) or product(s). Circularity characteristic(s) may be or may be produced from circular data recorded in one or more prior lifecycle(s) including reuse. Circularity characteristics may be determined at any stage of the material or product lifecycle and may characterize the reuse or recycling performance for such stage or up to such stage. Circularity characteristic(s) may relate to technical, mechanical, chemical and / or biological recycling. Circularity characteristic(s) may for example include recycling data, reuse rate, recycling rate, recycling loops, reused product performance, reused material or product quality or the like. Further circularity material characteristics may be derived by combining circularity characteristic(s).

[0184] Recyclability characteristic(s) may specify or quantify the material or product life cycle characteristics associated with recycling uses. Recyclability characteristic(s) may include the composition of the material including specifically tailored constituents making the material suitable for recycling. Recyclability characteristic(s) may be or may be produced from measurements taken during the lifecycle of one or more materials or product(s). Recyclability characteristic(s) may be or may be produced from recycling data recorded in one or more prior lifecycle(s). Recyclability characteristics may be determined at any stage of the material or product lifecycle and may characterize the recycling performance for such stage or up to such stage. Recyclability characteristic(s) may for example include recycling data, recyclability data, efficiency of recycling or the like.

[0185] The environmental attribute data may include emission data. Emission data may include data relating to the carbon footprint of the input material or output product, or to a Product Carbon Footprint (PCF). Emission data may include data relating to greenhouse gas emissions e.g. released in production of the input material or the output product. Emission data may include data related to greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions may include emissions such as carbon dioxide (CO2) emission, methane (CH4) emission, nitrous oxide (N2O) emission, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) emission, perfluorocarbons (PFCs) emission, sulphurhexafluoride (SF6) emission, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) emission, combinations thereof and additional emissions. Emission data may include data related to greenhouse gas emissions of an entities or companies own operations (production, power plants and waste incineration). Scope 2 may comprise emissions from energy production which is sourced externally. Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) may sum up greenhouse gas emissions and removals from the consecutive and interlinked process steps related to a particular input material or output product. Cradle-to-gate PCF may sum up greenhouse gas emissions based on selected process steps: e.g. from the extraction of resources up to the factory gate where the output product leaves the company.

[0186] The transaction data may include asset data, transaction inputs, transaction outputs and further data. The asset data may include input material data or output product data respectively, such as input material identifier(s), input material name, input material type or a combination thereof. The asset data may include the transaction ID of the transaction creating the asset in the distributed ledger. The transaction inputs may include the decentral participant identifier of the owner of the input material or output product, respectively. The generated asset may be assigned to an owner, such as the producer of the respective input material or output product (e.g. the transaction data may include an owner identifier, such as a decentral participant identifier which is included in the transaction stored as entry in the distributed ledger). The generated asset may be assigned to the decentral participant identifier associated with the owner of the respective input material or output product. This may allow the owner to control transfer of the asset via transaction(s) to further participants, such as downstream participants, of the participant network 100. The further data may include the input material identifier, the amount of transferred input material, the input material name, the input material type, a decentral input material identifier or a combination thereof. The decentral material identifier may be associated with or included in the input material passport associated with the material. The decentral input material identifier may uniquely denote the input material within the decentral peer-to-peer network described in FIG. 2. The further data may include the output material identifier, the amount of transferred output material, the output material name, the output material type or a combination thereof. Input material identifier may include a batch number, a LOT number, a serial number or a combination thereof.

[0187] The transaction data may be associated with a transfer environmental attribute data and associated output products from one participant of the participant network 100 to a downstream participant. Such transaction data may, for example, result in a change of ownership of the asset representing the respective material or product in the distributed ledger from a previous owner to a new owner. The new owner may represent the downstream participant of the previous participant (e.g. previous owner) of the participant network 100. The transaction data may include asset data, transaction inputs, transaction outputs and further data. The asset data may include input material data or output product data respectively, such as input material identifier(s), input material name, input material type or a combination thereof. The asset data may include the transaction ID of the transaction creating the asset in the distributed ledger. The transaction inputs may include the decentral participant identifier of the owner of the input material or output product, respectively. The transaction inputs may further include previous transactions associated with said input material or output product. Referencing previous transactions associated with the input material or output product allows to perform environmental attribute balancing within a transaction because the amount(s) of environmental attribute(s) referenced in the transaction inputs can be compared to the amount(s) of environmental attribute(s) to be transferred to the downstream participant, hence allowing to implement rules that the input environmental attribute(s) must equal the output environmental attribute(s). Performing automatic balancing of environmental attribute(s) within each transaction ensures that the environmental attribute flows associated with mass flows are accounted for at any time and guarantees fraud protection since environmental attribute data associated with input materials transferred by an upstream participant to the participant needs to be considered for generation of environmental attribute data associated with output products produced by said participant from such input materials. Hence, the balancing of environmental attribute(s) within the distributed ledger ensures that participants producing an output product from input materials correctly consider the environmental attribute(s) of input materials used to produce the output product when transferring the environmental attribute data associated with the output product to the downstream participant consuming the output product.

[0188] Data transactions 132 may include data transactions between peer-to-peer nodes 116 to 128. For instance, a data transaction received by a node of distributed ledger network 136 may be broadcasted to at least part of the other nodes of distributed ledger network 136. Each transaction provided to distributed ledger network 136 may contain a signature. For instance, the transaction data may be signed using a private key associated with the respective participant of network 100. Prior to processing a transaction, the transaction may be validated by checking the signature of the transaction for example by comparing the signature with valid signatures stored e.g. in the peer-to-peer application. A part of nodes 116 to 128 may conduct the validation process. If the transaction is valid, it may be further processed, for example it may be storage as entry in the distributed ledger. Storing the transaction data as an entry in the distributed ledger may include creating a block containing the transaction data and appending the block to the blockchain or creating a genesis block of the blockchain. It shall be understood that other means than signatures (e.g. communication addresses, certificates, etc.) may be used for a validation process or authentication process, respectively.

[0189] Validation, analytics and optimization may be done on-chain or off-chain. Off-chain validation, analysis and / or optimization can be managed by the peer-to-peer application, like the code on the block chain. Powerful means, in particular, a high computing power. In other words, a valid entry in the peer-to-peer application, such as a block chain, is assumed if (only) a part of the peers 116 to 128 come to a positive result. It shall be understood that only a single, especially particularly powerful peer can perform the validation, analytics and / or optimization process while further nodes may be configured as monitoring nodes.

[0190] The peer-to-peer application may be configured to validate transaction data received from client device(s) and to store (validated) transaction data as entry in the distributed ledger. The peer-to-peer application may be configured to run a consensus protocol. The peer-to-peer application may be configured to receive query data, to query the distributed ledger and to return the result of the query data. The peer- to-peer application may be configured to communicate with client devices (e.g. receive data from client devices and send data to client devices).

[0191] Participants 102 to 114 may run a peer-to-peer application on nodes 116 to 128. At least part of the participants 102 to 114 may be connected with distributed ledger network 136 via peer-to-peer modules (or clients). The peer-to-peer module may be configured to communicate at least with the distributed ledger network 136, i.e. the nodes 116 to 128 of the distributed ledger network 136. Hence, the peer-to- peer modules may be a participant of the distributed ledger network 136. The peer-to-peer module may not comprise the peer-to-peer application. Such a peer-to-peer module may be configured to provide access to the peer-to-peer application, e.g. via an API (application programming interface). Such a peer- to-peer module (also a node or light node) may comprise a decentral application and at least an API. Hence, such a peer-to-peer module may have access or may be connected to a “gateway” running a node, such as node 116 to 128 , of the distributed ledger network 136 (so called remote node). The peer- to-peer module may be configured to generate transaction data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 4B and FIG. 8B to FIG. 18. The peer-to-peer module may be configured to sign the generated transaction data, for example with a private key associated with the respective participant of distributed ledger network 136. The peer-to-peer module may be configured to provide generated transaction data to the distributed ledger network 136 for processing. The peer-to-peer module may be configured to query the distributed ledger network 136 for data. For instance, the peer-to-peer module may be configured to retrieve data from the distributed ledger network 136, such as environmental attribute data stored in the distributed ledger of a node 116 to 128. The peer-to-peer module may be associated with the decentral participant identifier. The peer-to-peer module may be configured to generate a public-private key pair. The peer-to-peer module may be configured to store the public-private key pair. The peer-to-peer module may be configured to generate the decentral participant identifier. The peer-to-peer module may run software, such as wallet software, configured to generate and sign transaction data, to send (signed) transaction data to the peer-to-peer application, to query the distributed ledger, to generate private-public key pairs and / or to generate decentral participant identifier(s).

[0192] Similarly, in a further (not shown) embodiment, a particularly large peer-to-peer network may be divided in two or more clusters. In a corresponding peer-to-peer network, for example, a validation may only be carried out by the members of one cluster (e.g. sharding of a block chain to improve the scalability). In a further embodiment, the peer-to-peer application may be formed using multiple block chains. These block chains are connected via frameworks such as sidechains, bridges or smart contracts or interledgers.

[0193] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a participant network of a product ecosystem associated with a decentral peer-to-peer network for exchange of passports associated with input materials and output products produced from such input materials. The participant network 216 may include one or more decentral network participants 102 to 114. The decentral network participants may be part of a product ecosystem as described in the context of FIG. 1 . The product ecosystem may be a product ecosystem as described in the context of FIG. 1. The product ecosystem may include input material supplier(s) 104, chemical product producer(s) 102, chemical product consumer(s) 106, OEM(s) 108, end-product user(s) 110, EOL product collector(s) 112 and recycler(s) 114. The product may be a chemical product, an intermediate chemical product, a component, a component assembly, an end product, an end-of-life product or a recycled product.

[0194] The participant(s) of the participant network 216 may be associated with the production the product and / or recycling of the product. The decentral network participant 102 to 114 may refer to a manufacturer of physical products, such as input material supplier 104, chemical product producer 102, chemical product consumer 106, OEM 108, a user of physical goods, such as end-product user 110, and / or a participant of a recycling chain associated with the physical product, such as EOL product collector 112 and recycler 114. The decentral network participant may be associated with a decentral participant identifier. The decentral participant identifier may uniquely identify the decentral network participant within the decentral participant network 216.

[0195] The participant(s) of the participant network 216 may be connected via material flows 130 as described in the context of FIG. 1 .

[0196] At least part of the participants of the participant network 216 may be associated with decentral participant network nodes 202 to 214. The decentral participant nodes 202 to 214 may be under control of the respective decentral participant associated with the respective decentral participant node. The decentral participant nodes 202 to 214 may form decentral network 220. The decentral network 220 may be a peer- to-peer communication network. The decentral network 220 may be configured to perform data transactions 218. The data transactions 218 may be based on a transaction protocol including authentication and / or authorization mechanism(s). Based on the authentication and / or authorization mechanism(s) a peer-to-peer communication between decentral network nodes 202 to 214 associated with decentral network participants 102 to 114 may be established. The one or more authentication mechanism(s) may be associated with or linked to a decentral identifier as described in the context of FIG. 5. The one or more authentication mechanism(s) associated with the decentral identifier may be accessible by a decentral data providing network node and / or a decentral data consuming network node as described in the context of FIG. 5. The decentral configuration allows for more efficient use of computing resources and strengthens control by the data owners of the decentral network.

[0197] Data transactions between decentral network participant nodes may be based on a decentral identifier associated with respective product data to be accessed, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5. The decentral identifier may be uniquely associated with the physical entity of the product and associated product data. The decentral identifier may uniquely identify the respective product within the decentral network. The decentral identifier may be associated with further decentral identifier(s), such as decentral identifier(s) of product(s) used to produce the product. This may allow to track the product(s) used to produce a product, such as an end-product. The decentral identifier may be included in a digital access element associated with the product, for example as described in the context of FIG. 6 and FIG. 7.

[0198] The data flow 218 (e.g. transactions) between decentral network participant nodes may be directly or indirectly associated with the material flow 218 between the decentral network participants. For instance, data flow 218 may be directly associated with material flow 130 if data associated with an input material provided from the input material supplier 104 to the chemical product producer 102 is accessed by a decentral data consuming network node associated with said chemical product producer 102. For instance, data flow 218 may be indirectly associated with material flow 130 if data associated with a chemical product produced by chemical product producer 102 is accessed by a decentral data consuming network node associated with recycler 114.

[0199] The decentral participant nodes 202 to 214 may be decentral computing nodes. The decentral computing node may be any device or system that includes at least one physical and tangible processor, and a physical and tangible memory capable of having thereon computer-executable instructions that are executed by a processor. The memory may take any form and depends on the nature and form of the computing node.

[0200] At least part of the decentral participant nodes 202 to 214 may be decentral data providing network nodes. At least part of the participant nodes 202 to 214 may be decentral data consuming network nodes. A participant of the participant network 216 may be associated with a decentral data providing network node and / or a decentral data consuming network node depending on whether data is provided to downstream participants and / or consumed from upstream participants. For instance, input material supplier 104 may be associated with a decentral data providing network node configured to provide input passport(s) to a downstream participant (e.g. chemical product producer 102) for example as described in the context of FIG. 5. In addition to or alternatively, chemical product producer 102 may be associated with a decentral data consuming network node configured to access data associated with a recycled input material produced by an upstream participant (e.g. recycler 114).

[0201] The decentral network 220 may include further decentral network nodes. The further decentral network nodes may be decentral infrastructure service nodes (not shown in FIG. 2). The decentral infrastructure service nodes may not be associated with a participant of the product ecosystem. The decentral infrastructure service nodes may provide services for decentral participant nodes 202 to 214, such as verifying the identity of the decentral network participant nodes 202 to 214 prior to performing a data exchange. The decentral network participant nodes 202 to 214 may be associated with or include certificate(s), such as X.509 certificate(s). The certificate(s) may be associated with decentral infrastructure service node(s) including e.g. a certificate issuing service and / or a dynamic provisioning service providing dynamic attribute tokens (e.g. OAuth Access Tokens). This way the decentral network participant nodes 202 to 214 possess a unique identifier embedded in a X.509 certificate that identifies the respective decentral network participant node 202 to 214. The information required to verify the certificate may be provided via an authentication registry associated with the certificate issuing service and / or a dynamic provisioning service. For instance, in the IDSA Reference Architecture Model, Version 3.0 of April 2019, a decentral data providing network node associated with a data owner, a Certification Authority (CA), a Dynamic Attribute Provisioning Service (DAPS) and a decentral data consuming network node associated with a data consumer are used to verify the identity prior to performing a data exchange (not shown).

[0202] FIG. 4A illustrates a transfer of environmental attribute data associated with an output product from an output product producer to a downstream participant of a product ecosystem via a distributed ledger network illustrated in FIG. 1. The output product may be any product produced from one or more input material(s) by a participant of the product ecosystem. The output product may be a chemical intermediate product, a chemical product, a component, a component assembly or an end-product. The input material may include any material used as production input by a participant of the product ecosystem to produce an output product. The output product produced by a participant may be used as input product by a downstream participant. The input material may include virgin raw material, recycled material, chemical intermediate products, chemical products, components and / or component-assemblies.

[0203] The chemical product producer 102 may receive input material(s) such as virgin raw materials from input material supplier 104 and / or may receive recycled materials from recycler 114. The provided input material(s) may be associated with environmental attribute data. Such environmental attribute data may be stored in a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network, for example as described in the context of FIG. 1. Upon transfer of the input material(s) to the chemical product producer 102, input material supplier 104 and / or recycler 114 may generate transaction data to transfer the environmental attribute data associated with the respective input material(s) to input material supplier 104. The generated transaction data may be stored as entry / entries in the distributed ledger and may indicate transfer of ownership of the input material and associated environmental attribute data to chemical product producer 102.

[0204] Chemical product producer 102 may produce chemical product(s) 142 (e.g. output product(s)) from the input material(s) provided to a chemical production associated with chemical product producer 102. The produced chemical product 142 may be provided to a downstream participant of the participant network, such as chemical product consumer 106. Chemical product consumer 106 may use the chemical product as input material to produce further products, such as further chemical product(s) or discrete product(s). The chemical product producer 102 may gather environmental attribute data associated with the provided input materials via input material passports from the distributed ledger, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8D and FIG. 13. The chemical product producer 102 may determine environmental attribute data associated with the output product based on the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 11 B. Chemical product producer 102 may generate transaction data to register (e.g. store) environmental attribute data associated with the production of output product(s) in the distributed ledger. The environmental attribute data associated with the production of the output product may include emission data associated with emissions generated during the production of output products (scope 1 and scope 2 emissions).

[0205] The chemical product producer 102 may generate transaction data 406. The transaction data 406 may include asset data 408, input data 410, output data 412 and further data 414. The asset data 408, input data 410, output data 412 and further data 414 may include the data described in the context of FIG. 1 . The output data 412 may include the determined environmental attribute data associated with the output product. The input data 410 may include the transaction IDs of transactions associated with the input materials (e.g. transactions stored in the distributed ledger and containing the environmental attribute data associated with the input materials). This may allow to reference environmental attribute data of input materials used to produce the output product in the transaction data associated with the output product.

[0206] With reference to FIG. 4B, the transaction data may be generated by client 402. The transaction data 406 may be generated using the method described in FIG. 11 B and FIG. 13. The transaction data 406 may be signed by the private key associated with chemical product producer 102 and may be send to the distributed ledger network 136, as described in the context of FIG. 4B. The transaction data 406 may be validated by the distributed ledger network 136, for example as described in the context of FIG. 4B. The validated transaction data 406 may be stored as an entry in the distributed ledger, for example as described in the context of FIG. 4B. Upon validating or upon storing the transaction data 406 in the distributed ledger, a unique transaction ID may be assigned to said transaction. The transaction ID may be generated by applying a hash function to at least a part of the transaction data. Success of storing the transaction data as entry in the distributed ledger may be transmitted, along with at least a part of the stored transaction data, to client 402, as described in the context of FIG. 4B.

[0207] The chemical product 142 as produced by chemical product producer 102 may be provided in association with a digital asset (e.g. a chemical product passport including data related to the transaction stored in the distributed ledger) to chemical product consumer 106. Upon purchase of the chemical product 142 by chemical product consumer 106, chemical product consumer 106 may gather, for example via a client 404 (e.g. decentral application or DApp) the transaction data 406 stored within the distributed ledger network 136 based on the associated chemical product passport, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5. Priorto gathering the transaction data 406 from the distributed ledger network 136, the chemical product consumer 106 may provide authentication data to a security layer of the distributed ledger network 136. Upon successful authentication, the chemical product consumer 106 may be allowed to gather the transaction data 406 via the client 404. The gathered transaction data 406 may include the environmental attribute data associated with the chemical product 142. The client 404 may display at least part of the gathered transaction data 406, such as the environmental attribute data. The client 404 may store at least a part of the gathered transaction data 406 in a database (not shown).

[0208] By requiring that the environmental attribute(s) associated with referenced transactions indicating input materials and environmental attribute data associated with the production of the output product equal the environmental attributes associated with the output product produced from such input materials, disregarding environmental attribute(s) of input materials when determining environmental attribute(s) of output products produced from such input materials can be avoided. This ensures fraud protection during calculation of environmental attribute data associated with produced output products and enhances the trust in environmental attribute data associated with output products. Since the environmental attribute(s) plus environmental attribute(s) from production must equal the environmental attribute(s) of the produced output product for transaction data to be validated, it is ensured that environmental attribute(s) associated with input material(s) are correctly considered when determining environmental attribute(s) for produced output products. Ensuring trustworthy and reliable consideration of the contribution of environmental attribute(s) from input materials and production processes to environmental attribute(s) of produced output products enables the steering of a product ecosystem based on accumulated environmental attribute data associated with output products produced by the product ecosystem, hence promoting circular economy.

[0209] FIG. 4B illustrates a sequence diagram for committing a transaction including environmental attribute data associated with input material or output product to a distributed ledger of distributed ledger network 136 illustrated in FIG. 1 . The method may be implemented by a client side 416 and an associated member node, such as member node 118. The client side may correspond to a peer-to-peer module described in the context of FIG. 1. The client side may comprise an application 418 and a 420 in communication with application 418. The member node 118 may comprise the components illustrated in FIG. 3, namely a distributed ledger server 304, a consensus algorithm consensus algo 306 in communication with the server 304 and a database 302, and the database 302 in communication with the consensus algorithm 306 and the server 304. Application 418 may be used to generate the transaction data. The transaction data may correspond to a JSON payload. With reference to FIG. 4A, the JSON payload may include the asset data 408, the input data 410, the output data 412 and further data 414. The further data may include the amount of transferred output product or registered input material. This may allow to monitor material flows with respect to ingoing materials and outgoing products with respect to individual participants, a group of participants or the product ecosystem. Such transparency may avoid “loss” of output products within the product ecosystem by inappropriate waste disposal. Such transparency may further allow to steer the product ecosystem with respect to improved recycling, hence allowing to improve circularity within the product ecosystem.

[0210] The input data 410 and output data 412 may not include the clear data related to the previous output product owner and the new output product owner. Instead, decentral participant identifiers, such as public keys, are used to uniquely identify the owners within the distributed ledger network 136. “Hiding” the identity of the parties involved in the transaction as well as the details of the output product or input material associated with said transaction allows to perform environmental attribute balancing using the readily available environmental attribute data listed in the transactions and thus guarantees the anonymity necessary to comply with data regulations and to avoid a negative influence on the competitive advantage of participants of the distributed ledger network, for example by creating transparency on the complete supply chain for a certain product. However, the involved parties as well as the involved input material / output product may be readily determined from the transaction data stored in the distributed ledger by accessing - for example, at least one database comprising the public key(s) associated with an involved party as well as the identity of said party and / or using the data contained in the further data to determine the input material or output product(s). The JSON payload generated by application 418 may be sent - along with the singing key-pair - to driver 420.

[0211] Driver 420 may prepare a transaction (hereinafter denoted as TX) from the JSON payload received from application 418 by encapsulating the received JSON data. In one example, driver 420 is included in application 418 as library or module. In another example, driver 420 is included in a further application. Driver 420 may sign the encapsulated JSON data using the private key from the signing key-pair received from application 418. Driver 420 may send the signed transaction to distributed ledger server 304, for example by using an HPPT API provided by said server 304.

[0212] After receiving the signed transaction from driver 420, distributed ledger server 304 may perform validation(s) on the received signed transaction. Such validation may include, for example, whether the signature is valid, whether the environmental attribute data listed in the input data 410 equals the environmental attribute data listed in the output data 412 (in case the transaction is associated with the transfer of a input material / output product), whether the transaction does not consume an already spend input (so called double-spending), whether the public key associated with the owner in the transaction is not on a blacklist or is in a whitelist (to allow control of generating of material and / or product(s) in the distributed ledger), or whether the transaction ID(s) referenced by said transaction is / are not on a blacklist (to avoid transferring material which was, for example, confiscated) etc..

[0213] After distributed ledger server 304 has successfully validated the received transaction, the validated transaction may be provided to consensus algorithm component 306, for example by using an API provided by said component 306. In this example, the consensus protocol is performed upon receiving the validated transaction. In another example, the validated transaction is received in the memory pool of the consensus algorithm component 306 and said component 306 waits for the server component distributed ledger server 304 to perform some additional validations (not shown). After all validations are done, component 306 may perform the consensus protocol on all fully validated transactions pooled in the memory pool of component 306. As part of this consensus process, all validated transactions in the memory pool are packaged into a block. The block may be broadcasted to further member nodes of the distributed ledger network 136 and at least part of the further member nodes may vote on the validity of the generated block. Once consensus is reached among all components 306, component 306 of each member node may send a request to distributed ledger server 304 to commit the block, i.e. to append the block as new block to the existing blockchain.

[0214] In response to the request received from component 306, the server component distributed ledger server 304 may initiate storage of the block including the transaction(s) in database 302 and database 302 may store the block. Database 302 may send a response back to distributed ledger server 304 indicating successful storage (e.g. commitment ) of the block.

[0215] After distributed ledger server 304 receives the response indicating commitment of the block, distributed ledger server 304 may send a response to component 306 indicating completion of block commit. The distributed ledger server 304 may send a response back to application 418 via driver 420 that the transaction has been committed in a block and provides data on the transaction, such as the transaction ID, the public keys of the parties associated with the transaction, the further data 414 or a combination thereof.

[0216] FIG. 5 shows a schematic illustration of providing access via a decentral data providing network node 204 associated with a data owner to a product passport associated with a produced output product 142 using a decentral data consuming network node 206 associated with an output product consumer 106 via a decentral network 220. The chemical product 142 may be produced from one or more input materials produced by an upstream participant by a chemical production operated by chemical product producer 102. The chemical production may be a chemical production network, that chemically converts input materials via chemical intermediates to chemical products (e.g. output products) that exit the chemical production network. The chemical production network may include a complex production network producing multiple chemical products in multiple production or value chains. A production or value chain may include one or more process(es) configured to produce one chemical product or chemical product class from one or more input material(s). The chemical production network may include connected, interconnected and / or nonconnected production chains. The production chains included in the chemical production network may be defined by the physical system boundary of the chemical production network. The system boundary may be defined by location or control over production processes. The system boundary may be defined by the value chain with staggered production processes to an end product, which may be controlled by multiple entities jointly or separately. The chemical production network may include a waste collection and sorting step, a recycling step such as pyrolysis, a cracking step such as steam cracking, a production step to produce chemical products or intermediates from provided inbound material(s), a separation step to separate intermediates of one process step and further processing steps to convert such outputs to chemical product(s) leaving the system boundary of the chemical production network. The chemical production network may produce from input materials multiple intermediates and from intermediates one or more chemical products. Input material may enter the chemical production network at entry points. The input material may be fed to the chemical production network at the start of the production process or at any intermediate stage of the production process e.g. of the production chain producing the output material. Chemical products may leave the production network at exit points (or feed-out points).

[0217] The produced product 142 may be associated with a product passport. The product passport may represent a digital asset which may be linked to the physical entity of the produced product, for example via the use of identifier(s). The product passport may be associated with a digital twin of the output product 142. The product passport may be part of the digital twin of the physical entity of the output product 142. The digital twin of the output product may be a digital representation of a physical entity of the output product with a defined semantic description of said physical entity of the output product. The digital twin of the physical entity of the output product is hence a digital version of said physical entity. Once created, the digital twin can be used to represent the physical entity of the output product in a digital representation of a real-world system. The digital twin may be uniquely linked to the physical output product via at least the decentral digital twin identifier. The digital twin may be created such that it is identical in form and behavior of the corresponding output product . Additionally, the digital twin may mirror the properties of the output product during its lifetime. For example, sensors may capture real-time (or near real-time) data, such as transport data or use data, from the physical output product to relay it back to a remote digital twin. The digital twin may then be updated to maintain its correspondence to the physical entity of the output product. Hence, the digital twin may at any time represent the current state of the physical entity of the output product. The digital twin may contain a decentral digital twin identifier. The decentral digital twin identifier(s) may comprise unique identifier(s) uniquely associated with the producer of the chemical product. The decentral digital twin identifier may include one or more Universally Unique Identifier(s) (UUID(s)) or one or more Digital Identifier(s) (DID(s)). The decentral digital twin identifier may include authentication information. The decentral digital twin identifier may be discoverable and / or accessible via the decentral network. The decentral digital twin identifier may be associated with a decentral participant identifier associated with the data providing network node providing the digital twin or parts thereof. The decentral digital twin identifier may be associated with the decentral participant identifier and an endpoint of the decentral data providing network node. Via the decentral identifier and its unique association with the data owner, e.g. the producer of the chemical product, and the chemical product, access to the digital twin or parts thereof, such as product passports, may be controlled by the producer of the chemical product. The decentral digital twin identifier may be associated with a physical entity of the output product the digital twin is associated with. The decentral digital twin identifier may be associated with the physical entity of the output product the digital twin is generated for. The decentral digital twin identifier may be associated with decentral identifiers of input material(s) used to produce the output product. The decentral digital twin identifier may or may be assigned to a physical identifier connected to the output product. The physical identifier may be any identifier for the produced output product, such as a batch number and / or a LOT number. The physical identifier may comprise a passive or active element, e.g. bar code, QR-code, RFID-tag, but is not limited thereto. The physical identifier may include markers embedded in materials or similar physical arrangement that allows to digitally identify the material. The digital twin may further contain a digital output product identifier. The digital twin may contain product passport(s).

[0218] The product passport may include a decentral passport identifier and output product data. The product passport may be associated with or include the decentral digital twin identifier of the digital twin. Output product data may include an output product identifier and data related to the transaction data including environmental attribute data associated with the output product, such as output data 412 described in the context of FIG. 4A, associated with the output product. The data related to the transaction data may include the transaction ID associated with such transaction data. The output product data may further include data related to the use of the output product, data related to the production of the output product, the output product name, the chemical composition of the output product, output product declaration data, output product safety data, certificate of analysis data associated with the output product, certificate data associated with the output product, or a combination thereof. The product passport may be stored in a dedicated storage, such as storage 510, associated with the data owner of the product passport, such as chemical product producer 102. The dedicated storage may be associated with or under control of the data owner of the product passport. The dedicated storage may be accessible by a decentral data providing network node associated with the data owner, such as node 126B. The decentral data providing network node may be part of a decentral network, such as decentral network 134 described in the context of FIG. 1 . Access to the dedicated storage may be controlled by the data owner of the data stored in such dedicated storage via the decentral digital twin identifier. Access to the dedicated storage may be controlled by the data owner of the data stored in such dedicated storage via the decentral digital twin identifier and decentral participant identifier(s) associated with decentral data consuming network node(s).

[0219] The product passport may be associated with a digital access element, for example as illustrated in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7. The chemical product 142 may be associated with the digital access element. The digital access element may include the decentral digital twin identifier and access data relating to the product passport. The access data may include a locator or pointer to a dedicated storage address of a dedicated storage associated with or accessible by the data owner of the product passport. The pointer or locator may point to a data providing network node 204 associated with the dedicated storage 510. This may increase data security since the dedicated storage address is not published to further participants of the decentral network hence avoiding the risk of direct access of the dedicated storage without access control via the decentral data providing network node. The access data may include a locator or pointer, such as am url or uri, to a dedicated storage address associated with the chemical product producer 102 and storing the product passport. The access data may further include the decentral passport identifier. The decentral passport identifier may relate to a physical identifier physically attached to the output product. For instance, the access data may include a batch number, LOT number and / or a serial number related to the physical identifier physically attached to the output product. This may allow to query the decentral network for access elements based on physical identifiers physically attached the output product. The pointer or locator may point directly to the dedicated storage address.

[0220] The digital access element may be stored in a decentral registry 508. This way, the decentral identifier and the access data may be discoverable and / or accessible for decentral data consumer network nodes of the decentral network. The decentral registry 508 may be associated with a decentral data providing network node 204 associated with the producer of the output product 142, e.g. chemical product producer 102. The decentral registry 508 may be associated with or controlled by the data owner of the product passports associated with access elements stored in such registry. The data owner may be the chemical product producer 102. The access element may be accessible by other participants of the decentral network, such as chemical product consumer 106, via an associated decentral data consuming network node 206. Access to access elements stored in decentral registry 508 may be controlled by the data owner of the associated passports via a decentral data providing node 204 associated with the decentral registry 508. For instance, decentral registry 508 may only be queried by predefined decentral data consuming network node(s). Such predefined decentral data consuming network node(s) may be predefined via associated decentral participant identifier(s). This contrasts with decentral networks based on distributed ledger technology (DLT), where the distributed ledger serving as decentral registry is replicated over a plurality of network nodes such that access to each copy of the distributed ledger can no longer be controlled by the data owner of data stored in such distributed ledger. The chemical product 142 produced by chemical product producer 102 may be provided to a downstream participant, such as chemical product consumer 106. Upon entry of the chemical product 142 to the production operated by chemical product consumer 106, an ID reader 504 may be configured to read an identification element physically connected to the chemical product 142. The data acquired by ID reader 504 may be used to gather the product passport associated with the chemical product 142 by a data consuming service, such node 206, associated with chemical product consumer 106. The data acquired by ID reader 504 may be provided to a backend connected to data consuming node 206 (not shown). The data acquired by ID reader 504 may include the chemical product identifier, such as the batch number and / or the LOT number. Consumer node 206 may be configured to determine - based on the chemical product identifier included in the data acquired by ID reader 504 - provider node(s) being associated with the producer of the chemical product associated with such chemical product identifier. For instance, consumer node 206 may be configured to query an infrastructure environment of decentral network 220 (not shown in FIG. 5) using the chemical product identifier to determine decentral participant identifier(s) of data provider(s) associated with the chemical product identifier. The determined decentral participant identifier(s) may then be used by consumer node 206 to query the infrastructure environment to determine endpoints of provider node(s) associated with said decentral participant identifier(s).

[0221] The backend may be configured to generate query data to query decentral registries, such as decentral registry 508, associated with the obtained endpoint(s). The query data may include data related to specific product passports of the digital twin. Data related to specific product passports may include key value pairs defining such passports in access elements associated with such chemical products and stored within the decentral registries. The backend may be configured to generate a request for gathering the decentral identifier(s) associated with said chemical product. The request may include at least a part of the received end point(s) and the query data. The request may be provided to consumer node 206. Consumer node 206 may be configured - in response to the request from the backend - to query the decentral registries of decentral network 220. The queries may include the query data and a decentral participant identifier associated with the consumer node 206. The participants of the decentral network may be associated with decentral participant identifiers. Each participant of the decentral network may be associated with one or more decentral participant identifier(s). The decentral participant identifier may comprise any identifier uniquely associated with a participant of the decentral network and / or with a production site of the participant of the decentral network. The decentral participant identifier may include letters and / or numbers. The decentral participant identifier may include one or more Universally Unique Identifier(s) (UUID(s)) and / or one or more Decentralized Identifier(s) (DID(s)). The decentral participant identifier may be associated with or may include a verifiable claim or credential. The verifiable claim may be issued by a central or decentral identity issuer making one or more claims about a subject, such as a consumer entity being a trustworthy participant of the decentral network. The verifiable credential may be presented by the decentral data consuming network node and may be used by the decentral data providing network node to verify that the decentral participant associated with the decentral data consuming network node is a trusted entity within the decentral network prior to providing access to the digital twin, hence ensuring that the requested data can be exchanged in a secure and controlled manner within the decentral network.

[0222] Consumer node 204 may be configured to send such queries to the endpoint(s) included in the request received from the backend. The queries may be authenticated. Such authentication may be based on data related to an authentication mechanism. The authentication mechanism may be based on certificate(s) and / or token(s), for example a device certificate (X.509v3), a TLS connection certificate (X.509v3) and a ‘Dynamic Attribute Token’ (OAuth Access Token), associated with the respective decentral participant nodes, e.g. consumer node 116 and provider node 126B. If authentication fails, no data may be provided by respective data provider(s).

[0223] Provider node(s), such as node 204, may be configured to query associated decentral registry(ies), such as decentral registry 508, to determine whether the associated decentral registry includes decentral identifier(s) (e.g. decentral digital twin identifiers and / or digital passport identifier(s)) related to the query data contained in the queries from the consumer node 206. Such query may be performed if the authentication is valid. Provider node(s) not having determined decentral identifier(s) related to the query data may send a respective response to consumer node 206. Provider node(s), such as node 204, not having determined decentral identifier(s) related to the query data may not send any response to consumer node 206. Provider node(s) 204 having determined decentral identifier(s) related to the query data may initiate contract negotiations with consumer node 206. Provider node 204 may provide an electronic contract to consumer node 206. The electronic contract may include one or more authorization rule(s) associated with the decentral identifier(s). The electronic contract may be provided to the backend. The backend may parse the received electronic contract to determine the authorization rule(s). The determined authorization rules may be provided to a user for consent. The backend may be configured to automatically accept electronic contracts provided by predefined provider node(s). The backend may provide data being indicative of the signature, such as a token, to consumer node 206. If the electronic contract is not signed, the backend may likewise forward data being indicative of declining the contract to consumer node 206. Consumer node 206 may forward this data to provider node 204. Upon declining the contract, provider node 204 may terminate the connection and may not provide any data. Use of the electronic contract ensures that the consumer node 206 and further systems, such as operating system 620, handling the data are complying to at least one policy associated with the data.

[0224] Provider node(s) 204 having determined decentral identifier(s) related to the query data may provide such decentral identifier(s) to consumer node 206. Such identifier(s) may be provided upon successful contract negotiation. Consumer node 206 may provide received decentral identifier(s) to the backend. Upon receiving decentral identifier(s), the backend may be configured to generate a request to gather access element(s) associated with at least a part of the received decentral identifier(s). The request may include respective decentral identifier(s). The request may be provided to consumer node 206. Consumer node 206 may be configured to request respective access element(s) from provider node(s) 204 having provided decentral identifier(s) in response to the query. The request to respective provider node(s) 204 may include the decentral identifier(s) and the decentral participant identifier associated with consumer node 206. Upon receiving the request, provider node(s) 204 may gather access element(s) from associated decentral registry 508 based on the decentral identifier(s) contained in the received request. The gathered access element(s) may then be provided to consumer node 206. Consumer node 206 may provide the received access element(s) to the backend. The backend may store the access elements in a storage associated with the backend.

[0225] The backend may be configured to parse the received access element(s) (e.g. the received access element data). The access element(s) may include decentral identifier(s) and associated access data as described in the context of FIG. 6 and FIG. 7. The backend may be configured to match access data contained in received access elements with data provided by ID reader 504, such as chemical product identifier(s), to determine decentral identifiers and associated access data matching the chemical product identifier(s). The backend may be coupled to a display device displaying a graphical user interface 506. The backend may provide data extracted from the access elements and / or data acquired by the ID reader 504, such as the decentral passport identifier, the chemical product identifier(s) and the access data, to the display device for display. The graphical user interface 506 may allow a user to initiate retrieval of the product passport. The backend may be configured to generate a respective request to retrieve such aspect(s) associated with such decentral identifier(s). The request may include the decentral identifier(s) and the associated access data. The request may be generated in response to a respective user input indicating retrieval of the passport. The request may be generated upon determining a match between access data included in the access elements and the data provided by ID reader 504. The request may be forwarded to consumer node 206. Consumer node 206 may generate a request to gather the product passport from respective provider node(s) 204. The request may include the decentral identifiers included in the request received from the backend and the decentral participant identifier associated with consumer node 206. The request may be sent by consumer node 206 to the endpoint defined in the access data. Consumer node 206 and provider node 204 may be authenticating as previously described.

[0226] Provider node 204 may determine whether consumer node 206 is authorized to access the requested product passport. Provider node 204 may match the decentral participant identifier provided by consumer node 206 to access rule(s) associated with the respective product passport. The access rule(s) may define consumer node(s) allowed to access the product passport via associated decentral participant identifier(s). This may allow to filter consumer nodes requesting access to such product passport based on associated decentral participant identifiers, hence improving security to ensure that no unauthorized consumer nodes can access the product passports. Upon determination that the consumer node 206 is authorized to access the product passport, provider node 204 may initiate contract negotiations with consumer node 206 as previously described. Provider node 204 may gather the requested product passport from storage 510 based on the decentral identifier(s) received from consumer node 206. The product passport may be gathered upon successful contract negotiations. The peer-to-peer communication channel may be terminated and no product passport may be provided if no electronic contract is signed.

[0227] Provider node 204 may apply one or more access rule(s) associated with the product passport to the product passport. The access rule(s) may be defined in an access policy associated with the product passport. The access rule(s) may define one or more rule(s) for usage of the product passport by data consumer nodes. After applying the access(s) rule(s), the resulting product passport may be provided to consumer node 206. Consumer node 206 may store the received product passport in passport storage 502.

[0228] Through the decentral network, the product passport may be transferred between the chemical product producer 102 and the chemical product consumer 106 in a standardized and secure way, allowing the chemical product producer 102 to control access to the product passport by multiple decentral data consuming network nodes existing within the decentral network. This way, the product passport can be shared with unique association to the chemical product and without central intermediary directly between the participants of the product ecosystem. This allows for transparency of product passports within the product ecosystem. The generation of a product passport associated with the produced chemical product as well as the generation of a digital access element associated with said product passport allows to share the product passport under simplified and customizable conditions without compromising data security and data sovereignty.

[0229] FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a digital access element including DID owner data, DID document data and being associated with a decentral infrastructure.

[0230] The decentral identifier may include a Decentralized Identifier (DID). The decentral identifier-based digital access element may in this case be a DID document 604 associated with the DID. Besides the DID document 604 serving as digital access element, FIG. 7 shows a DID owner data element 602 including decentral identifier-based owner data. Generally, the decentral identifier-based owner data may include the decentral identifier associated with a subject such as chemical product data set(s) and may include one or more authentication mechanism(s). The decentral identifier-based owner data 602 may include owner data that is electronically owned and controlled by the DID owner. In this context electronically owned may refer to data that is stored in an owner repository or wallet. Such data may be securely stored and / or managed on an organizational server or client device. The decentral identifierbased owner data 602 may include a DID, a private key and a public key. The DID owner may own and control the DID that represents an identity associated with the DID subject, a private key and public key pair that are associated with the DID. DID may be understood as an identifier and authentication information associated with or uniquely linked to the identifier. The DID subject may be an input material or an output product. The DID subject may be a machine, a system, or a device used for producing the input material or the output product, or a collection of such machine(s), device(s) and / or system(s). The DID owner may be a supply chain participant or a manufacturer such as a chemical manufacturer producing chemicals. The DID owner may be an upstream participant of chemical product producer 102 such as a supplier that supplies raw chemical products or recycled material to produce chemical products. The DID owner may be a downstream participant of the chemical product producer 102 such as a customer that consumes chemical products to produce an intermediate product, a component, a component assembly or an end product. The DID owner may be any participant of the product ecosystem including raw chemical product supplier, intermediate chemical products manufacturer, intermediate part manufacturer, component manufacturer, component assembly manufacturer, end product manufacturer, end product user, EOL collector or recycler.

[0231] The DID may be any identifier that is associated with the DID subject and / or the DID owner. Preferably, the identifier is unique to the DID subject and / or DID owner. The identifier may be unique at least within the scope in which the DID is anticipated to be in use. The identifier may be a locally or globally unique identifier for the input material or the output product or a collection thereof; the machine, the system, or the device used for producing the input material or the output product, or the collection of such machine(s), device(s) and / or system(s); the chemical manufacturer producing chemicals, the upstream participant of the chemical manufacturer, the downstream participant of the chemical manufacturer or a collection thereof; any participant of the product ecosystem including raw chemical product supplier, intermediate chemical products manufacturer, intermediate part manufacturer, component manufacturer, component assembly manufacturer, end product manufacturer, end product user, EOL collector, recycler or a collection thereof.

[0232] The DID may be any identifier that is associated with the DID subject and the DID owner. Preferably, the DID is unique to the DID subject and / or DID owner. The DID may be unique at least within the scope in which the DID is anticipated to be in use. The DID may be a locally or globally unique identifier for any of the above mentioned possible DID subjects. The DID may also be a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) such as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). Moreover, the DID may be an Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI). The DID may be a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) such as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The DID may be an Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI). The DID may be a random string of numbers and letters for increased security. In one embodiment, the DID may be a string of 128 letters and numbers e.g. according to the scheme did:method name: method specific-did such as did:example:ebfeb1f712ebc6f1 c276e12ec21 . The DID may be decentralized ID independent of a centralized, third party management system and under the control of the DID owner.

[0233] The digital access element as DID document data DID document data 604 may be associated with the DID, i.e. the DID included in the decentral identifier-based owner data 602. Accordingly, the digital access element may include a reference to the DID, which is associated with the DID subject that is described by the DID document 604. The DID document 604 may also include an authentication information such as the public key. The public key may be used by third-party entities that are given permission by the DID owner / subject to access information and data owned by the DID owner / subject. The public key may also be used for verifying that the DID owner, in fact, owns or controls the DID. The DID document may include authentication information, authorization information e.g. to authorize third party entities to read the DID document orsome part of the DID document e.g. without giving the third party the right to prove ownership of the DID.

[0234] The digital access element 604 may include one or more representations that digitally link to passport(s) included in the digital twin the digital access element is associated with, e.g. by way of service endpoints. A service endpoint may include a network address at which a service operates on behalf of the DID owner. In particular, the service endpoints may refer to services, such as data providing services, of the DID owner that give access to passport(s). Such services may include services to read or analyze data contained in the passport(s).

[0235] The digital access element 604 may include further identifiers, such as decentral passport identifier(s) and output product identifier(s) or input material identifier(s).

[0236] The digital access element 604 may include various other information such metadata specifying when the digital access element was created, when it was last modified and / or when it expires.

[0237] The DID and digital access element 604 may be associated with a data registry node such as a centralized data service system or a decentralized data service system 606, e.g. a distributed ledger or blockchain or a decentralized file system. The distributed ledger or blockchain may be used to store a representation of the DID that points to the digital access element 604. A representation of the DID may be stored on distributed computing nodes of the distributed ledger or blockchain 606. For example, DID hash may be stored on multiple computing nodes of the distributed ledger and point to the location of the digital access element 604. In some embodiments, the digital access element 604 may be stored on the distributed ledger 606. Each of the computing nodes may store a copy of the distributed ledger 606. In this way, each DID hash can be stored redundantly, thereby allowing for an increased data safety. DIDs associated with a plurality of different digital access element 604 may be included in the distributed ledger 606.

[0238] In some embodiments, the digital access element 604 may be stored on the distributed ledger 606, i.e. either additionally or alternatively to the associated DID representation being stored on the distributed ledger 606. In other embodiments, the digital access element 604 may be stored in a data storage (not illustrated) that is associated with the distributed ledger or blockchain or decentralized file system.

[0239] The distributed ledger or blockchain 606 may be any decentralized, distributed network that includes various computing nodes that are in communication with each other. For example, the distributed ledger 606 may include a first distributed computing node, a second distributed computing node, a third distributed computing node, and any number of additional distributed computing nodes (not shown). The distributed ledger or blockchain 606 may include known technology stacks like Bitcoin (see e.g. Bitcoin documentation of November 11 , 2022 published https: / / en.bitcoin.it / wiki / Protocol_documentation), Ethereum (see e.g. Ethereum documentation of August 15, 2022 published on https: / / ethereum.org / en / developers / docs / ), Solana (see e.g. Solana documentation of November 11 , 2022 published on https: / / spl.solana.com / ), Polygon (see e.g. Polygon documentation of November 11 , 2022 published on https: / / wiki.polygon.technology / ) or other implementations with varying degree of data transactions performed on the distributed ledger. The description of the example framework is only for illustrative purposes and shall not be considered limiting.

[0240] FIG. 15B illustrates a second example of a digital access element including a decentral identifier and access data. The digital access element may be stored within a decentral registry, such as decentral registry 508 of FIG. 5 associated with a participant of the decentral network. The access elements stored in such decentral registry may be retrieved via an associated decentral data providing network node using the decentral identifier.

[0241] The decentral identifier may include one or more Universally Unique Identifier(s) (UUID(s)). The decentral identifier may include a first decentral identifier and a second decentral identifier. The first and the second decentral identifier may be different from each other. The first decentral identifier may signify the decentral digital twin identifier associated with the digital twin while the second decentral identifier may signify a decentral passport identifier associated with a passport included in the digital twin. The access element may be associated with an input material. The input material may be any input material used as production input within the product ecosystem. The input material may be a virgin material, a recycled material, a chemical intermediate product, a chemical product, a component or a component assembly. The output product may be any product produced within the product ecosystem. The output product may be a chemical intermediate product or a chemical product. The output product may be a component or a component-assembly. The output product may be an end product.

[0242] The UUID may be unique at least within the scope in which the UUID is anticipated to be in use. The UUID may be a locally or globally unique identifier for a raw material, a basic substance, a chemical product, a component, an end product or a recycled material. In one embodiment, the UUID may be a string of 128 letters and numbers e.g. according to the scheme [0-9a-fA-F]{8}-[0-9a-fA-F]{4}-[0-9a-fA- F]{4}-[0-9a-fA-F]{4}-[0-9a-fA-F]{12}. The UUID may be a decentralized ID independent of a centralized, third party management system and under the control of the data owner owning the data associated with the UUID.

[0243] The decentral identifier-based digital access element 700 may be a JSON data structure including the decentral identifier. The JSON data structure may include one or more key-value pairs. The JSON data structure may include one or more arrays. At least a part of the arrays may include one or more object(s). The object(s) may include one or more key-value pair(s).

[0244] The digital access element 700 may include access data that digitally links to data, such passport(s), the digital access element is associated with, e.g. by way of service endpoints. A service endpoint may include a network address at which a service operates on behalf of the data owner. In particular, the service endpoints may refer to services, such as decentral data providing network node(s), of the data owner that give access to passport data Such services may include services to read or analyze data contained in the passport.

[0245] The digital access element 700 may include various other information such metadata specifying when the digital access element was created, when it was last modified and / or when it expires (not shown in FIG. 7).

[0246] The digital access element 700 may be stored in a decentral registry (not shown, see for example decentral registry 508 in FIG. 5). The decentral registry may be a decentral database. The decentral database may be associated with the data owner of the passport(s) associate with such access elements.

[0247] FIG. 8A illustrates a block diagram of transfers of input materials and a produced output product containing the input materials between participants of a product ecosystem. Input materials may include input materials described in the context of FIG. 4A. Output products may include output products described in the context of FIG. 4A. The number of parties as well as the exact input materials and output products may vary from the ones illustrated in FIG. 8A. For example, more or less material owners may be present and the type of material may differ from the ones illustrated in FIG. 8A. Likewise, more material recipients and / or more product recipients may be present.

[0248] Participants of the participant network, such as network 100 or 216 illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, may own input material. For instance, a first material owner (denoted MO1 in FIG. 8A) may own 1 kg of an input material 1 , such as a virgin precious metal, and a second material owner (denoted MO2 in FIG. 8A) may own 5 kg of an input material 2, such as sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Each input material (e.g. input material 1 and 2) may be associated with environmental attribute data. The environmental attribute data may include environmental footprint data, such as carbon footprint data.

[0249] With reference to FIG. 8B, MO1 may generate transaction data to register the environmental attribute data associated with input material 1 as entry in the distributed ledger of the distributed ledger network. The transaction data may include asset data (e.g. transaction ID), input data (e.g. the decentral participant identifier associated with MO1 , such as the public key controlled by MO1), output data (e.g. the environmental attribute data associated with the input material and the decentral participant identifier associated with MO1), and further data (such as transferred amount, input material 1 identifier, input material 1 type, etc.). The environmental attribute data of input material 1 may be regarded as environmental impact debt since it may increase the environmental impact associated with output products produced from such input material 1 . To validate integrity of a chain of several transactions (e.g. to compare the inputs with the outputs), the environmental attribute(s) included in the environmental attribute data have to be identical. In other words, once a flow of environmental attribute data starts by registering new environmental attribute data in the distributed ledger (e.g. by creating a ledger entry for input material associated with the environmental attribute data which does not reference a previous transaction in the input data), the environmental attribute(s) as well as the associated unit(s) can no longer be changed. Therefore, the same environmental attribute(s) and unit(s) need to be used by all participants of the product ecosystem generating transaction data uniformly. For instance, the product carbon footprint and a unit of kg CO2 eq. I kg output product / input material may be used in connection with the environmental attribute data.

[0250] The transaction data may be provided to a member node of the distributed ledger network, such as node 116-1 and such member node may process the received transaction data as described in the context of FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B. Since registering environmental attribute data for the first time within the distributed ledger may be a sensitive step, said registration may only be performed by certain parties to avoid registering incorrect environmental attribute data in the distributed ledger because this would result in wrong environmental attribute data of output products, such as end-products. Control of registering transactions may be performed, for example, by using a whitelist or blacklist of public keys which is retrieved by the distributed ledger server upon validation of the transaction. If using a whitelist, the transaction may be valid if the public key contained in the transaction is matching a public key on said whitelist. If using a blacklist, the transaction may be valid if the public key contained in the transaction is not matching said public keys on the blacklist. The transaction data may be included as entry 814 within the distributed ledger. For example, the transaction data may be included as transaction 814 in a block 804a of a blockchain. Likewise, MO2 may generate transaction data to register the environmental attribute data associated with input material 2 as entry in the distributed ledger of the distributed ledger network. The transaction data may be provided to a member node of the distributed ledger network, such as node 116-2 and such member node may process the received transaction data as described in the context of FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B. The transaction data may be included as entry 818 within the distributed ledger 850. For example, the transaction data may be included as transaction 818 in a block 808a of a blockchain.

[0251] Returning to FIG. 8A, material owner MO1 may transfer the 1 kg input material 1 to a material recipient MR in step 2A. Likewise, material owner MO2 may transfer the 5 kg input material 2 to the material recipient MR in step 2B. After the transfer, MO1 and MO2 may be regarded as former owners of input materials 1 and 2 and MR may be regarded as the new owner of input materials 1 and 2. The transfer of input material 1 and input material 2 from MO1 and MO2 to MR in the physical world may be associated with a transfer of digital assets representing the physical input materials 1 and 2 in a distributed ledger network, such as distributed ledger network 136 of FIG. 1. The assets may be represented by entries 814, 818 stored within the distributed ledger 850.

[0252] Turning again to FIG. 8B, the transfer of input material 1 from MO1 to MR in step 2A in the physical world may be mirrored by a transfer of ownership of the asset representing input material 1 from MO1 to MR1. The transfer of the asset may be reflected by a respective transaction stored as entry 816 in the distributed ledger 850. For instance, MO1 may generate transaction data to transfer the asset representing the 1 kg input material 1 from MO1 (previous owner) to MR (new owner). The transaction data may include asset data (e.g. transaction ID), input data, output data and further data. The input data may reference the transaction associated with the environmental attribute data of transferred input material 1 , e.g. transaction 814 with transaction ID1 and the decentral participant identifier of the previous owner). The output data may include the environmental attribute data associated with the amount of input material transferred from MO1 to MR as well as the decentral participant identified of the new owner (e.g. MR). The transaction data may be provided to a member node of the distributed ledger network, such as node 116-1 and such member node may process the received transaction data as described in the context of FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B. The member node may validate the received transaction data, for example by comparing the inputs with the outputs, e.g. comparing the environmental attribute data listed in the inputs with the environmental attribute data listed in the outputs. The environmental attribute data listed in the inputs corresponds to the environmental attribute data listed int he outputs of the referenced transaction 814. The transaction data may be valid if the inputs equal the outputs, e.g. if the environmental attribute data listed in the outputs of transaction 814 equals the environmental attribute data listed in the outputs of transaction 816. This validation allows to ensure that the environmental attribute data (or environmental impact debt) of the input material 1 is transferred to the new owner along with a transfer of the physical input material. The validated transaction data may be included as entry 816 within the distributed ledger. For example, the transaction data may be included as transaction 816 in a block 806a of a blockchain.

[0253] Likewise, the transfer of input material 2 from MO2 to MR in step 2B in the physical world may be mirrored by a transfer of ownership of the asset representing input material 2 from MO2 to MR1. The transfer of the asset may be reflected by a respective transaction stored as entry 820 in the distributed ledger 850. For instance, MO2 may generate transaction data to transfer the asset representing the 5kg input material 2 from MO2 (previous owner) to MR (new owner). The transaction data may include asset data (e.g. transaction ID), input data, output data and further data. The input data may reference the transaction associated with the environmental attribute data of transferred input material 1 , e.g. transaction 818 with transaction ID3 and the decentral participant identifier of the previous owner). The output data may include the environmental attribute data associated with the amount of input material transferred from MO2 to MR as well as the decentral participant identified of the new owner (e.g. MR). The transaction data may be provided to a member node of the distributed ledger network, such as node 116-2 and such member node may process the received transaction data as described in the context of FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B. The validated transaction data may be included as entry 820 within the distributed ledger. For example, the transaction data may be included as transaction 820 in a block 810a of a blockchain.

[0254] Returning to FIG. 8A, MR may use the received amount of input materials (e.g. 1 kg input material 1 and 5 kg input material 2) to produce a defined amount of output product, such as 6 kg electrode material. The production of the electrode material may require the use of energy and may generate emissions. Hence, the production of the output product by MR may also be associated with environmental attribute data which may need to be added to the accumulated environmental attribute debt coming from the input materials 1 and 2. MR may determine the environmental attribute data associated with the produced output product. This determination may require retrieval of the environmental attribute data associated with the input materials 1 and 2 stored in the distributed ledger 850 of distributed ledger network 136.

[0255] With continued reference to FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B and with further reference to FIG. 8C, material recipient MR may gather input material passports associated with the input material 1 and 2 via a decentral network 220 from respective data providing network node(s) 202-1 and 202-2 associated with MO1 and MO2, respectively as described in the context of FIG. 5. For instance, MR may use the input material identifiers associated with input materials 1 and 2 to gather the respective input material passports using data consuming node 204 via decentral network 220 as described in the context of FIG. 5. The gathered input material passports may include the transaction ID associated with the transaction transferring the associated asset from MO1 to MR and from MO2 to MR, respectively. Hence, the input material passport associated with input material 1 may include the transaction ID2 associated with transaction 816 and the input material passport associated with input material 2 may include the transaction ID4 associated with transaction 820. Backend 836 may be configured to parse the received input material passports to determine such transaction IDs. Backend 836 may be configured to generate query data to query the distributed ledger based on the transaction IDs. The query data may be provided to member node 118. Member node 118 may be configured to query the distributed ledger stored in its database 302 and to provide the query result to backend 836. The query result may contain transaction data associated with transactions matching the query data, e.g. matching the transaction ID provided by backend 836. Backend 836 may be configured to provide at least a part of the transaction data, such as the environmental attribute data, to environmental attribute calculation unit 826. Environmental attribute calculation unit 826 may be configured to determine the environmental attribute data associated with the produced output product, for example as described in the context of FIG. 11 B. Environmental attribute calculation unit 826 may be configured to provide the determined environmental attribute data to backend 836.

[0256] Use of decentral network 220 may allow to avoid storage of sensitive data, such as data allowing to identify the transferred input material, in the distributed ledger, hence avoiding an undesired transparency on the complete supply chain of a given end-product. This allows to avoid implementation of complicated access rights within the distributed ledger, hence allowing transparency on transferred environmental attribute debts and ensuring trust in the system. However, data required to identify the respective transactions and hence also the associated environmental attribute data can be shared in a reliable and secure way via another decentral network implementing access rights to ensure that only authorized participants of the product ecosystem can access the passports and can hence also gain the transparency on which transactions are associated with which input materials. The use of two separate decentral systems hence allows a maximum level of transparency on the environmental attribute debt transfer to ensure fraud protection while maintaining the required level of security in terms of knowledge on suppliers and customers for participants of the product ecosystem to ensure required secrecy of the supply chain.

[0257] MR may transfer the produced output product to product recipient PR in step 3. The transfer of output product from MR to PR in step 3 in the physical world may be mirrored by a transfer of ownership of the following assets from MR to PR: an asset representing input material 1 , an asset representing input material 2 and an asset representing the environmental attribute data associated with the production of the output product. Such asset may be generated by MR as previously described for input material 1 and 2 by providing respective transaction data to the distributed ledger network 136. MR may generate such an asset for environmental attribute data associated with the production of a single batch of a product. MR may generate such an asset for environmental attribute data associated with the production of a plurality of output products for a defined time period, such as a month, a quarter or a year. This may avoid having to generate transaction data per produced batch, hence reducing the amount of transaction data that needs to be validated and stored in the distributed ledger. The environmental attribute data per defined time period may be seen as an environmental attribute budget which may be used to assign environmental attribute debts associated with the production of an output product to such an output product as described in the following.

[0258] The transfer of the assets may be reflected by a respective transaction stored as entry 822 in the distributed ledger 850. For instance and with reference to FIG. 8B and Fig. 8C, backend 836 may be configured to generate transaction data to transfer the assets from MR (previous owner) to PR (new owner). The transaction data may include asset data (e.g. transaction ID), input data, output data and further data. The input data may reference the transaction associated with the environmental attribute data of used input material 1 , e.g. transaction 816 with transaction ID2, used input material 2, e.g. transaction 820 with transaction ID4, and of the production process, e.g. transaction with ID5, and the decentral participant identifier of the previous owner (e.g. MO). The output data may include the environmental attribute data associated with the amount of output product transferred from MR to PR (e.g. the environmental attribute data determined by environmental attribute calculation unit 826) as well as the decentral participant identified of the new owner (e.g. PR). The transaction data may be provided to a member node of the distributed ledger network, such as node 116-1 and such member node may process the received transaction data as described in the context of FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B. The member node may validate the received transaction data, for example by comparing the inputs with the outputs, e.g. comparing the environmental attribute data listed in the inputs with the environmental attribute data listed in the outputs. The environmental attribute data listed in the inputs corresponds to the environmental attribute data listed in the outputs of the referenced transaction 816, 820 and transaction with ID5 (not shown). The transaction data may be valid if the inputs equal the outputs, e.g. if the sum of environmental attribute data listed in the outputs of transactions 816, 820 and transaction with ID5 equals the environmental attribute data listed in the outputs of transaction 822. This validation allows to ensure that the environmental impact debt of the input materials 1 and 2 used in the production of the output product as well as the environmental impact associated with the production processes required to produce the output product are correctly considered and accumulated by MR when determining the environmental attribute data for the produced output product. The validated transaction data may be included as entry 822 within the distributed ledger. For example, the transaction data may be included as transaction 822 in a block 812a of a blockchain.

[0259] With reference to FIG. 8D, PR may monitor or verify the environmental attribute data associated with the output product produced by MR and supplied by MR to PR. As described in the context of FIG. 5, the output product may be associated with an output product passport accessible via decentral network 220. As previously described, PR may access the output product passport via consumer node 206 from provider node 204 associated with MR (see also description of FIG. 5). Consumer node 206 may provide the output product passport to backend 846. Backend 846 may store the recieved passports in storage 848 as described in the context of FIG. 5. Backend 846 may parse the received passport data to determine transaction IDs associated with the transfer of assets previously described. Backend 846 may generate query data and may provide the query data to member node 120 of the distributed ledger network 136. Member node 120 may query the distributed ledger stored in its database based on the received query data as previously described. The transaction data returned as query result may be provided by member node 120 to backend 846. In this example, the query result may include transaction data of transaction 822 associated with the transfer of the output product from MR to PR. The transaction data may include referenced transactions in the input data. Backend 846 may parse the transaction data to determine referenced transaction IDs in the input data. Backend 846 may be configured to generate further query data based on the referenced transaction IDs and to provide such further query data to member node 120. Member node may query the distributed ledger based on the further query data and may return transaction data of transactions 816, 820 and transaction with ID5 referenced in the input data of transaction 822. Using the environmental attribute data included in transactions 816, 820, 822, transaction with ID5 and, PR is able to verify the environmental attribute data included in transaction 822 associated with the output product received from MR by comparing said environmental attribute data with the aggregated environmental attribute data from transactions 816, 820 and transaction with ID5.

[0260] Hence, the distributed ledger may allow to gain transparency on the accumulation of environmental impact debts during the production of output products. For instance, the end-product will bear the accumulated environmental impact debt associated with all input materials used to produce the output product. Such transparency helps to achieve fraud protection and improves the reliability and the trust in environmental attribute data associated with output products. For instance, the balancing performed during transaction data validation ensures that the environmental attribute debt associated with the used input materials is considered for the environmental attribute data determination of the output product, avoiding that participants may refrain from accumulation environmental attribute data associated with input material when determining environmental attribute data of output products to achieve a more favorable result in terms of environmental attribute(s) for the output product. The improved transparency and trustworthiness of such environmental attribute data associated with output products may help to steer the environmental impact of the product ecosystem and may result in increasing the circularity to further reduce the environmental impact of such product ecosystem.

[0261] FIG. 9 illustrates system for validating environmental attribute data flows within a linear product ecosystem comprising several participants involved in supplying input materials and producing output product(s) using said input materials in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The product ecosystem may include production chains to produce an end product. The product ecosystem may include participants involved in the production of end-products. The product ecosystem may include participants involved in the waste treatment of end-of-life products resulting from the use of end-products produced by the product ecosystem. The linear product ecosystem may not include recycling steps to recycle end-of-life material, hence the end-of-life products may be discarded as waste and may be incinerated or deposited on landfills. The system may implement the method shown in FIG. 17.

[0262] The input materials may include virgin raw materials, recycled materials chemical intermediate products, chemical products, components and component assemblies. The output products may include chemical intermediate products, chemical products, components and component assemblies and end-products.

[0263] Input materials may be provided by input material supplier 104 and / or recycler 114 to chemical product producer 102. The environmental attribute data associated with such input materials may be registered by member nodes 116 and / or 128 via transactions stored as entries in a distributed ledger, such as a blockchain, of distributed ledger network 136. Such transactions may create assets associated with the environmental attribute data of the respective input materials. Registering the environmental attribute data may include generating transaction data and providing the generated transaction data to member nodes 116 or 128 for processing as described in the context of FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B in relation to steps 1A and 2A. The member nodes 116 and / or 128 may process the received transaction data as described in the context of FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B.

[0264] The physical transfer of input materials from input material supplier 104 and / or 114 to chemical product producers 102 may be linked to a transfer of assets associated with the environmental attribute data of such input materials with the distributed ledger network 136. The assets may be transferred from input material supplier 104 and / or recycler 114 to chemical product producer 102 by generating transaction data and providing such transaction data to member nodes 116 and / or 128, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B in relation to steps 1 B and 2B. The member nodes 116 and / or 128 may process the received transaction data as described in the context of FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B.

[0265] Chemical product producers 102 may use the input materials supplied by input material supplier 104 and / or recycler 114 to produce output products. The output products may be chemical intermediate products or chemical products. Chemical product producers 102 may supply the produced output products as input materials to chemical product consumers 106. The physical transfer of produced output products from chemical product producers 102 to chemical product consumers 106 may be linked to a transfer of assets associated with the environmental attribute data of input materials used to produce the output product and of the production of output products with the distributed ledger network 136. The assets may be transferred from chemical product producers 102 to chemical product consumers 106 by generating transaction data and providing such transaction data to member nodes 118, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B in relation to step 3. The member nodes 118 may process the received transaction data as described in the context of FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B.

[0266] Likewise, chemical product consumers 106 may use the output products supplied by chemical product producers 102 as input materials to produce output products. The output products may be chemical products or discrete products. The physical transfer of produced output products from chemical product consumers 106 to OEMs 108 may be linked to a transfer of assets associated with the environmental attribute data of input materials (e.g. output products produced by chemical product producer 102) used to produce the output product and of the production of output products with the distributed ledger network 136. The assets may be transferred from chemical product consumers 106 to OEMs 108 by generating transaction data and providing such transaction data to member nodes 120, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B. The member nodes 120 may process the received transaction data as described in the context of FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B.

[0267] Likewise, OEMs 108 may use the output products supplied by chemical product consumers 106 as input materials to produce output products. The output products may be end-products. The physical transfer of produced output products from chemical product consumers 106 to OEMs 108 may be linked to a transfer of assets associated with the environmental attribute data of input materials (e.g. output products produced by chemical product consumers 106) used to produce the output product and of the production of output products with the distributed ledger network 136. The assets may be transferred from OEMs 108 to waste treatment facilities by generating transaction data and providing such transaction data to member nodes 122, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B. The member nodes 122 may process the received transaction data as described in the context of FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B.

[0268] The waste treatment facilities may register environmental attribute data associated with the waste treatment of the end-of-life products resulting from the use of produced end-products as entry in the distributed ledger of the distributed ledger network 136. The environmental attribute data may be registered by generating transaction data and providing such transaction data to member nodes 912, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B. The member nodes 912may process the received transaction data as described in the context of FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B.

[0269] The environmental attribute data flow may be monitored and / or verified by

[0270] • accumulating the environmental attribute data associated with the input materials used to produce the end-product stored in associated transactions (such as transactions 902b, 904b, 906b and 908b stored in blocks 902a, 904a, 906a and 908a of the distributed ledger)

[0271] • accumulating the environmental attribute data associated with end-products stored in associated transactions (such as transactions 910b stored in block 910a of the distributed ledger) and

[0272] • comparing the sum of accumulated environmental attribute data associated with the input materials used to produce the end-product with the accumulated environmental attribute data associated with end-products.

[0273] The respective environmental attribute data may be determined, for example, based on transaction IDs associated with produced end-products, as described in the context of FIG. 17. The environmental attribute data associated with the input materials may include the environmental attribute data of input materials and the environmental attribute data associated with production processes required to produce the end-product from the input materials.

[0274] The environmental attribute data flow may be verified if the sum of the accumulated environmental attribute data associated with the input materials used to produce the end-product equals the accumulated environmental attribute data associated with end-products. In this case, every environmental attribute data flow is accounted for at all times.

[0275] The total environmental impact of the linear product ecosystem may be determined by accumulating the environmental attribute data associated with produced end-products with accumulated environmental attribute data associated with waste treatment. Such total environmental impact may be used to steer the product ecosystem with respect to its environmental impact. For instance, the total environmental impact may be reduced by using recycled materials, bio-based materials and renewable materials having a reduced environmental impact as compared to fossil input materials and / or by using production methods associated with reduced environmental impact. The monitoring achieved by the system may help in establishing a transparency on environmental attribute data flows and may avoid fraud by ensuring that environmental attribute debt associated with input materials is correctly allocated to output products produced from such input materials.

[0276] FIG. 10A and FIG. 10B illustrate systems for monitoring and / or verifying environmental attribute data flows within a circular product ecosystem comprising several participants involved in supplying input materials and producing output product(s) using said input materials in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The product ecosystem may include a participant network 100 as illustrated in FIG. 1. The circular product ecosystem may include production chains to produce end-products and recycling chains to recycle end-of-life products. The circular product ecosystem may be a closed loop system where recycled material resulting from recycling of end-of-life products is used as input material within the same product ecosystem. The circular product ecosystem may be an open loop system where recycled material resulting from recycling of end-of-life product is used within a different product ecosystem (not shown). The system may implement the method shown in FIG. 17.

[0277] The input materials may include virgin raw materials, recycled materials chemical intermediate products, chemical products, components and component assemblies. The output products may include chemical intermediate products, chemical products, components and component assemblies and end-products.

[0278] Input materials may be provided by input material supplier 104 and / or recycler 114 to chemical product producer 102. The environmental attribute data associated with such input materials may be registered by member nodes 116 and / or 128 via transactions stored as entries in a distributed ledger, such as a blockchain, of distributed ledger network 136. Such transactions may create assets associated with the environmental attribute data of the respective input materials or recycled materials. Registering the environmental attribute data may include generating transaction data and providing the generated transaction data to member nodes 116 or 128 for processing as described in the context of FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B in relation to steps 1A and 2A. The member nodes 116 and / or 128 may process the received transaction data as described in the context of FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B.

[0279] The physical transfer of input materials from input material supplier 104 and / or 114 to chemical product producers 102 may be linked to a transfer of assets associated with the environmental attribute data of such input materials with the distributed ledger network 136 as described in the context of FIG. 9.

[0280] Chemical product producers 102 may use the input materials supplied by input material supplier 104 and / or recycler 114 to produce output products. The output products may be chemical intermediate products or chemical products. Chemical product producers 102 may supply the produced output products as input materials to OEMs 108. The physical transfer of produced output products from chemical product producers 102 to OEMs 108 may be linked to a transfer of assets associated with the environmental attribute data of input materials used to produce the output product and of the production of output products with the distributed ledger network 136. The assets may be transferred from chemical product producers 102 to OEMs 108 by generating transaction data and providing such transaction data to member nodes 118, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B in relation to step 3. The member nodes 118 may process the received transaction data as described in the context of FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B.

[0281] Likewise, OEMs 108 may use the output products supplied by chemical product consumers 106 as input materials to produce output products. The output products may be end-products. The physical transfer of produced output products from chemical product producers 102 to OEMs 108 may be linked to a transfer of assets associated with the environmental attribute data of input materials (e.g. output products produced by chemical product producers 102) used to produce the output product and of the production of output products with the distributed ledger network 136. The assets may be transferred from OEMs 108 to recyclers 114 by generating transaction data and providing such transaction data to member nodes 122, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B. The member nodes 122 may process the received transaction data as described in the context of FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B.

[0282] Environmental attribute data associated with the recycling of end-of-life products may be determined in different ways. One way is the so called cut-off method (also denoted as 100:0 or recycled content approach) where the “burden” (e.g. the environmental attribute data) associated with the end-of-life product is cut off upon entry of the end-of-life product into the recycling process. Hence, environmental attribute data associated with the end-of-life product is not allocated to the recycled material resulting from the recycling process. Instead, only the environmental attribute data associated with the recycling process, such as environmental attribute data associated with recycling operations performed during the recycling process, is allocated to the recycled material. The cut-off may be set directly after use or after collection of end-of-life products. If recycling is more efficient than sourcing virgin material, the recycled material will be associated with reduced environmental attribute(s), such as environmental footprint data, as compared to the virgin material. The cut-off method is illustrated in FIG. 10A.

[0283] To avoid allocation of the environmental attribute data associated with the end-of-life product to the recycled material, the environmental attribute data associated with the end-of-life product may be transferred via transaction data to a public key that is not associated with a participant of the product ecosystem. For instance, the environmental attribute data associated with the end-of-life product may be transferred via transaction data to an owner which is not part of the product ecosystem. Such transfer may be initiated by generating transaction data including the environmental attribute data associated with the end-of-life product and the respective public key in the output data.

[0284] The environmental attribute associated with the recycled material may be registered in the distributed ledger network 136 by generating transaction data as described for input materials (see FIG. 8A, FIG. 8B steps 1A and 2A). Hence, such transaction data may not reference previous transaction IDs in its input data.

[0285] The environmental attribute data flow may be monitored and / or verified as described in the context of FIG. 9. The total environmental impact of the circular product ecosystem may be determined by accumulating the environmental attribute data associated with produced end-products with accumulated environmental attribute data associated with the recycling process. Such total environmental impact may be used to steer the product ecosystem with respect to its environmental impact. For instance, the total environmental impact may be reduced by increasing the recycling rate since recycled materials may be associated with a reduced environmental impact compared to virgin materials. The monitoring achieved by the system may help in establishing a transparency on environmental attribute data flows and may avoid fraud by ensuring that environmental attribute debt associated with input materials is correctly allocated to output products produced from such input materials. In addition, the system allows to compare environmental attribute data associated with recycled materials with environmental attribute data associated with virgin materials of the same material type, hence rendering it possible to judge the efficiency of the recycling process. This may help in improving the environmental impact of the product ecosystem by determining whether recycling can aid in reducing the overall environmental impact or not.

[0286] In contrast to FIG. 10A, FIG. 10B illustrates the use of the circular footprint formula (CFF). The CFF aims at considering both by accounting for the recycled content at the input side as well as recovery at the EOL. Therefore, the CFF introduces additional parameters such as the change in material quality between life cycle stages as well as allocation factors for recycling and energy recovery processes that are aiming to integrate the balance of supply and demand. Application of the CFF may result in reduced environmental attribute data as compared to the sum of environmental attribute data stemming from the use of the input materials and the production processes. The difference between the reduced environmental attribute data determined according to CFF and the sum of environmental attribute data stemming from the use of the input materials and the production processes may regarded as environmental attribute credit. To avoid rejection of transaction data including such reduced environmental attribute data due to non-equal inputs and outputs, the generated credit needs to be registered as an entry in the distributed ledger. Hence, the determined credit needs to be allocated from the environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) and / or the production processes to a separate address associated with the respective participant claiming the credit. Such allocation can, for example, be performed by splitting the environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) and / or production processes and allocating environmental attribute data corresponding to the credit to a further decentral participant identifier associated with the respective participant claiming the credit.

[0287] For instance in the example illustrated in Fig. 10, chemical product producer 102 may claim a credit for the use of recycled input materials when applying the CFF to calculate the environmental attribute data associated with produced output products. The claimed credit may be allocated via transaction data from environmental attribute data associated with input material(s) and / or production processes to a further decentral participant identifier associated with chemical product producer 102. The transaction data may transfer ownership of a part of the environmental attribute data (e.g. the environmental attribute credit) to the further decentral participant identifier, hence reducing the remaining environmental attribute data allocated to the first decentral participant identifier. Storage of such credit as entries within the distributed ledger network allows transparency on the amount of credits claimed by individual participants.

[0288] The remaining environmental attribute data which corresponds to the environmental attribute data associated with the produced output product may then be transferred via transaction data as described in the context of FIG. 9 to OEMs 108 prior to, upon or after transfer of the output products to the OEMs 108. Application of the OFF may hence resulting in a reduction of the environmental attribute data upon use of recycled materials within input materials used to produce an end-product.

[0289] Likewise, the end-product producer (e.g. OEMs 108) may determine the environmental attribute data associated with produced output products via the OFF. A credit may be generated if said end-product includes material that will be recycled or reused and / or if the end-product includes recycled material. Hence, such credit may be accounted for as previously described.

[0290] The environmental attribute data flow may be monitored and / or verified as described in the context of FIG. 9. The total environmental impact of the circular product ecosystem may be determined by accumulating the environmental attribute data associated with produced end-products. Such total environmental impact may be used to steer the product ecosystem with respect to its environmental impact. For instance, the total environmental impact may be reduced by increasing the recycling rate since recycled materials may result in a credit and / or by increasing the amount of material within the endproduct that can be recycled since this likewise results in a credit. The monitoring achieved by the system may help in establishing a transparency on environmental attribute data flows and may avoid fraud by ensuring that environmental attribute debt associated with input materials is correctly allocated to output products produced from such input materials. In addition, it renders the amount of environmental attribute credit claimed by individual participants transparent and may be used to adjust the factors within the CFF depending on the amount of credits claimed by the participants. In addition, the system allows to compare environmental attribute data associated with recycled materials with environmental attribute data associated with virgin materials of the same material type, hence rendering it possible to judge the efficiency of the recycling process. This may help in improving the environmental impact of the product ecosystem by determining whether recycling can aid in reducing the overall environmental impact or not.

[0291] FIG. 11A illustrates an example system for monitoring the environmental impact associated with a participant of the product ecosystem in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The product ecosystem may be an ecosystem as described in the context of FIG. 1. The product ecosystem may include a one or more participants (see FIG. 1 , FIG. 2). The participants may be part of production chains or recycling chains included in the product ecosystem. The system may implement the method illustrated in FIG. 14.

[0292] Input materials may be provided from input material suppliers 104 to the chemical production operated by chemical product producer 102. The chemical production may produce output products, such as chemical products, from the provided input materials. The input materials may be associated with input material passports, as described in the context of FIG. 5. The input material passports may be gathered via decentral network 220 using consumer node 204 from provider nodes 202-1 , 202-2 associated with the input material suppliers 104 as described in the context of FIG. 5 and FIG. 8C. The gathered input material passports may be provided to backend 1152. Backend 1152 may be configured to parse the input material passports to determine transaction identifiers included in such input material passports as described in the context of FIG. 8C. The transaction identifier(s) may be used to gather environmental attribute data associated with the input materials from distributed ledger network 136 via member node 118 as described in the context of FIG. 8C.

[0293] As described in the context of FIG. 8C, the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the input materials along with environmental attribute data associated with production processes producing the output product may be used to determine the environmental attribute data associated with the output product. Transaction data may be generated and provided to member node 118 to register environmental attribute data associated with the production processes and to transfer environmental attribute data associated with produced output products to downstream participants, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8B and FIG. 8C.

[0294] The environmental impact signified by the environmental attribute data flow may be monitored and / or verified by

[0295] • accumulating environmental attribute data associated with input material(s) provided to the chemical production operated by chemical product producer 102,

[0296] • accumulating environmental attribute data associated with production processes used to produce the output products,

[0297] • accumulating environmental attribute data associated with output products produced by the chemical production and

[0298] • comparing the accumulated environmental attribute data.

[0299] The environmental attribute data flow may be verified if the sum of the accumulated environmental attribute data associated with the input materials and the production processes equals the accumulated environmental attribute data associated with the output products. In this case, every environmental attribute data flow is accounted for at all times.

[0300] Such environmental impact may be used by the participant to steer its operations with respect to its environmental impact. For instance, the total environmental impact may be reduced by an increased amount of recycled materials, bio-based materials and renewable materials having a reduced environmental impact as compared to fossil input materials and / or by using production methods associated with reduced environmental impact. The monitoring achieved by the system may help in establishing a transparency on environmental attribute data flows and may avoid fraud by ensuring that environmental attribute debt associated with input materials is correctly allocated to output products produced from such input materials. FIG. 11 B illustrates an example system for monitoring the environmental impact associated with output product(s) produced from one or more input material(s) by a production in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The output products may include chemical intermediate products, chemical products, components, component-assemblies and end products. The input material(s) may include chemical intermediate products, chemical products, components, component-assemblies. The input materials may include recycled materials, bio-based materials, renewable materials and / or biodegradable materials. The system may implement the method illustrated in FIG. 14.

[0301] The system may comprise an address unit 1122 configured to assign addresses, for example public keys of a private-public key pair, to environmental attribute data storage associated with environmental attribute data inflow(s) (attribute storage in) and to environmental attribute data storage associated with environmental attribute data outflow(s) (attribute storage out) (see step 1). The address(es) of the attribute storage in may be used for all transactions associated with received input material, i.e. the address(es) of attribute storage in is / are used as recipient address for all transactions associated with the receipt of input material by said company. Likewise, the address(es) of the attribute storage out may be used for all transactions associated with output product(s) produced from the received input material(s), i.e. all output product(s) containing said input material. Attribute balancing can be performed as described later on by comparing the total environmental attribute(s) contained in all transactions associated with the attribute inflow address(es) with the total environmental attribute(s) contained in all transactions associated with the attribute outflow address(es).

[0302] The system may further comprise an ID reader 1126 configured to read IDs, such as physical identifier elements of input materials and output product(s) produced from said input materials (i.e. output product(s) containing said input materials). The physical identifier element may be physically attached to the input material and the output product(s). The physical identifier element may be associated with or linked to a digital input material identifier or output product identifier, respectively. The ID reader may provide the determined ID to a database (not shown) which may be accessible by the ERP system 1128.

[0303] The system may further comprise ERP system 1128 (enterprise resource planning system). ERP system 1128 may be configured to generate transactions 1140 with ERP transaction IDs (see step 2). An ERP transaction 1140 may include an output product identifier as primary key, records a mass flow input and output and contains further data. Said further data may include, for example the production recipe, in the form

[0304] • amount and composition of mass input in mass percent

[0305] • amount and composition of mass output in mass percent

[0306] • production unit ID as reference

[0307] The system may further comprise an environmental attribute calculation unit 826. This environmental attribute calculation unit 826 may receive the ERP transaction(s) 1140 from the ERP system 1128 (see step 3A in FIG. 11 B) and may calculate environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) containing the input material(s) based on the data contained in the received ERP transaction 1140 and environmental attribute data associated with the input materials gathered from distributed ledger network 136 (not shown, see for example FIG. 8C). Calculation of environmental attribute data based on the data contained in the received ERP transaction 1140 and the environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) may be performed, for example, based on the energy consumption and / or the output product yield and / or emissions generated during transport of the input material(s) to the production, and the environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s). The calculated environmental attribute data may be correlated with the output product identifier contained in the ERP transaction 1140 by using said product identifier as primary key 1142 (step 3B in FIG. 11 B). To consider co-production of multiple products, secondary keys may be used within the calculated output product data to associate each calculated output product data with the respectively produced product. Use of said environmental attribute calculation unit 826 allows to automatically calculate the environmental attribute data of the produced output products which can be used to generate respective transaction data.

[0308] The system may further comprise a component attribute flow unit 1132. Said unit 1132 may be configured to receive the ERP transaction 1140 (see step 3C of FIG. 11 B) and may generate a list of input environmental attribute(s) 1144 by multiplying the composition vector with the environmental attribute input flow (see step 3D of FIG. 11 B). The list 1144 may be generated from the mass input amount and composition of mass input in mass percent contained in the received ERP transaction 1140 as well as from gathered environmental attribute data associated with input materials. The list 1144 generated by component attribute flow unit 1132 may be used as input for the transaction data prepared by the data integration unit 1134 described in the following.

[0309] Data integration unit 1134 may generate transaction data 1146 by retrieving and merging at least a part of the following data into one data set (i.e. transaction input 1146) using the product identifier (i.e. the primary key):

[0310] • ERP transaction ID from the ERP transaction 1140,

[0311] • list of input environmental attribute(s) 1144,

[0312] • environmental attribute data 1142,

[0313] • cryptographic addresses of attribute storage in and attribute storage out 1124 (steps 4 and 5 of FIG. 11 B),

[0314] • transaction type (i.e. transfer transaction or create transaction), and

[0315] • optionally transaction ID(s) of previous transaction.

[0316] The transaction input 1146 may vary depending on the production step used to produce the output product(s) containing the input material from said input material. For example, the amount of produced output product may be assigned to at least two different attribute storage out addresses such that the total attribute amount for said output product is split between the at least two different attribute storage out addresses. In this case, unit 1134 assigns numerical values (i.e. list of split attribute amounts) to the respective attribute storage out addresses. The numerical values may be obtained, for example, from the ERP transaction data 1140. For chemical reactions involving multiple reaction products, each reaction product may be assigned to an attribute mass storage out address as previously described. The transaction data 1146 may vary depending on the transaction type.

[0317] The data integration unit 1134 may act as client 416 described in relation to FIG. 4B and may use an application 418 and a driver 420 to generate a signed transaction as described in relation to FIG. 4B.

[0318] The transaction data 1146 generated by unit 1334 may be received by a member node of the distributed ledger network 136. The received signed transaction may be validated by the distributed ledger server 310 and stored as entry within the distributed ledger after consensus is successfully performed, for example as described in relation to FIG. 4B above. The member node may provide a respective notification to data integration unit 1134 indicating commitment of the transaction as described in relation to FIG. 4B above. The notification may include transaction data, such as the transaction ID, the public keys of the involved parties, the further data, or a combination thereof.

[0319] Apart from generating the transaction data 1146, the data integration unit 1134 may also take stock of the attribute storage addresses 1124 by storing a sum of transaction inputs associated with the attribute storage in and the attribute storage out to allow determination of the attribute balance using said data integration unit 1134 as described in the following.

[0320] Prerequisite for balancing the storage accounts is the fact that ERP transactions and distributed ledger transactions are consistent. Consistency can be guaranteed by data integration unit 1134 by ensuring that the logical sequence of ERP transactions is the same as the sequence of transactions committed to the distributed ledger via the member node. For this purpose, unit 1134 may queue received ERP transactions 1140 until previously generated transaction data sent to member node 1136 was committed to the distributed ledger.

[0321] Once consistency is established for each storage address, the sum of transactions is balanced out by the data integration unit 1134. The result is the net stock in each storage address at the given time stamp:

[0322] • attribute inflows are represented by transactions allocating environmental attribute data of input materials to the attribute storage in address(es), and

[0323] • attribute outflows are represented by transactions allocating environmental attribute data of output product(s) containing the material to the attribute storage out address(es).

[0324] The determined attribute balance may be stored in the data integration unit 1134 as data record associated with the respective attribute storage address and corresponding attribute storage name (for example as key value pair or document). For ongoing operation, a list of time stamps is created that represent the batch intervals of the production step as a uniform time grid However, if stock taking is required for a given attribute storage address, said time stamps have to be placed manually in such a way that all production batches associated with this attribute storage out address are completed in ERP at this timestamp (coinciding batch ends) or all stock keeping operations have to happen on a fixed (typically uniform) time grid. In the latter case, the uniform time grid represents de facto batch interval length which means that batch interval has to be the same for all production units. Yet, in general, batch sizes are not uniform across multiple production units and products in a company. Therefore, the Time Grid interval can be adjusted to greatest common divisor of all batch lengths occurring in the production system of said company.

[0325] Data integration unit data integration units 1134 may further be connected to ID provider 1138. ID provider 1138 may be configured to provide a decentral passport identifier, such as a UUID, as previously described upon request of the data integration unit 1134 (see step 7 of FIG. 11 B). The provided ID may be used by data integration unit 1134 to generate - using the product identifier as primary key - an output product passport containing the transaction data received from member node 1136 as well as further product data contained in the ERP transaction 1140 and / or retrieved from a further database (not shown) connected to unit 1134 (see step 8 of FIG. 11 B).

[0326] The system illustrated in FIG. 11 B allows to perform attribute balancing for a company by storing information on input material flows, flows associated with output product(s) containing the input material(s), environmental attribute data flows as well as stocks in a tamper evident way in the distributed ledger, thus allowing to keep track of input material(s) and associated output product(s) even if the output products are not produced in real time continuous flows but often in campaigns where material that has been put into stock for some time is channeled towards such a production campaign.

[0327] Moreover, the system illustrated in FIG. 11 B allows to generate product passports associated with an output product produced from specific raw materials including transaction data, such as the transaction ID.

[0328] Because of the mass balance paradigm, chemical products with identical chemical, physical, and mechanical properties can have very different history, provenance, and environmental attribute data. Therefore, the same material identifier has to matched to different input material data describing material sustainability factors and the same output product identifier has to matched to several different product data describing product sustainability factors. This is achieved with the system described in relation to FIG. 11 B by using the material identifier or product identifier within the further data included in the transaction data in combination with classification or production data.

[0329] FIG. 12 illustrates an example system for monitoring the environmental impact associated with a single output product produced from one or more input material(s) by a production in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The single output product may be a chemical intermediate product, a chemical product, a component, a component-assembly or an end product. The single output product may be produced by a production, such as a chemical production.

[0330] Different input materials (materials A to C) may be used to produce a specific output product using a defined production recipe. The produced output product may then be packaged and sold to consumer(s), such as end consumers or other upstream companies for further processing. In another example, more or less different chemical compounds may be used. In yet another example, the product may be produced by assembling different parts, for example if said product is part of an automotive, such as a battery or the like.

[0331] Input materials transferred into the production process are registered by member nodes associated with the input material suppliers 104 supplying the input materials, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B. The input materials provided to the production may be associated with a physical identifier element. The physical identifier element may be scanned and the acquired data may be used to gather input material passports associated with such input materials via decentral network 220 using consumer node 204 from provider nodes 202-1 and 202-2, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5. The gathered input material passports may be stored in backend 1152. Backend 1152 may be connected to member node 118 of distributed ledger network 136. Backend 1152 may be configured to generate query data based on the transaction identifiers included in the gathered passports as described in the context of FIG. 11 A. In response to the query data provided by backend 1152, member node 118 may query the distributed ledger and may return transaction data matching the query data. For instance, transactions data associated with the transfer of environmental attribute data associated with he input materials A to C may be returned by member node 118.

[0332] To determine the attribute balance, the total environmental attribute data of the input materials as well as the total environment attribute data of output product(s) containing said input materials has to be calculated and compared considering the stoichiometry which can be retrieved, for example, from the ERP transaction data 1140.

[0333] In one example, the environmental attribute data of input materials may be obtained by querying the distributed ledger network 136 using the transaction identifiers included in the input material passports as previously described. The total environmental attribute data may be obtained by considering the stoichiometry, for example as described in the context of FIG. 15A. The stoichiometry may be retrieved, for example, from ERP transaction data 1140. The environmental attribute data of output product(s) containing materials A to C may be obtained by querying the distributed ledger for transactions referencing transaction identifier(s) associated with transactions related to materials A to C. The total environmental attribute data may be obtained by considering the stoichiometry, for example as described in the context of FIG. 15A. The attribute balance may be calculated by an application having access to the distributed ledger network 136, such as an application 418 described in relation to FIG. 4B. The determined attribute balance may be displayed within a graphical user interface and any deviations may be highlighted to increase user comfort.

[0334] FIG. 13 illustrates example method for monitoring environmental attribute(s) associated with output product(s) produced from one or more input material(s) by a production in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The output products may include output products described in the context of FIG. 11 B. The input materials may include input materials described in the context of FIG. 11 B. The method illustrated in FIG. 13 may be implemented by the systems illustrated in FIG. 8C and FIG. 11 B. The input materials may be associated with input material passports, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5. Environmental attribute data may include the data listed in relation to FIG. 1. Environmental attribute data may include carbon footprint data.

[0335] The input material(s) may be associated with input material identifier(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 5. Based on input material identifier(s) associated with input material(s), input material passport(s) may be gathered from a decentral network (see block 1302). The input material passport(s) may be gathered as described in the context of FIG. 5. The decentral network may be a decentral peer- to-peer network as described in the context of FIG. 2. The input material identifier(s) may be associated with or included in access elements stored in decentral registries of the decentral network 220. The access elements may be associated with the input material passports. Based on the input material identifier(s), access elements associated with said input material identifier(s) may be retrieved as described in the context of FIG. 5. Using the access data included in said access elements, the respective input material passports may be gathered via consumer nodes from provider nodes associated with dedicated storages storing said input material passports. The dedicated storage may be associated with or under control of the data owner of the input material passports. Use of passports independently of the information written in the distributed ledger allows to immutably store certain information, like the environmental attribute data associated with the input material with said transaction within a distributed ledger while allowing to provide detailed information on the input material via a separate harmonized data exchange route. This allows to reduce the data contained within each transaction to a minimum, thus reducing the amount of data that needs to be stored within the distributed ledger, and also guarantees the necessary privacy of the sensitive details on the material / product(s) associated with the respective transaction(s). The transaction stored in the distributed ledger may include a hash of the input material passport to allow verification that the transaction is indeed associated with the input material passport. The transaction stored in the distributed ledger may include the decentral passport identifier to allow verification that the transaction is indeed associated with the input material passport.

[0336] Environmental attribute data associated with input material(s) may be gathered from a distributed ledger of a decentral network based on the gathered input material passport(s). The distributed ledger network may be distributed ledger network 136 described in the context of FIG. 1 .The distributed ledger may store transactions (e.g. entries) including the environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s). The transactions stored in the distributed ledger may be linked to transfers of physical entities of input material(s) to the participant operating the production producing the output product(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B. The input material passports may include data related to transactions stored as entries in a distributed ledger of distributed ledger network 136. The input material passports may include data related to environmental attribute data of the input material(s). The data related to the transactions may include transaction identifier(s). The transaction identifier(s) may be used to query the distributed ledger for transactions associated with such transaction identifier(s). The transaction(s) may include the environmental attribute data. The transaction identifier(s) may be used to query the distributed ledger for transactions associated with such transaction identifier(s). For instance, a client may generate query data based on the transaction data included in the passports and may send such query data to a member node. The member node may query the distributed ledger stored in its database using the received query data and may provide the received response to the client. The received response may include transactions matching the query data, such as the transaction ID(s). Client may parse the received transactions and may determine the environmental attribute data included in the received transactions. For example, the client may determine the environmental attribute data stored in the output data of the received transactions (see also FIG. 4A).

[0337] Environmental attribute data associated with the output product may be determined based on gathered environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) and environmental attribute data associated with the production of the output product. The environmental attribute data may be determined as described in the context of FIG. 10B and FIG. 11 B.

[0338] Transaction data associated with a transfer of the output product to a downstream output product consumer may be generated. The transaction data may include the determined environmental attribute data associated with the output product and data related to the downstream output product consumer. The transaction data may further include transaction identifiers included in the input material passport(s) (e.g. transaction IDs of transactions associated with environmental attributes of input materials). The transaction data may further include transaction identifier(s) of transactions associated with environmental attribute data of production processes used to produce the output product, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8B. The transaction data may further include data related to the output product. Data related to the output product may include output product identifier(s), such as a batch number, a LOT number or a decentral passport identifier included in an output product passport associated with the output product(s).

[0339] In addition, - based on the determined environmental attribute data - transaction data to store an environmental attribute credit associated with the use of recycled input material(s) (e.g. input materials including a recycled content) and / or output product containing recyclable material as an entry in the distributed ledger of the distributed ledger network may be generated. The environmental attribute credit may be associated with or may correlate to a difference between environmental attribute data associated with the use of recycled input materials not containing a recycled content and environmental attribute data associated with the use of input materials containing a recycled content. The environmental attribute credit may be associated with or may correlate to a difference between environmental attribute data associated with output products not including recyclable material and environmental attribute data associated with the output products containing recyclable material. Recyclable material may include ingredients, components and / or component-assemblies which may be recycled to obtain recycled material. This step may generally be optional. This step may be performed if an environmental impact credit is determined in block 1306. The transaction data may include the environmental attribute credit and an address associated with the participant claiming the credit, for example as described in the context of FIG. 10B.

[0340] The generated transaction data may be provided to a distributed ledger network for access to the environmental attribute data associated with the output product via the distributed ledger network. Providing the generated transaction data to the distributed ledger network may include signing the transaction data. The transaction data provided to the distributed ledger network may be validated and stored as entries int the distributed ledger, for example as described in the context of FIG. 4B. A message indicating successful storage may be received. The message may include at least a part of the transaction data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 4B.

[0341] By storing environmental attribute data associated with produced output product(s) as entry in a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network, transparency on such data as well as transparency on the amount of environmental attribute debt transferred to the downstream output product consumer may be achieved. By hiding the identity of the parties involved in the transfer as well as the identity of the material or product transferred between the parties, a high level of confidentiality may be obtained while still allowing to reliably balance environmental attribute data within the distributed ledger network. This high level of confidentiality may allow to store environmental attribute data of a complete production and / or recycling chain of a product ecosystem within the distributed ledger without allowing any transparency on the participants and materials / products involved in such production and / or recycling chain. The transparency on the environmental attribute data may add in establishing a reliable and trustworthy calculation of environmental attribute data associated with produced output products by ensuring that environmental attribute data associated with input material(s) and production process(es) used to produce the output product is considered (e.g. added) upon determination of the environmental attribute data associated with the output product. In addition, transparency on the environmental impact of output products may help in steering the overall environmental impact of the product ecosystem or the environmental impact of participant(s) of the product ecosystem by encouraging the use of recycled input material or input material containing a recycled content to achieve a reduction in environmental impact of produced output products (e.g. an environmental attribute credit or a reduced environmental attribute debt due to the use of input materials having a reduced environmental impact).

[0342] FIG. 14 illustrates example method for validating environmental attribute data associated with output product(s) produced from one or more input material(s) by a production in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The output products may include output products described in the context of FIG. 11 B. The input materials may include input materials described in the context of FIG. 11 B. The method illustrated in FIG. 13 may be implemented by the systems illustrated in FIG. 8C, FIG. 8D, FIG. 11 A and FIG. 12. The input materials may be associated with input material passports, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5. The output products may be associated with output product passports, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5. The environmental attribute data may include environmental attribute data described in the context of FIG. 1 . The environmental attribute data may include carbon footprint data associated with the input material(s) and the output product(s).

[0343] At least one input material passport associated with the input material(s) and / or at least one output product passport associated with the output product may be gathered. The passports may be gathered as described in the context of FIG. 5. Each passport may contain data related to transaction(s) associated with the input material and / or data related to transactions associated with the output product. The data related to the transactions data may include the transaction ID(s), the credentials, such as public keys, associated with the transaction(s), or a combination thereof. The transaction ID(s) may be used to gather the associated transaction data from the distributed ledger via a member node, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8C and FIG. 8D.

[0344] Environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) and environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) may be gathered from a distributed ledger of a decentral network based on the received digital passport(s). The environmental attribute data may be gathered using the transaction IDs included in the passports. The environmental attribute data of input material(s) may be gathered based on transaction IDs associated with environmental attribute data of output products and vice versa.

[0345] With reference to FIG. 15A, gathering the environmental attribute data may include determining whether the gathered passport(s) include data related to input material transaction(s) (e.g. transactions associated with the input material(s)) and / or data related to output product transaction(s) (e.g. transactions associated with the output product(s)). If the gathered passport(s) include data related to input material transaction(s) and data related to output product transaction(s), blocks 1522 to 1528 are performed by gathering the respective environmental attribute data based on the data related to the input material(s) and output product(s), such as transaction IDs, included in the gathered passport(s). The environmental attribute data associated with the output product may include the environmental attribute data associated with the production of the output product and the environmental attribute data associated with the output product. The environmental attribute data associated with the production of the output product may be gathered based on a chaining of the transactions as described in the following.

[0346] If the gathered passport(s) only include data related to input material transaction(s), the output product transaction(s) may be gathered from the distributed ledger network based on the data related to the input material transaction(s). Since the transactions are chained by referencing transaction IDs associated with input materials within transactions associated with environmental attribute data of output products, the complete chain of input material(s) used to produce a given output product and vice versa may be resolved starting from one transaction ID. Resolving the chaining may include repeatedly querying the distributed ledger database. Based on the determined output product transactions, associated environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) may be gathered.

[0347] If only data related to output product transaction data is included in the gathered passports, the input material transactions may be gathered from the distributed ledger network based on the data related to the output product transaction(s) as previously described using the chaining of transactions.

[0348] Amount data associated with the input material(s) and amount data associated with the output product(s) may be gathered from a distributed ledger of a decentral network based on the gathered passport(s). This block may be optional. This block may be performed if a mass balance is to be determined next to the attribute balance. The amount may be contained within the further data include in the transaction data. Verifying the mass flow next to the attribute flow may ensure that not only the attribute(s) are accounted for but also the mass flows within the product ecosystem. This may allow to avoid disappearance of end-of-life products, such as waste, from the product ecosystem which may not be detected if only the attribute balance is determined.

[0349] The environmental impact may be verified by comparing the environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) with the environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s). With reference to FIG. 15B, comparing the environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) with the environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) may include

[0350] • accumulating environmental impact data associated with all input material(s) used to produce the output product

[0351] • accumulating the environmental impact data associated with all output product(s) and

[0352] • comparing the accumulated environmental impact data.

[0353] The environmental attribute data associated with the input materials may include the environmental attribute data of input materials and the environmental attribute data associated with production processes required to produce the end-product from the input materials.

[0354] With continued reference to FIG. 15B, the environmental attribute data associated with the input materials and output products be accumulated based on output product composition data. The output product composition data may be used if the attribute balance of a specific output product is to be verified. The output product composition data may be used to determine environmental attribute(s) of input material(s) based on the output product composition data and the retrieved environmental attribute data (see block 1540). This may ensure that the composition data, e.g. the stoichiometry, is considered when accumulating the environmental attribute(s) associated with input materials used to produce a given product.

[0355] The transfer mass balance may be verified by comparing the amount data associated with the input material(s) with the amount data associated with the output product(s). Comparing the amount data may include determining the total amount of input materials and comparing said total amount with the total amount of output products. Determining the total amount may include considering the composition data as described in the context of FIG. 15B.

[0356] The result of the comparison may be provided. The result of the comparison may be classifier. The classifier may be a binary classifier discriminating between verified and not verified. The environmental attribute data flow may be verified if the sum of the accumulated environmental attribute data associated with the input materials equals the accumulated environmental attribute data associated with the output product. The mass flow may be verified if the sum of the accumulated amount associated with the input materials equals the accumulated amount associated with the output product. In this case, every mass flow is accounted for at all times. The result may include the accumulated attribute(s). The result may include deviations determined between the accumulated attribute(s). The result may be provided for display. The result may be provided to a data storage.

[0357] By storing environmental attribute data associated with input material sand output materials as immutable transactions within a distributed ledger and by linking such transactions with passports associated with such input materials and output products, balancing of environmental attribute(s) may be enabled. Such balancing allows product ecosystem participants as well as third parties, such as auditors and governments, to verify the environmental impact of a received input materials (corresponding to output products produced by upstream participant(s)) by checking whether the environmental attribute debt(s) associated with the received input materials and production processes used to produce such received input materials have been correctly considered during determination of the environmental attribute data associated with the received input materials. The transparency on environmental attribute data associated with received input material(s) allows to determine the correctness of the environmental attribute data associated with received input materials in a reliable and trustworthy matter, hence avoiding the use of incorrect environmental attribute data associated with input materials when determining the environmental attribute data associated with output products. This may ensure that environmental attribute data associated with produced end-products are determined in a reliable and trustworthy manner, hence allowing to use such data to directly or indirectly steer the environmental impact of the product ecosystem or participant(s) of the product ecosystem. FIG. 16 illustrates a further example method for validating environmental attribute data associated with output product(s) produced from one or more input material(s) by a production in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The output products may include output products described in the context of FIG. 11 B. The input materials may include input materials described in the context of FIG. 11 B. The environmental attribute data may include the environmental attribute data described in the context of FIG. 1 . The environmental attribute data may relate to or include carbon footprint data associated with the input material(s) and the output product(s).The method illustrated in FIG. 16 may be implemented by the systems illustrated in FIG. 9, FIG. 10A and FIG. 10B. The transaction data may be associated with entries in a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network, such as distributed ledger network 136 of FIG. 1 . The input materials may be associated with transaction data. The transaction data may signify a transfer of input material and associated environmental attribute debt to a downstream participant of the input material producer, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B. The output products may be associated with transaction data. The transaction data may signify a transfer of output product and associated environmental attribute debt to a downstream participant of the output product producer, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B and FIG. 8D. The transaction data may signify a transfer of the environmental attribute debt to a “sink address”, for example as described in the context of FIG. 10A. The transaction data may signify a transfer of environmental attribute credit to an address for storing credits claimed by a participant, for example as described in the context of FIG. 10B. The input materials may be associated with input material passports, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5. The output products may be associated with output product passports, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5. The passports may include at least a part of the transaction data.

[0358] Transaction data associated with the output product may be received. The transaction data may be associated with an entry in the distributed ledger. The transaction data may include a transaction ID associated with the entry in the distributed ledger. The transaction data may further include data related to the output product. Data related to the output product may include a decentral output product passport identifier, a digital output product identifier or a combination thereof. The digital output product identifier may include a batch number, a LOT number, an output product name or a combination thereof. The data related to the output product may allow to gather the output product passport via a decentral network, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5. This allows to verify that the transaction data is indeed associated with the output product by comparing the transaction data included in the passport with the received transaction data.

[0359] Based on the received transaction data, transaction data associated with child transactions referenced in the transaction(s) (e.g. parent transaction(s)) associated with the received transaction data may be gathered. Such child transactions may be associated with input material(s) used to produce the output product. Such child transactions may be associated with production process(es) used to produce the output product. The gathered transaction data may include the transaction ID of such referenced transactions. As described in the context of FIG. 8B, a transaction associated with an output product may include in the input data one or more transaction IDs of transactions associated with input material(s) used to produce the output product as well as transactions associated with the production of the output product. Gathering transaction data associated with referenced transactions may include:

[0360] • gathering the transaction (e.g. output product transaction) associated with the received transaction data from the distributed ledger,

[0361] • determining transaction data associated with the child transaction(s) included within the gathered transaction(s),

[0362] • gathering the child transaction(s) based on based on the determined transaction data.

[0363] The gathered transaction associated with the output product may be parsed to determine transaction ID(s) included in the input data of the gathered transaction. The determined transaction ID(s) (e.g. transaction data associated with referenced transaction(s)) may then be used to query the distributed ledger for transactions associated with such transaction ID(s).

[0364] The gathered child transaction(s) may be parsed to determine whether the input data included in such child transactions also includes transaction ID(s) (e.g. whether the referenced transactions reference further transactions). This may be the case if the input material associated with the reference material is produced from input materials (e.g. is not corresponding to a virgin raw material or a recycled material). If the gathered child transaction(s) reference further transaction(s), the method may return to step 1604. Otherwise, the method may proceed to step 1608-

[0365] In block 1608, environmental attribute data associated with the output product may be gathered based on the received transaction data. Gathering environmental attribute data may include retrieving such data from the received transaction data. Gathering environmental attribute data may include gathering the transaction from the distributed ledger based on the received transaction data associated with the output product and determining the environmental attribute data included within the gathered transaction. The gathered transaction may be parsed to determine the environmental attribute data. The environmental attribute data may be included in the output data of the gathered transaction.

[0366] Environmental attribute data included in the child transaction(s) may be gathered. Gathering environmental attribute data may include retrieving such data from the gathered transaction data associated with the referenced transactions. Gathering environmental attribute data may include gathering the transaction from the distributed ledger based on the received transaction data associated with the referenced transaction(s) and determining the environmental attribute data included within the gathered referenced transaction(s). The gathered referenced transaction(s) may be parsed to determine the environmental attribute data. The environmental attribute data may be included in the output data of the gathered referenced transaction(s) (see for example FIG. 4B). The environmental impact associated with output product may be verified by comparing environmental attribute data associated with referenced transaction(s) with environmental attribute data associated with output product. Comparing the environmental attribute data may include determining total amount(s) of environmental attribute(s) included in the gathered environmental attribute data. Total amount(s) of environmental attribute(s) may be determined as described in the context of FIG. 15B. The environmental impact associated with the output product may be verified if at least a part of the total amount(s) of environmental attribute(s) included in the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the output product match the corresponding total amount(s) of environmental attribute(s) included in the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the referenced transactions (e.g. environmental attribute associated with input material(s) used to produce the output product and environmental attribute data associated with production process(es) used to produce the output product).

[0367] The result of comparison of environmental attribute data associated with referenced transaction(s) with environmental attribute data associated with output product may be provided. The result may be provided as described in the context of FIG. 14.

[0368] By storing environmental attribute data within a distributed ledger and by referencing transactions associated with input material(s) used to produce an output product within the transaction associated with the output product, balancing of environmental attribute(s) may be enabled. Such balancing allows product ecosystem participants as well as third parties, such as auditors and governments, to verify the environmental impact of a given output product by checking whether the environmental attribute debt(s) associated with input materials and production processes have been correctly considered during determination of the environmental attribute data associated with the output product. The transparency on environmental attribute data associated with input material(s) and output product(s) in combination with the immutability of the distributed ledger provides an incentive for product ecosystem participants to correctly consider the environmental attribute debt associated with input material(s) and production processes when determining the environmental impact of a produced output product, hence avoiding that environmental attribute debt(s) of input material(s) and / or production processes are not considered or are considered multiple times to lower the environmental impact of the produced output product.

[0369] FIG. 17 illustrates an example method for monitoring the environmental impact associated with a participant of a product ecosystem in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The environmental impact may relate to environmental attribute data, such as environmental attribute data described in the context of FIG. 1. The environmental impact may relate to carbon footprint data associated with the input material(s) and the output product(s).The product ecosystem may include chemical products. The product ecosystem may include production chains to produce an end-product. The product ecosystem may include recycling chains to recycle at least part of an end-of-life (EOL) product. The participant may be any participant of a production chain or a recycling chain. The participant may be a participant illustrated in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2. For example, the participant may be an output product producer producing one or more output products from one or more input material(s). The output products may include output products described in the context of FIG. 11 B. The input materials may include input materials described in the context of FIG. 11 B. The participant may operate a production to produce one or more output products from the one or more input material(s) The participant may receive input material(s) and may produce one or more output product(s) from such input materials by a production operated by the participant. The participant may supply the produced output products to a downstream participant of the product ecosystem. The input materials may be associated with transaction data. The transaction data may signify a transfer of input material and associated environmental attribute debt to a downstream participant of the input material producer, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B. The output products may be associated with transaction data. The transaction data may signify a transfer of output product and associated environmental attribute debt to a downstream participant of the output product producer, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B and FIG. 8D. The transaction data may signify a transfer of the environmental attribute debt to a “sink address”, for example as described in the context of FIG. 10A. The transaction data may signify a transfer of environmental attribute credit to an address for storing credits claimed by a participant, for example as described in the context of FIG. 10B. The input materials may be associated with input material passports, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5. The output products may be associated with output product passports, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5. The passports may include at least a part of the transaction data. The method illustrated in FIG. 16 may be implemented by the systems illustrated in FIG. 9, Fig. 10A and FIG. 10B.

[0370] Decentral participant identifier(s) associated with the participant may be received. The decentral participant identifier(s) may include data related to an account or address within the distributed ledger network, such as distributed ledger network 136 illustrated in FIG. 1. Data related to the account or address may include public key(s) associated with or controlled by the participant. Data related to the account or address may include data generated from the public and / or private key of the participant, such as a distributed ledger network address generated from the public and / or private key. The decentral participant identifier may signify an account or account(s) where the environmental attribute data of input materials received by a respective participant are allocated to and environmental attribute data of output products produced by said participant are transferred from to another account or address.

[0371] Transaction (s) associated with the decentral participant identifier(s) may be gathered from the distributed ledger of the distributed ledger network, such as network 136 illustrated in FIG. 1 , based on the received decentral participant identifier(s). Transaction(s) may be gathered by querying the distributed ledger of the distributed ledger network. The query data may include the received decentral participant identifier(s). The query may be sent from a client to a member node which may query the distributed ledger stored in its database in response to receiving the query data (see for example FIG. 8D). The result of the query may be provided by the member node to the client sending the query data. The transaction(s) may include the decentral participant identifier(s). Environmental attribute data may be gathered based on the gathered transaction(s). Gathering environmental attribute data may include determining the environmental attribute data included in said transaction(s). The client may parse the returned transaction(s) to determine the environmental attribute data. The environmental attribute data may be included in the output data contained within the transaction(s) (see for example FIG. 4B). The environmental attribute data may be associated with input material(s), the production of the output product(s) and the output product(s).

[0372] The environmental impact associated with decentral participant may be monitored by comparing environmental attribute data associated with input materials with the environmental attribute data associated with output products and environmental attribute data associated with the production of output products (e.g. with production process(es) used to produce the output product). Comparing the environmental attribute data may include determining total amount(s) of environmental attribute(s) included in the gathered environmental attribute data. Total amount(s) of environmental attribute(s) may be determined as described in the context of FIG. 15B. Total amount(s) of environmental attribute(s) associated with input material(s) may be determined by identifying gathered transactions including the decentral participant identifier in the output data (see also FIG. 4A) and adding the environmental attribute(s) included in the environmental attribute data contained in the identified transactions. Transactions where the decentral participant identifier is included in the output data may be associated with transfers of input material and associated environmental attribute debt to the participant. Total amount(s) of environmental attribute(s) associated with output product(s) may be determined by identifying gathered transactions including the decentral participant identifier in the input data (see also FIG. 4A) and adding the environmental attribute(s) included in the environmental attribute data contained in the identified transactions. Transactions where the decentral participant identifier is included in the input data may be associated with transfers of produced output product(s) and associated environmental attribute debt by the participant to a downstream participant. The comparison of such total amount(s) allows to monitor the flow of environmental attribute data which is associated with the flow of input materials and produced output products within a production operated by the participant and to detect any irregularities in the flow.

[0373] The result of comparison of environmental attribute data associated with referenced transaction(s) with environmental attribute data associated with output product may be provided. The result may be provided as described in the context of FIG. 14.

[0374] By storing environmental attribute data within a distributed ledger and mirroring the transfer of input materials and output products in the physical world with transactions in the distributed ledger, the flow of environmental attribute data may be monitored for a given participant of the product ecosystem. Such monitoring allows product ecosystem participants as well as third parties, such as auditors and governments, to determine the environmental impact of a given participant by checking whether the environmental attribute debt(s) associated with input materials and production processes have been correctly considered during determination of the environmental attribute data associated with the output product. The transparency on environmental attribute data associated with input material(s) and output product(s) in combination with the immutability of the distributed ledger provides an incentive for product ecosystem participants to correctly consider the environmental attribute debt associated with input material(s) and production processes when determining the environmental impact of a produced output product, hence avoiding that environmental attribute debt(s) of input material(s) and / or production processes are not considered or are considered multiple times to lower the environmental impact of the produced output product.

[0375] FIG. 18 illustrates an example method for registering environmental attribute data associated with output products resulting from a recycling process as entry in a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Environmental attribute data may include the data listed in relation to FIG. 1. Environmental attribute data may include carbon footprint data. The recycled material may be obtained by performing at least one recycling operation on end-of-life product(s) or component(s) thereof. Component(s) may include parts, part-assemblies and / or chemical products. Recycling operation may include a at least one recycling step. Recycling operation may include a collection step, a sorting step and / or at least one recycling step. Recycled material obtained from the recycling step may be used as input material to produce new output product(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 10A and FIG. 10B. Registration of environmental attribute data as entry in a distributed ledger may not be associated with a transfer in the physical world. Registration of environmental attribute data as entry in a distributed ledger may be associated with transaction data not including a previous owner in the input data (see for example FIG. 4A). The method illustrated in FIG. 18 may be implemented by the system shown in FIG. 10A.

[0376] The EOL product may be associated with an end-product identifier, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5. Likewise, the component of the EOL product may be associated with a component identifier, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5. Based on the end-product identifier(s) and / or component identifier(s), end-product passport(s) and / or component passports may be gathered from a decentral network. The passport(s) may be gathered as described in the context of FIG. 5. The decentral network may be a decentral peer-to-peer network as described in the context of FIG. 2. The identifier(s) may be associated with or included in access elements stored in decentral registries of the decentral network 220. The access elements may be associated with the respective passports. Based on the identifier(s), access elements associated with said identifier(s) may be retrieved as described in the context of FIG. 5. Using the access data included in said access elements, the respective passports may be gathered via consumer nodes from provider nodes associated with dedicated storage storing said passports as described in the context of FIG. 5. The dedicated storage may be associated with or under control of the data owner of the respective passports. Use of passports independently of the information written in the distributed ledger allows to immutably store certain information, like the environmental attribute data associated with the EOL product or components thereof, with said transaction within a distributed ledger while allowing to provide detailed information on the EOL product or components thereof via a separate harmonized data exchange route. This allows to reduce the data contained within each transaction to a minimum, thus reducing the amount of data that needs to be stored within the distributed ledger, and also guarantees the necessary privacy of the sensitive details on the EOL products / component(s) associated with the respective transaction(s). The transaction stored in the distributed ledger may include a hash of the respective passport to allow verification that the transaction is indeed associated with such passport. The transaction stored in the distributed ledger may include the decentral passport identifier to allow verification that the transaction is indeed associated with the respective passport.

[0377] Environmental attribute data associated with EOL product(s) and / or component(s) thereof may be gathered from a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network based on the gathered passport(s). The distributed ledger network may be distributed ledger network 136 described in the context of FIG. 1 . The passports may include transaction data associated with transactions stored as entries in a distributed ledger of the distributed ledger network 136. The transaction data may include transaction identifier(s). The transaction identifier(s) may be used to query the distributed ledger for transactions associated with such transaction identifier(s). For instance, a client may generate query data based on the transaction data included in the passports and may send such query data to a member node, such as node 128 illustrated in FIG. 10A. Member node 128 may query the distributed ledger stored in its database using the received query data and may provide the received response to the client. The received response may include transactions matching the query data, such as the transaction ID(s). Client may parse the received transactions and may determine the environmental attribute data included in the received transactions. For example, the client may determine the environmental attribute data stored in the output data of the received transactions (see also FIG. 4A).

[0378] Transaction data to detach environmental attribute data(s) associated with the EOL product and / or component(s) thereof from the EOL product and / or the component(s) thereof may be generated based on the gathered environmental attribute data. The transaction data may include the environmental attribute data “to be detached” as well as the decentral participant identifier the detached environmental attribute data is to be allocated to. The decentral participant identifier may act as a “sink or pool” for detached environmental attribute data. This may allow to perform the cut-off method for determining environmental attribute data associated with recycled materials as illustrated in FIG. 10A. The generated transaction data may be provided to the distributed ledger network. The generated transaction data may be provided via a client to a member node of the distributed ledger network, for example as described in the context of FIG. 4B. The member node may validate the received transaction data (see FIG. 4B). The distributed ledger network may process the validated transaction data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 4B. Processing may include storing the transaction data as entry (e.g. transaction) in the distributed ledger. Data associated with the recycling operation may be collected. Such data may include environmental attribute data associated with the output product resulting from the recycling operation. The environmental attribute data associated with the output product may be determined, for example, as described in the context of FIG. 11 B. The environmental attribute data may include environmental attribute data associated with the performed recycling processes (e.g. the process steps performed and / or transportation steps performed). The environmental attribute data may, however, not include any environmental attribute debts associated with the end-of-life product or component thereof used as input material for the recycling processes. The data may be collected from one or more databases storing such data. The databases may be associated with the recycling facility performing the recycling operation. The databases may store recycling process data collected prior to, during and / or after performing the recycling process(es).

[0379] Transaction data to store the environmental attribute data as an entry in a distributed ledger of the distributed ledger network may be generated based on the environmental attribute data associated with the output product. The transaction data may include the environmental attribute data as well as the decentral participant identifier of the downstream participant the output product is or is to be supplied to. The transaction data may be generated by a client device, for example as described in the context of FIG. 4B.

[0380] The generated transaction data may be provided to the distributed ledger network for access to the environmental attribute data associated with the output product via the distributed ledger network. The environmental attribute data may be accessed via the distributed ledger network upon successful storage as entry in the distributed ledger. With reference to FIG. 19A and FIG. 19B, the transaction data may be provided by application 418 to member node 128 of distributed ledger network 136. The transaction data may be received by distributed ledger server 1906 of member node 128. Member node 128 may include distributed ledger server 1906, consensus algo 1932 and storage 1934. Distributed ledger server 1906. storage consensus algo 1932 and storage 1934 may be configured to perform the functions described in the context of FIG. 4A. Distributed ledger server 1906 may be configured to validate the received transaction data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 4B. The received transaction data may be validated by determining whether the signature included in the transaction data is valid. The received transaction data may further be validated with respect to the decentral participant identifier included in the transaction data.

[0381] With reference to FIG. 20 and with continued reference to FIG. 18, FIG. 19A and FIG. 19B, distributed ledger server 1906 may validate the decentral participant identifier included in the received transaction data. Validation may include comparing the decentral participant identifier to a blacklist indicating forbidden decentral participant identifier(s) or a whitelist indicating allowed decentral participant identifier(s). If the decentral participant identifier contained in the received transaction data is not included in the blacklist, the transaction data may be deemed valid. Likewise, if the decentral participant identifier contained in the received transaction data is included in the whitelist, the transaction data is deemed valid. The result of the validation may be associated with the received transaction data. For instance, the result of the validation may be a binary classifier discriminating between validated and non-validated.

[0382] If the received transaction data is not validated, distributed ledger server 1906 may provide data indicating non-validation of the transaction data to application 418 (see also FIG. 19B). The data may include an error message indicating the reason for non-validation of the transaction data. This may allow the user of application 418 to generate new transaction data. The non-validated data may be rejected by distributed ledger server 1906 and may not be provided to consensus algo 1932.

[0383] If the received transaction data is valid, distributed ledger server 1906 may provide the validated transaction data to consensus algo 1932. The consensus algo 1932 may perform the consensus protocol as described in the context of FIG. 4B. After consensus is reached, the validated transaction data may be included as entry (e.g. transaction) in the distributed ledger of storage 1934, for example as described in the context of FIG. 4B.

[0384] By detaching the environmental attribute data from the end-of-life product or components thereof upon recycling of such end-of-life product or components thereof, the environmental attribute debt associated with such end-of-life product or component(s) thereof may be disregarded, hence avoiding the accumulation of environmental attribute debts of end-of-life products or components thereof on recycled material, resulting in increased environmental impact of such materials. Instead, the detachment allows to consider only environmental attribute debts resulting from the recycling process upon determination of the environmental attribute data for the recycled material. Avoiding such accumulation of environmental attribute debt allows to reward recycling if such recycling results in reduced environmental impact compared to virgin material, hence allowing to improve the circularity within a product ecosystem. By validating the decentral participant identifier(s) included in the transaction data, registering of environmental attribute data associated with output products resulting from a recycling process may be controlled. This may allow to avoid generation of environmental attribute debt in the distributed ledger which is not linked to a physical output product and / or w...

Claims

CLAIMS1. A computer-implemented method for monitoring environmental attribute(s) associated with produced output product(s), wherein the output product(s) are produced from one or more input material(s) by a production, the method comprising: gathering input material passport(s) associated with the input material(s) from a decentral network based on input material identifier(s) associated with the input material(s), gathering environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) from a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network based on the gathered input material passport(s), determining environmental attribute data associated with the produced output product(s) based on the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) and environmental attribute data associated with the production of the output product(s), generating transaction data being associated with a transfer of the output product(s) to one or more output product consumer(s), the transaction data including the determined environmental attribute data associated with the produced output product(s) and decentral participant identifier(s) associated with the output product consumer(s), providing the generated transaction data to the distributed ledger network for access to the environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) via the distributed ledger network.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the input material passport(s) are gathered via access element(s) associated with the input material passport(s), wherein the access element(s) are stored in decentral registries of the decentral network and are under control of a data owner of the input material passport(s) associated with the access element(s) stored in the respective registry.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the input material passport(s) include(s) decentral passport identifier(s), data related to transaction(s) being stored as entry / entries in the distributed ledger and being associated with the input material(s) and data related to the input material(s).

4. The method of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the distributed ledger stores transactions associated with input material(s), wherein the transactions include environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s).

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the transaction(s) stored in the distributed ledger are linked to transfer(s) of physical entities of input material(s) to an entity operating the production.

6. The method of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein gathering the environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) includes retrieving data related to transaction(s) from the gathered input material passport(s) and gathering environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) based on the retrieved data related to the transaction(s).

7. The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the decentral network associated with the input material passport(s) is different from the distributed ledger network.

8. The method of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the environmental attribute data includes data related to carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions or global warming potential, primary energy demand, cumulative energy demand, biotic and abiotic resource consumption, air emissions, stratospheric ozone depletion potential, ozone formation, terrestrial and / or marine acidification, water consumption, water depletion, water availability, water pollution, noise pollution, freshwater and / or marine eutrophication potential, human carcinogenic and / or non-carcinogenic toxicity, photochemical oxidant formation, particulate matter formation, terrestrial, freshwater and / or marine ecotoxicity, ionizing radiation, agricultural and / or urban land occupation, land transformation, land use, indirect land use, deforestation, biodiversity, mineral resource consumption, and / or fossil resource consumption, in particular data related to the carbon footprint.

9. The method of any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the environmental attribute data associated with the production of the output product(s) is determined based on energy consumption associated with the output product production and / or produced output product yield and / or emissions generated upon transport of the input material(s) to the production and the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s).

10. The method of any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the decentral participant identifier(s) associated with the output product consumer includes public key(s) associated with a downstream output product consumer.11 . The method of any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the transaction data further includes data related to the output product(s).

12. The method of any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the transaction data is generated prior to, upon or after transfer of physical entity / entities of the output product(s) to the output product consumer(s).

13. The method of any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein the generated transaction data is provided to a member node of the distributed ledger network for storage of the transaction data as entry in the distributed ledger of the distributed ledger network.

14. The method of any one of claims 1 to 13, further including a step of generating - based on the determined environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) - transaction data to store an environmental attribute credit associated with the use of recycled input material(s) and / or the production of output product(s) containing recyclable material as an entry in the distributed ledger of the distributed ledger network.

15. An apparatus for monitoring environmental attribute(s) associated with produced output product(s), wherein the output product(s) are produced from one or more input material(s) by a production, the apparatus comprising: a decentral network interface configured to gather input material passport(s) associated with the input material(s) from a decentral network based on input material identifier(s) associated with the input material(s), a distributed ledger network interface configured to gather environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) from a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network based on the gathered input material passport(s), an environmental attribute data determination unit configured to determine environmental attribute data associated with the produced output product(s) based on the gathered environmental attribute data associated with the input material(s) and environmental attribute data associated with the production of the output product(s), a transaction data generator configured to generate transaction data being associated with a transfer of the output product(s) to one or more output product consumer(s), the transaction data including the determined environmental attribute data associated with the produced output product(s) and decentral participant identifier(s) associated with the output product consumer(s), a distributed ledger network interface configured to provide the generated transaction data to the distributed ledger network for access to the environmental attribute data associated with the output product(s) via the distributed ledger network.

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