Balancing of environmental attributes within product ecosystems

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to the field of environmental impact reduction for industrial manufacturing, in particular to the use of environmental properties of products to reduce the environmental impact of downstream produced further products. The disclosure relates to methods, apparatuses and computer- elements for triggering transfer of environmental properties associated with a production of a product. The disclosure further relates to a digital asset associated with the product. The disclosure further relates to a digital credential associated with at least one authorization rule for triggering transfer of environmental properties associated with the production of the product.

Description

[0001] BALANCING OF ENVIRONMENTAL ATTRIBUTES WITHIN PRODUCT ECOSYSTEMS

[0002] TECHNICAL FIELD

[0003] The present disclosure relates to the field of environmental impact reduction for industrial manufacturing, in particular to the use of environmental properties of products to reduce the environmental impact of downstream produced further products. The disclosure relates to methods, apparatuses and computerelements for triggering transfer of environmental properties associated with a production of a product. The disclosure further relates to a digital asset associated with the product. The disclosure further relates to a digital credential associated with at least one authorization rule for triggering transfer of environmental properties associated with the production of the product.

[0004] TECHNICAL BACKGROUND

[0005] In supply chains the environmental impact of each supply chain participant is of great interest. Transparency on environmental attribute(s) associated with produced products can aid collective reduction of environmental impacts to combat climate change.

[0006] SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0007] Disclosed is in one aspect a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for triggering transfer of at least one environmental property to one or more downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using a product, wherein the at least one environmental property is associated with a production of the product from one or more input material(s), the method comprising: providing one or more digital product identifier(s) associated with the product, providing at least one authorization rule including instructions for triggering transfer of at least one environmental property from a producer node associated with the production of the product to the one or more downstream node(s), wherein the at least one environmental property is associated with the production of the product and is transferable to the downstream node(s), optionally wherein the at least one environmental property transferable to one or more of the downstream node(s) includes at least one environmental property allocable to the product, optionally wherein the at least one authorization rule provides access to environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) and triggers transfer of such transferable environmental property / ies to such downstream node(s), based on one or more instructions included in the provided at least one authorization rule and at least one of the provided digital product identifier(s), gathering at least one environmental property associated with the production of the product and being transferable to the downstream node(s), providing the gathered environmental property / ies for selection and transfer, wherein the transfer is triggered based on a request including environmental property / ies selected from gathered environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) according to the at least one authorization rule, optionally the triggering the transfer includes triggering allocation of selected environmental property / ies to the product to adapt the environmental impact of the product.

[0008] Disclosed is in a further aspect an apparatus for triggering transfer of at least one environmental property to one or more downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using a product, wherein the at least one environmental property associated with a production of the product from one or more input material(s), the apparatus comprising: a data providing interface configured to provide one or more digital product identifier(s) associated with the product, a rule providing interface configured to provide at least one authorization rule including instructions for triggering transfer of at least one environmental property from a producer node associated with the production of the product to the one or more downstream node(s), wherein the at least one environmental property is associated with the production of the product and is transferable to the downstream node(s), optionally wherein the at least one environmental property transferable to one or more of the downstream node(s) includes at least one environmental property allocable to the product, optionally wherein the at least one authorization rule provides access to environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) and triggers transfer of such transferable environmental property / ies to such downstream node(s), a data collecting unit configured to gather - based on one or more instructions included in the provided at least one authorization rule and at least one of the provided digital product identifiers - at least one environmental property associated with the production of the product and being transferable to the downstream node(s), a data providing interface configured to provide the gathered environmental property / ies for selection and transfer, wherein the transfer is triggered based on a request including environmental property / ies selected from gathered environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) according to the at least one authorization rule, optionally the triggering the transfer includes triggering allocation of selected environmental property / ies to the product to adapt the environmental impact of the product.

[0009] Disclosed is in yet another aspect a product associated with at least one authorization rule, wherein the at least one authorization rule includes instructions for triggering transfer of at least one environmental property from a producer node associated with a production of the product to one or more downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product, wherein the at least one environmental property is associated with the production of the product and is transferable to downstream node(s) according to the at least one authorization rule.

[0010] Disclosed is in yet another aspect a digital credential associated with at least one authorization rule and certifying at least partial compliance of the at least one authorization rule with a predefined rule set, wherein the at least one authorization rule includes instructions for triggering transfer of at least one environmental property from a producer node associated with a production of a product to one or more downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product, wherein the at least one environmental property is associated with the production of the product and is transferable to downstream node(s) according to the at least one authorization rule.

[0011] 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.

[0012] Any disclosure, embodiments and examples described herein relate to the methods, the apparatuses, products, digital assets 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.

[0013] Embodiments

[0014] 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.

[0015] At the current stage, however, the benefits of the environmental attributes on the environmental impact of output products can only be offered in one-on-one relationship scenarios between the output product producer and downstream participants of a product ecosystem. Hence end-product producers can only claim environmental attributes for their end-products if such attribute(s) have been tunneled through all previous participants of the product ecosystem. This makes the production of end-products having a reduced environmental impact as well as tracking of environmental attributes through the production chain difficult since such attributes may get lost along the production chain impeding transparency on environmental impacts of product(s) produced by the product ecosystem. To reduce environmental impact associated with produced output product(s), transparency along the production chain of product ecosystems on environmental attribute(s) related to such environmental impact is crucial.

[0016] By providing at least one authorization rule relating to environmental properties associated with the production of the product and being transferable to downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product, such environmental properties can be made transparent to downstream participants, enabling such downstream participants to flexibly adapt the environmental impact of their products on an as-needed basis by triggering transfer of transferable environmental attribute(s) via the at least one authorization rule. The at least one authorization rule may be associated with environmental properties arising from one or more production steps required to produce the product, e.g. the at least one authorization rule may accumulate environmental properties resulting from multiple production steps performed to produce the product. This may allow downstream participants to gain transparency on the overall environmental properties which are transferable for a given product via the authorization rule(s) to adjust the environmental impact of product(s) produced by such downstream participants without being restricted to environmental property / ies associated with the product (e.g. having been transferred to or claimed by upstream participants involved int he production of the product). The at least one authorization rule may hence provide an option right to downstream participant(s) with respect to the claiming or transfer of environmental property / ies related to such authorization rule. The improved flexibility with respect to the transfer of environmental property / ies to downstream participants may allow to improve the environmental impact of the product ecosystem since downstream participants can request transfer of environmental property / ies on an as-needed basis. In addition, transparency on remaining transferable environmental properties may be used by auditors or governments to steer the product ecosystem to achieve a reduced overall environmental impact, for example by providing incentives to request transfer of remaining transferable environmental properties.

[0017] By linking the at least one authorization rule with digital credential(s) certifying at least partial compliance of the at least one authorization rule with predefined rule set(s), such as certified or audited allocation models, such as identity preservation models, segregated models, mass balance models, or book and claim models, used to determine transferable environmental property / ies and / or such as rule(s) transparency can be created and trust for downstream participants in the correct determination of transferable environmental property / ies can be improved. By linking the at least one authorization rule with digital credential(s) certifying that the authorization rule(s) is / are from a trusted source and were audited according to a given standard helps to improve the trust in such rule(s) and ensures safe execution of instructions(s) included in the authorization rule(s) on computing systems of downstream participants.

[0018] By linking a product with at least one authorization rule relating to environmental properties associated with the production of the product and being transferable to downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product, such environmental properties can be made transparent to downstream participants, enabling such downstream participants to flexibly adapt the environmental impact of their products on an as-needed basis by triggering transfer of transferable environmental attribute(s) via the at least one authorization rule. The at least one authorization rule may be associated with environmental properties arising from one or more production steps required to produce the product, e.g. the at least one authorization rule may accumulate environmental properties resulting from multiple production steps performed to produce the product. This may allow downstream participants to gain transparency on the overall environmental properties which are transferable for a given product via the authorization rule(s) to adjust the environmental impact of product(s) produced by such downstream participants without being restricted to environmental property / ies associated with the product (e.g. having been transferred to or claimed by upstream participants involved int he production of the product). The at least one authorization rule may hence provide an option right to downstream participant(s) with respect to the claiming or transfer of environmental property / ies related to such authorization rule. The improved flexibility with respect to the transfer of environmental property / ies to downstream participants may allow to improve the environmental impact of the product ecosystem since downstream participants can request transfer of environmental property / ies on an as-needed basis. In addition, transparency on remaining transferable environmental properties may be used by auditors or governments to steer the product ecosystem to achieve a reduced overall environmental impact, for example by providing incentives to request transfer of remaining transferable environmental properties.

[0019] By providing authorization rule(s) as part of or in combination with product passport(s) associated with the product, transferable environmental properties can be shared in a secure and reliable manner while at the same time allowing the product consumer to generate a request to transfer or claim transferable environmental properties in an efficient and transparent way. Rendering the transferable environmental properties associated with a product transparent for the downstream participants of the product producer allows these downstream participants to determine the transferable environmental properties and to flexibly request transfer of or claim such properties according to their needs. By linking the authorization rule to the decentral passport identifier, the authorization rule(s) may be shared not only with the subsequent downstream participant product user but also with further downstream participants of the product user, allowing such further downstream participants to determine transferable environmental properties (e.g. properties not yet claimed by - from the perspective of the further downstream participants - upstream participants) and to select transferable environmental properties for transfer according to their needs. For instance, the authorization rule(s) may be accessible by all downstream participants of the product producer based on the decentral passport identifier associated with the product passport. Such sharing allows the downstream participants to flexibly select required environmental properties irrespective of the interests of upstream participants, rendering channeling of environmental properties through upstream participants superfluous. This allows to reduce the overall environmental impact associated with the products produced by the product ecosystem since ecosystem participants can more flexible deciding which environmental properties to claim for their products. In addition, this allows steering of the environmental impact of the product ecosystem by evaluating the “remaining” or “nontransferred” environmental properties associated with end-product(s), for example by providing incentives to transfer or claim such environmental properties. This way the overall sustainability or environmental impact can be orchestrated in product ecosystems giving participants control over what product properties they offer or claim.

[0020] 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.” 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.

[0021] Input material may refer to any physical good which is bought from suppliers and brought to the production producing the product. The input material may include starting material used in the production process of the production plant producing the product. The input material may comprise or be any input material entering the production , e.g. being provided at any entry point of the production. The input material may be any material entering the system boundary of the production. An input material can be on any step along the value chain. This means, the product of the one production plant may be used as input material of the other production plant. Input material may also include very fundamental goods like air, water, natural gas or energy. Input material(s) may refer to chemical input material(s) and / or discrete input material(s). Chemical input material(s) may include chemical compound(s) or mixtures of chemical compounds. Chemical compounds may include petrochemical feedstocks such as naphtha, crude oil, and natural gas, or chemical compounds being produced from such feedstocks. Discrete input material(s) may include component(s), part(s) and / or component assemblies. The input material(s) may be associated with input material data. The input material data may include environmental attribute(s) associated with the input material(s). The input material data may be gathered prior to, upon or after providing the input material(s) to the production.

[0022] The product may include any product produced by the production using at least one input material. The product may comprise or be any chemical product produced by a chemical production and provided at any exit point of the chemical production. The product may be produced from input materials entering the production. The product may comprise any product leaving the system boundary of the production. The product may be an intermediate product or an end product. The product may be a chemical product or a discrete product. The chemical product may be a chemical intermediate product or a chemical product. Chemical intermediate products may include chemical products being used as input material(s) to produce further chemical products. The chemical product may comprise any chemical product obtained from chemical processes. The chemical product may be obtained by mixing, separating, chemical reaction or natural reaction of chemical substances. The chemical product may be obtained from chemical reactions as well as from natural chemical products. Natural chemical products may encompass any chemical substance that is naturally occurring, i.e. any unprocessed chemical substance that is found in nature, such as chemicals from plants, microorganisms, animals, the earth and the sea or any chemical substance that is found in nature and extracted using a process that does not change its chemical composition. Natural chemical products may include biologicals like enzymes as well naturally occurring inorganic or organic chemical products. Natural chemical products can be isolated and purified prior to their use or they can be used in unisolated and / or unpurified form. Chemical products obtained from chemical reactions may be any inorganic or organic chemical product obtained by reacting inorganic and / or organic chemical reactants. The inorganic and organic chemical reactants may be naturally occurring chemical products or can be chemical products obtained from chemical reactions. Chemical reactions may include any chemical reaction commonly known in the state of the art in which the reactants are converted to one or more different chemical products. Chemical reactions may involve the use of catalysts, enzymes, bacteria, etc. to achieve the chemical reaction between the reactants.

[0023] The input material(s) and the 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 the product(s). The product may be a chemical product, an intermediate chemical product, a component, a component assembly, an end-product or a recycled material. The product ecosystem may include processing chains to process used products resulting from the use of produced products. Processing chains may include recycling chains to recycle at least part of the used product or a component thereof. Processing chains may include re-use chains to re-use the used product. The product ecosystem may include various participants, such as raw input material producers, chemical product producers, chemical product users or consumers, end-product producers, end-product users, end-of-life product collectors and recyclers. The product ecosystem may allow to use recycled materials resulting from recycling of end-of-life products or components thereof 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.

[0024] The participants of the product ecosystem may be connected via a decentral 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 product producer may be associated with one or more producer node(s) (e.g. decentral network node(s) associated with the product producer). The producer node(s) may be controlled by or may operate on behalf of the product producer. The producer node(s) may be configured to provide data set(s) including digital product identifier(s) associated with the product and data related to allocated validated environmental property / ies to downstream participant node(s) requesting transfer of environmental property / ies. Downstream participants with respect to the product producer, e.g. participants using the product to produce further product(s) may be associated with downstream participant node(s). The downstream participant node(s) may be controlled by or operate on behalf of the downstream participant(s). The downstream node(s) may be associated with or relate to respective downstream participant identifier(s). The downstream node(s) may be associated with or relate to downstream participant(s). The downstream node(s) may be accessible for the downstream participant(s). The downstream participant(s) may be associated with respective downstream participant identifier(s). The downstream participant identifier may include one or more identifier(s) relating to the downstream participant using the product. The downstream participant identifier may be an identifier uniquely identifying the downstream participant within the product ecosystem. The downstream participant identifier may include cryptographic credentials, such as a public key of a public-private key pair. The downstream participant identifier may include letters and / or numbers. The downstream participant identifier may include one or more Universally Unique Identifier(s) (UUID(s)) and / or one or more Decentralized Identifier(s) (DID(s)). The downstream participant identifier may include data related an associated downstream node, such as a pointer or locator pointing to the associated downstream node. The downstream 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 product ecosystem. For instance, the issuer may make a claim about a downstream participant the downstream participant identifier is associated with. The verifiable claim may include those claim(s) as well as proof instructions to prove that claim(s) have not been tampered with and were indeed issued by the claims issuer. The verifiable claim may also include duration information metadata that defines a period of time that the verifiable claim is valid for use or that defines a specific number of times that the verifiable claim is authorized for use. The verifiable claim may also include a DID of the claims issuer and / or the subject, such as a consumer entity. The verifiable claim may be signed by the claims issuer. The claims issuer may provide the verifiable claim to a claims holder, such as the consumer, for presentation to any relying party that relies upon the veracity of those claims, such as a decentral data provider. The signature of the verifiable claim may be validated with a public key associated with the claims issuer to determine that the customer entity is a trusted entity within the product ecosystem.

[0025] The product may be associated with at least one environmental property. The at least one environmental property may be associated with the production of the product from one or more input material(s). The at least one environmental property may relate to one or more environmental properties. Environmental property may refer to any property or characteristic related to the environmental impact. Such property may be a property or characteristic of input material(s) and / or product(s). The environmental property may indicate an environmental performance of input material(s), production process(es) and / or product(s). The environmental property may be derived from properties of the input material(s), production process(es) and / or the product(s). The environmental property may be associated with the environmental impact of one or more input material(s) and / or product(s) at any stage during their lifecycle. The stages 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 such stages. The environmental property may be tracked through any activity of one or more entities participating at any stage of the lifecycle of one or more input material(s) or product(s). Environmental properties associated with any activity of one or more entities participating at any stage of the lifecycle of one or more input material(s) or product(s) may be accumulated or aggregated. The environmental property may include one or more characteristic(s) that are attributable to environmental or sustainability impact of the input material(s), production process(es) and / or product(s). The environmental property may include environmental, technical, recyclability or circularity characteristics(s) associated with the environmental impact of the input material(s), production process(es) and / or product(s).

[0026] Environmental characteristic(s) may specify or quantify ecological criteria associated with the environmental impact of the input material(s), production process(es) and / or the product(s). Environmental characteristic(s) may be or may be produced or derived from measurements taken during the lifecycle of input material(s) and / or product(s) and / or during production process(es). 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 input material and / or product like recycled content, biobased content, renewable content, vegan, halal, kosher, palm oil-free, natural, amount of green energy used or the like. Amount of green energy used may refer to the amount of green energy (e.g. energy produced from natural resources such as sun, wind, water) used during production of the input material(s) and / or the product(s).

[0027] Technical characteristic(s) may specify or quantify input material or product performance at least indirectly associated with the environmental impact. Technical characteristic(s) may be or may be produced from measurements taken during the lifecycle of one or more input material(s) and / or product(s). Technical characteristics may be determined at any stage of the input material and / or product lifecycle and may characterize the input 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, specification data, component data, safety data, application property data, application instructions and / or quality data. Technical characteristic(s) may for example include physical, chemical or further properties of the input material or product. Circularity characteristic(s) may specify or quantify the input material and / 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 input material(s) and / 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 input material and / 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 input material quality or the like. Further circularity material characteristics may be derived by combining circularity characteristic(s).

[0028] Recyclability characteristic(s) may specify or quantify the input material and / or product life cycle characteristics associated with recycling uses. Recyclability characteristic(s) may include the composition of the input material(s) and / or product(s) including specifically tailored constituents making the input material(s) and / or product(s) suitable for recycling. Recyclability characteristic(s) may be or may be produced from measurements taken during the lifecycle of one or more input material(s) and / 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 input material and / 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.

[0029] Environmental property / ies associated with the production of the product may be measured or calculated from energy consumption, water consumption, crude oil consumption, labor (e.g., person hours associated with producing a product), social burdens (e.g., injuries and / or accidents associated with the production of a product), and other characteristics of the production process(es) that can be measured and calculated.

[0030] The environmental property / ies may digitally specify the environmental impact of the input material(s), the production process(es) and / or the product(s). The environmental property may include a qualitative data point relating to the type of impact e.g., in view of the input material(s), the production process(es) and / or the product. The qualitative data point may be converted to a quantitative measure such as balancing units. The environmental property may include a quantitative data point relating to the type of impact e.g., in view of the ecological criteria associated with the input material(s), the production process(es) and / or the product.

[0031] The term sustainable may refer to input material(s), production process(es) and / or product(s) that are associated with improved ecological criteria. For example, a sustainable input material may include a recycled, renewable and / or bio-based content, a reduced product carbon footprint or may be produced using green energy. Similarly, a sustainable product may include a recycled, renewable and / or bio-based content, a reduced carbon footprint or may be produced using green energy. Likewise, a sustainable production process may be associated with the use of green energy or a reduced carbon footprint.

[0032] The digital product identifier may include one or more digital identifier(s) relating to the product. The identifier may relate to a product class, a specific product and / or properties of the product such as environmental properties. The identifier may include a unique number uniquely associated with the product class, the specific product and / or the properties of the product. The identifier may include one or more specific identifier(s), such as product class identifier, specific product identifier and / or property of the product identifier. Such specific identifier(s) may be uniquely linked to the product. For example, one or more property identifier(s) may be uniquely linked to the product identifier. The product identifier may be uniquely linked to the specific product. This way the product can be uniquely linked to a digital twin of the product specifying specific properties of the product. The identifier associated with the product may include one or more identifier(s) relating to one or more environmental attribute(s). The identifier may include an environmental attribute identifier, such as a unique environmental attribute identifier, relating to transferable environmental attribute(s). The environmental attribute identifier may relate to the product class or the specific product. For example, the environmental attribute identifier may relate to recycled content, bio-based content, renewable content, biodegradable content and / or green energy usage percentage as environmental attribute, each having their own unique identifier. The specific environmental attribute or a specific combination of environmental attributes may be related to the unique environmental attribute identifier. The identifier may include, be linked to or be related to a batch and / or order number, such as a unique batch and / or order number. The batch number may be linked to the physical entity of produced product batches. The order number may be linked to the transaction specifying the shipment of the product batch from the producer of the product to the consumer of the product.

[0033] The digital product identifier(s) may be linked to at least one authorization rule. The product may be linked to at least one authorization rule. The at least one authorization rule may relate to one or more authorization rule(s). The one or more authorization rule(s) may be associated with the digital product identifier. The authorization rule(s) may be generated per product. The authorization rule(s) may be generated per product class. The authorization rule(s) may be generated for at least two different product classes (e.g. the authorization rule(s) may be associated with or relate to at least two different product classes). The authorization rule(s) may be generated per entity operating a product production. The authorization rule(s) may relate to environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) (also denoted as transferable environmental property / ies). The authorization rule(s) may relate to the access to transferable environmental property / ies associated with the product and / or the validation of transferable environmental property / ies and / or the transfer of validated environmental property / ies. The authorization rule(s) may include instructions configured for triggering transfer of at least one environmental property transferable to downstream node(s) associated with downstream partici pant(s) using the product from a producer node associated with the production to the downstream node(s). The authorization rule(s) may include data transaction instructions, data transaction protocols or executable instructions, such as data usage policies, applications, smart contracts or other data processing instructions associated with product producer network node(s) and / or downstream node(s). Through the authorization rule(s) access and usage of transferable environmental property / ies can be controlled in a secure manner. In addition, the authorization rule(s) allow access and usage of transferable environmental property / ies from various different data sources in a controlled and secured manner. The at least one authorization rule may include instruction(s) which gather transferable environmental property / ies specified by the authorization rule and process the gathered environmental property / ies. The at least one authorization rule may relate to or include at least one event trigger related to the transfer of environmental property / ies to the downstream node(s). The event trigger specified by the authorization rule(s) may be the detection of a user interaction indicating the desire to transfer environmental property / ies selected from the transferable environmental property / ies. The authorization rule may relate to or include instruction(s) based on the at least one event trigger. The event trigger may trigger or initialize instructions to transfer at least one environmental property requested from environmental properties transferable to downstream node(s) according to the authorization rule associated with the product

[0034] Environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) (also referred to as transferable or accessible environmental property / ies hereinafter) may include environmental property / ies which are attributable or allocable to the product via attribution rule(s) and which have not yet been transferred to downstream node(s) (e.g. which may be transferred or which can be transferred upon successful validation). Transfer of such environmental property / ies to one or more of the downstream node(s) upon execution of the authorization rule(s) by such downstream node(s) may result in allocation or attribution of one or more of such environmental properties to the product. Allocation of the environmental property / ies to the product to adapt the environmental impact of the product may be triggered by the downstream node(s). Environmental property / ies may hence not be allocated by the product producer by default. For instance, transfer of a given amount of recycled content as transferable environmental property to one or more of the downstream node(s) may result in allocation of recycled content to the product based on the amount of recycled content requested to be transferred by the downstream node(s). This way, environmental property / ies of the product may be increased and / or may be added to the product property / ies based on environmental property / ies available for allocation, allowing to reduce the overall environmental impact of the product. The environmental property / ies available for allocation may be made transparent by way of the at least one authorization rule. Transferable environment property / ies may be derived from properties of the input material(s) used to produce the product or the production process(es) used to produce the product. Transferable environmental property / ies may be determined from environmental property / ies associated with the input material(s) and / or production process(es) used to produce the product via one or more attribution rule(s). The attribution rule(s) may define attribution scheme(s) for attributing environmental property / ies associated with the input material(s) and / or production process(es) used to produce the product to the product. Hence, transferable environmental property / ies may signify environmental attribute(s) theoretically available for attribution and / or allocation to the product. Transferable environmental attribute(s) may vary from transferred environmental attribute(s), for example if the environmental attribute(s) claimed by the product consumer are no longer available for attribution or allocation, resulting in the transfer of different environmental attribute(s) as originally claimed by the product consumer. Transferable environmental attribute(s) may be stored in virtual balancing account(s). Transferable environmental attribute(s) may be accumulated over multiple production stages associated with the production of the product. For instance, if the production of the product involves several production stages, environmental attribute(s) associated with input material(s) used within at least two of such production stages and / or environmental attribute(s) derived from the production performed within at least two of such production stages may be accumulated (e.g. added). Transferable environmental attribute(s) may be associated with the respective product (e.g. may not be accumulated).

[0035] In an embodiment, the environmental property / ies relate to a carbon footprint of the input material(s) and / or the production processes used to produce the product and / or the product, a renewable content of the input material(s) and / or the product, a bio-based content of the input material(s) and / or the product, a recycled content of the input material(s) and / or the product, a biodegradable content of the input material(s) and / or the product and / or an amount of green energy used in the production of the product. For example, input material from organic waste may be associated with the environmental properties recycled and bio-based. Input material from organic waste may be bio-based and recycled input material. Further for example, input material from wooden waste may be associated with the environmental properties recycled, bio-based and renewable. Input material from wooden waste may be bio-based, renewable and recycled input material. In the context provided here renewable, a bio-based and / or a recycled input material may include any material that at least in part includes renewable, a bio-based and / or a recycled content and / or is at least in part produced from renewable, a bio-based and / or a recycled content. The renewable, a bio-based and / or a recycled content may be physically and / or chemically traceable.

[0036] The environmental property / ies may specify a carbon footprint of the input material(s) and / or the production processes used to produce the product and / or the product, a renewable content the input material(s) and / or the product, a bio-based content the input material(s) and / or the product, a recycled content the input material(s) and / or the product, a biodegradable content the input material(s) and / or the product and / or an amount of green energy used in the production of the product. The environmental property / ies may specify an environmental property type such as recycled, renewable, bio-based, biodegradable, green energy usage. The environmental property type may be specified per input material, production process used to produce the product and / or per product.

[0037] In an embodiment, the product is a chemical product. In an embodiment, the production is a chemical production, in particular a chemical production network. The chemical production network may include identity preserving or segregated production chains. Identity preserving or segregated in this context may refer to the environmental attributes of the input materials being preserved or segregated in the production chains. Examples are bio-based, biodegradable, renewable or recycled input materials used to produce the chemical product without fossil content. Further examples are fossil input materials used to produce the products with fossil content. Chemical production networks may include non-identity preserving or non-segregated production chains. Non-identity preserving or non-segregated in this context may refer to input materials associated with environmental property / ies being mixed. For example, non-identity preserving or non-segregated in this context refers to input materials associated with environmental property / ies being mixed with fossil input materials in the production chains. Examples are fossil and renewable input materials mixed to produce the product with fossil and renewable content.

[0038] The chemical production network may include multiple production steps per production chain. The production steps 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 site of the chemical production network. The system boundary may be defined by production processes controlled by one entity or multiple entities jointly. The system boundary may be defined by production or value chain with staggered production processes to an end product, which may be controlled by multiple entities separately. For example, the chemical production network may include a waste collection step, a waste sorting step, a recycling step such as chemical recycling through pyrolysis, a cracking step such as steam cracking, a separation step to separate outputs of one process step and further processing steps to convert such outputs to chemical products leaving the system boundary of the chemical production network. The entry points (or feed-in points) of the chemical production network may be marked by the entry of input materials to the chemical production network. The input materials entering the chemical production network may be used to produce one or more chemical products. The chemical products may leave the physical system boundary of the chemical production network. The exit points of the chemical production network may be marked by the exit of chemical products from the chemical production network.

[0039] The chemical production may be operated by a production operating apparatus. The production operating apparatus may be configured to generate authorization rule(s) including instructions for triggering transfer of at least one environmental property transferable to downstream node(s) associated with the downstream participant(s) from a producer node associated with the production to the downstream node(s). The production operating apparatus may be configured to link digital product identifier(s) associated with the produced product(s) to generated authorization rule(s). The production operating apparatus may be configured to provide the authorization rule(s) to one or more downstream node(s) for execution. The production operating apparatus may be configured to determine environmental property / ies associated with the production of the product and being transferable to downstream node(s) via at least one attribution rule from environmental property / ies associated with input material(s) used to produce the product and / or production process(es) used to produce the product. The production operating apparatus may be configured to validate environmental property / ies requested for transfer by downstream node(s) in response to receiving a validation rule trigger including the requested environmental property / ies and a downstream participant identifier related to the downstream node requesting the transfer. The production operating apparatus may be configured to allocate validated environmental properties to the product, to generate data set(s) including the product identifier and data related to the allocated environmental property / ies and to provide the generated data set(s) for transfer to the downstream node(s) requesting transfer of such environmental property / ies. The production operating apparatus may be configured to generate update data to update environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) based on the allocated environmental property / ies and to provide such update data for updating the transferable environmental property / ies.

[0040] In an embodiment the environmental property / ies associated with the production of the product are determined from environmental property / ies associated with the input material(s) via a virtual production process. Virtual production process may refer to receiving input material data of input material(s) associated with environmental property / ies (e.g. sustainable input material(s)) and producing environmental property / ies (based on the sustainable input material(s)) and also generating conventional input material data (e.g., data describing the corresponding amount and / or value of the conventional (e.g. fossil) input material(s)). The virtual production process may be configured to parse the input material data and to apply a corresponding production recipe. The virtual production process may be configured to determine the amount (e.g. volume and / or mass) of sustainable input material from the input material data and to apply virtual production steps to the sustainable input material. The virtual production steps may be applied according to a production recipe. The production recipe may include data associated with production step(s) and data related to input material(s) used per production step. The data related to the input material(s) used per production step may include a bill of material indicating the input material(s) (for example via input material identifiers and corresponding amounts. The environmental property / ies determined by the virtual production process for a given product may signify the environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) for such product.

[0041] The environmental property / ies determined by the virtual production process may be converted in to balancing units using a conversion factor. The balancing unit(s) may serve as a quantitative measure or value to quantify amounts of environmental property / ies associated with the input material(s) and / or the production process(es) used to produce the product. The balancing units may be determined using a conversion factor. The conversion factor may consider the chemical difference between fossil-based input materials, such as naphtha and methane, and non-fossil input materials, such as pyrolysis oil. The conversion factor may relate to the lower heating value of the pyrolysis oil in relation to the lower heating value of naphtha or methane. The conversion factor may include the ratio of the lower heating value of pyrolysis oil to naphtha or methane. This way the chemical difference between the fossil and the renewable input material can be considered. In an embodiment the product is associated with a digital asset including digital product identifier(s) associated with the product and at least one environmental property transferable to the one or more downstream node(s) via the at least one authorization rule. The digital asset may be generated by determining least one environmental property associated with the production of the product and being transferable to the one or more downstream node(s), generating the digital asset including the digital product identifier(s) and the at least one environmental property transferable to the one or more downstream node(s) and optionally linking the digital asset to the at least one authorization rule. Environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) may be determined as previously described. The digital asset may be linked to the at least one authorization rule by including at least one rule identifier associated with the authorization rule(s) in the digital asset. The digital asset may be linked to the at least one authorization rule by associating at least one of the digital product identifier(s) with the authorization rule(s). The digital asset may be linked via the digital product identifier(s) to the authorization rule(s), for example if both the digital asset and the authorization rule(s) include digital product identifier(s) associated with the product. Linking the digital asset to the authorization rule(s) may include generating an access element including a digital representation pointing to the storage location storing the digital asset. The access element may be included in the authorization rule(s). The access element may be accessible by the authorization rule(s). Hence, the digital asset may be linked via the access element to the authorization rule(s).

[0042] The digital asset may be linked to the at least one authorization rule via the authorization rule identifier(s). For example, linking may include storing the authorization rule identifier(s) associated with the authorization rule(s) within the respective digital asset(s). In another embodiment, linking the generated digital asset(s) to the at least one authorization rule may include generating an access element including the digital product identifier(s) and data related to the digital asset(s). Data related to the digital asset(s) may include pointer(s) or locator(s) to the storage location(s) storing the digital asset(s). The pointer(s) or locator(s) pointing to the storage location(s) may include a URI(s) or URL(s) pointing to the storage location(s) storing the respective digital asset(s). The access element may be associated with or linked to the authorization rule(s), for example via the product identifier(s). The access element may be included in the authorization rule(s). Use of such access elements may avoid generation of new digital asset(s) upon updating the environmental property / ies transferable to the downstream node(s) and included in existing digital asset(s), for example if at least a part of the transferable environmental properties is transferred to a downstream participant node upon request of such node to transfer such transferable environmental properties.

[0043] The digital asset may signify one or more fungible token(s) or fractions thereof. A token may represent a predefined transferable environmental property type. The amount of tokens or fractions thereof may represent the amount of transferable environmental property type. The token or fractions thereof may be assigned to or hold by a distributed ledger network address controlled by the product producer. In another embodiment, the digital asset signifies or is related to a non-fungible token (NFT). The NFT may be assigned to or hold by a distributed ledger network address controlled by the product producer. The NFT may include the transferable environmental property / ies. The NFT may include a pointer or locator to a database storing the transferable environmental property / ies. For example, the NFT may include a pointer or locator to the digital asset stored in a data storage, such as a dedicated database associated with or controlled by the data owner (e.g. the product producer).

[0044] The digital asset may signify a data set including transferable environmental property / ies and at least one digital product identifier associated with the product. Such data set may be stored within a dedicated storage associated with the data owner of the digital asset, such as the product producer.

[0045] In an embodiment, the environmental property / ies transferable to the downstream node(s) are determined via at least one attribution rule from environmental property / ies associated with the input material(s) and / or production process(es) used to produce the product.

[0046] The attribution rule(s) may define attribution scheme(s) for attributing environmental property / ies associated with the input material(s) and / or production process(es) used to produce the product to the product. The attribution scheme may specify the balancing type or environmental property / ies. The at least one attribution rule may be associated with at least one non-segregated attribution scheme. The at least one attribution rule may be associated with one or more non-segregated attribution schemes, such as a mass balance scheme with free attribution, a mass balance scheme without free attribution or a book-and-claim scheme.

[0047] The attribution rule(s) may include instructions for determining the transferable environmental property / ies based on environmental property / ies associated with input material(s) used to produce the product and / or associated with production process(es) used to produce the product. The at least one the attribution rule may include instructions to determine the at least one environmental property transferable to the downstream node(s) based on environmental property / ies (e.g. transferable or transferred) associated with the input material(s) used to produce the product, the quantity of the input material(s) used to produce the product, environmental property / ies associated with the production process(es) used to produce the product or combinations thereof. The attribution rule(s) may include instructions to determine the transferable environmental property / ies based on environmental property / ies associated with input material(s) used to produce the product and the amount of input material(s) used to produce the product. The instructions may be configured to access a bill of material associated with the production of the product and including input material data, product data and process data. From the bill of material, the input material(s) used to produce the product and the amount of such input material(s) used to produce the product and may be determined.

[0048] The attribution rule(s) may depend on a product type and an environmental property type. The at least one attribution rule may depend on a product identifier and an environmental property. The at least one attribution rule may be associated with environmental property types that relate to certified or non-certified environmental property / ies. The at least one attribution rule may be associated with environmental property types that relate to input material dependent environmental property / ies. The at least one attribution rule may be associated with environmental property types that relate to chemical network or production chain dependent environmental property / ies. The at least one attribution rule may be associated with environmental property types that relate to product dependent environmental property / ies. The at least one attribution rule may be associated with environmental property types that relate to environmental properties certified under specific certification schemes. The at least one attribution rule may be associated with environmental property types that relate to environmental properties adhering to specific attribution schemes.

[0049] The attribution rule(s) may be associated with at least one production producing the product(s). The at least one attribution rule may be associated with at least one production including one or more production chains. The at least one attribution rule may be associated with at least one production including one or more process steps converting input material(s) to one or more intermediate(s) and / or one or more product(s). The at least one attribution rule may be associated with at least one process setup of the production. The production may be a chemical production. The production may be a chemical production network.

[0050] The attribution rule(s) may be associated with at least one input material characterized by at least one environmental property type. The at least one attribution rule may be associated with at least one input material entering the production. The at least one attribution rule may be associated with at least one input material used to produce the product(s). The production may be a chemical production. The production may be a chemical production network.

[0051] The attribution rule(s) may be associated with at least one product characterized by at least one environmental property type. The at least one attribution rule may be associated with at least one product type exiting the production. The at least one attribution rule may be associated with at least one product type produced from one or more input material(s). The production may be a chemical production. The production may be a chemical production network.

[0052] The environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) based on the input material(s) and / or production processes used to produce the product may be determined by determining environmental property / ies associated with such input material(s) and / or production process(es) and allocating the determined environmental property / ies as transferable environmental property / ies to the product(s) via one or more allocation or attribution rule(s). Determining the environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) may include determining environmental property / ies associated with input material(s) used to produce the product and / or production processes used to produce the product, determining balancing unit(s) associated with such determined property / ies and allocating the balancing unit(s) to the product(s) via one or more allocation rule(s). The balancing units may be converted into transferable environmental property / ies, for example based on the amount of produced product. The balancing units may be converted using a conversion factor as outlined previously.

[0053] Value(s) of financial asset(s) associated with the sustainable input material(s) and / or the transferable environmental property / ies may be determined. The value of the financial asset(s) associated with transferable environmental property / ies may indicate the value of the financial asset that needs to be transferred to the product producer by a downstream participant upon transfer of requested environmental property / ies to a downstream node associated with such downstream participant. The value of the financial asset associated with the input material may be determined based on the difference in cost between a sustainable input material and the corresponding equivalent fossil input material. The cost of the equivalent fossil input material may be determined based on an average price, actual price, market price or other suitable values. The value of the financial asset associated with the transferable environmental property / ies may be determined based on the difference in cost between sustainable input material(s) used to produce the product and the corresponding equivalent fossil input material(s) and / or based on the difference in cost between a sustainable production process(es) and equivalent conventional production process(es). Sustainable production process(es) may be production process(es) associated with reduced environmental impact. For instance, sustainable production process(es) may be associated with the use of green energy, reduced consumption of thermal and / or electric energy and / or reduced generation of emissions and / or generated waste as compared to equivalent conventional production process(es). The value of the financial asset(s) may be stored in a data storage. The value may be included in digital asset(s) associated with the product. The value may be included in the authorization rule(s) associated with the product(s). This may allow to render the value of the financial asset associated with transferable environmental property / ies transparent to downstream node(s) and allows downstream participant(s) using the product to request transferable environmental property / ies based on the value of the associated financial assets.

[0054] In an embodiment, the at least one authorization rule provides access to environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) and triggers transfer of such transferable environmental property / ies to such downstream node(s). The environmental property / ies may be included in digital asset(s). Such digital asset(s) may be stored within a data storage. The data storage may be a dedicated database associated with the data owner of the digital asset(s), such as the product producer and / or input material producer, respectively. The data owner may control access to such dedicated storage. This allows the data owner to control access to the digital asset, e.g. the data owner can determine the access rights autonomously from other network participants. The digital asset(s) may be stored in a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network or in a distributed database. The distributed ledger may be replicated over multiple network node(s), such as network node(s) participating in the consensus protocol run within the distributed ledger network. Access to data stored in the distributed ledger may be controlled based on access rights agreed upon by the participants of the distributed ledger network. Access to the transferable environmental property / ies may be provided via access element(s) associated with the product and including pointers or locators pointing the data storage storing the transferable environmental property / ies, for example within digital asset(s) stored in such data storages.

[0055] In an embodiment the at least one authorization rule includes environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s). In another embodiment the at least one authorization rule relates to environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s). The at least one authorization rule may be associated with a digital asset including such environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s). The digital asset may be associated with the product or input material(s) used to produce the product. The at least one authorization rule may be linked to the digital asset via at least one of the product identifier(s). For example, the at least one authorization rule and the digital asset may each include one of the product identifiers.

[0056] In an embodiment, instructions for triggering transfer of environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) include instruction(s) for gathering such environmental property / ies, instruction(s) for processing gathered environmental property / ies, instruction(s) for triggering transfer of environmental property / ies requested by downstream node(s), instruction(s) for authenticating downstream node(s) and / or downstream participant(s) or any combination thereof. Processing gathered environmental property / ies may include aggregation, filtering, joining, enriching or the like. Processing may include determine the amount of transferable environmental property / ies from transferable environmental property / ies associated with input material(s) based on bills of material(s) associated with the intermediate product(s) and the product(s) produced from such input material(s). Instruction(s) for triggering transfer of environmental property / ies requested by downstream node(s) may include instructions for providing gathered or processed environmental property / ies transferable to downstream nodes for selection and transfer.

[0057] In an embodiment, the at least one authorization rule further includes instructions to trigger determination of transferable environmental property / ies at upstream node(s) associated with input material producers producing the input material(s) used to produce the product(s) and to determine transferable environmental property / ies based on transferable environmental property / ies of input material(s) received from the upstream node(s). The instructions may trigger a request including the input material identifier(s). Triggering a request for providing such transferable environmental property / ies associated with input material(s) used to produce the product may avoid transfer of the bill of material associated with the production of such input material(s) to the product producer. This allows to determine the transferable environmental property / ies in reliable yet secure manner without having to share any sensitive data.

[0058] In an embodiment, the at least one authorization rule is provided based on at least one of the digital product identifiers. The at least one authorization rule may be provided by matching the provided product identifier with product identifier(s) included in the authorization rule(s). The at least one authorization rule may be provided by matching provided product identifier(s) with related identifier(s) included in the authorization rule(s). The at least one authorization rule may be provided via a decentral network to the downstream node. The downstream node may in this case correspond to a decentral participant node of a decentral network.

[0059] In an embodiment, the at least one authorization rule is provided as part of a product passport associated with the product or is provided in combination with the product passport. The product passport may include a decentral identifier associated with the product and / or the at least one environmental property transferable to the downstream node(s). The product passport may include the authorization rule(s). The authorization rule(s) may be linked to the product passport, for example via the decentral identifier. The decentral identifier may comprise any unique identifier uniquely associated with the product(s) and / or the transferable environmental property / ies. The decentral identifier may include Universally Unique I Dentifier(s) (UUID(s)) and / or Digital I Dentifier(s) (DID(s)). The decentral identifier may be issued by a central or decentral identity issuer. The decentral identifier may be linked to authentication and / or authorization information. Via the decentral identifier and its unique association with the product producer and product data, such as the transferable environmental property / ies and / or the digital asset including the transferable environmental property / ies, access to product data may be controlled by the product producer. 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 in implementation as controlled by the data owner, such as the product producer. The product passport may be stored in a dedicated storage associated with the data owner, such as the product producer. Access to the product passport via the decentral identifier may be controlled by the data owner. Likewise, access to the authorization rule(s) may be controlled by the data owner, for example via the rule identifier. The rule identifier may include a decentral identifier, e.g. a decentral identifier associated with the authorization rule(s).

[0060] By providing the authorization rule(s) together with the product passport, the authorization rule(s) may be inherently linked to the decentral passport identifier associated with the product and / or product data. This link may be persistent or non-persistent. If the link is persistent the gathering of the transferable environmental properties associated with the product through the production and / or lifecycle chain may be based on usage or processing of the decentral passport identifier associated with the product and / or product data at any participant node of the decentral network. In particular, the authorization rule(s) may be provided in connection with the decentral passport identifier associated with the product and / or the product data and such connection may be maintained on any data exchange relating to the product data. This way the authorization rule(s) may stick directly to the data flow in the decentral network via the decentral passport identifier associated with the product and / or the product data.

[0061] If the link is non-persistent the gathering of the transferable environmental properties associated with the product through the production and / or lifecycle chain can be based on linking the authorization rule(s) to decentral identifier(s) associated with further products produced from the product and / or data related to the further products produced based on the product. In both instances the inherent link to the product used to produce the further product may be maintained to allow for gathering of transferable environmental properties associated with the product at every stage in the production and / or lifecycle chain. In particular, passports associated with further products may include a decentral identifier associated with the further product, the decentral passport identifier associated with the product, data related to the further product and / or data related to the product. The passports may further include authorization rule(s) associated with the further products. This way the authorization rule sticks indirectly to the data flow in the decentral network via the decentral identifier associated with the product and / or the product data.

[0062] In an embodiment the at least one authorization rule is provided in combination with digital credential(s) associated with the at least one authorization rule and representing certification of at least partial compliance of the at least one authorization rule with a predefined rule set. The predefined rule set may refer to allocation model(s) for allocating environmental property / ies associated with the production of a product as transferable environmental property / ies to a product and / or to allocation model(s) allocating validated environmental property / ies to a product. The predefined rule set may be associated with or relate to allocation model(s) for allocating environmental property / ies associated with the production of a product as transferable environmental property / ies to a product and / or to allocation model(s) allocating validated environmental property / ies to a product. The predefined rule set may include allocation model(s) for allocating environmental property / ies associated with the production of a product as transferable environmental property / ies to a product and / or to allocation model(s) allocating validated environmental property / ies to a product. The predefined rule set may include criteria for auditing executable code with respect to the entity providing the code and / or with respect to function(s) performed by the executable code. The digital credential(s) may include or signify verifiable credential(s).

[0063] The provided digital credential(s) may be verified. Verification may be performed prior to execution of the at least on authorization rule, e.g. prior to gathering at least one environmental property associated with the production of the product and being transferable to the downstream node(s). For instance, the downstream node may verify whether the digital credential(s) are still valid and / or whether the signature of the credential issuer is valid. Use of digital credential(s) allows downstream node(s) and associated downstream participant(s) to verify claims or assertions made by the product producer concerning the allocation schemes used during determination of transferable environmental property / ies. In addition, use of digital credential(s) allows downstream node(s) to execute such authorization rule(s) only if digital credentials certifying the authorization rule as stemming from a trusted source and having been audited to ensure safe execution. This ensures that the authorization rule(s) can be safely executed on downstream node(s) without resulting in any damages to such node(s) or associated computing systems. In an embodiment gathering environmental property / ies transferable to the one or more downstream node(s) includes gathering product data associated with the product and including the environmental property / ies transferable to the one or more downstream node(s) and optionally gathering input material data associated with the input material(s) and including the environmental property / ies transferable to the one or more downstream node(s) or wherein gathering transferable environmental property / ies includes gathering digital asset(s) associated with the product and including the environmental property / ies transferable to the one or more downstream node(s) and optionally gathering digital asset(s) associated with the input material(s) and including the environmental property / ies transferable to the one or more downstream node(s). The input material data or digital asset(s) associated with the input material may be gathered based on access elements associated with the authorization rule(s) and / or the digital asset(s). Such access element(s) may include pointers or locators pointing to storage locations storing the input material data or digital asset(s) associated with the input material(s). The input material data or digital asset(s) associated with such input material(s) may be gathered based on a bill of material associated with the product. Such bill of material may be accessed by the authorization rule(s) based on instructions included in one or more of such rules. The bill of material may include input material identifier(s) associated with input material(s) used to produce the product. The at least one authorization rule may include instructions to gather the input material data or digital asset(s) associated with input material(s) based on such determined input material identifier(s).

[0064] In an embodiment the request includes the environmental property / ies selected from gathered environmental properties transferable to downstream node(s) according to the at least one authorization rule and a downstream participant identifier related to the downstream node requesting the transfer. The downstream participant identifier may uniquely identify the downstream participant related to the downstream node. The downstream participant identifier may include an identifier and / or a locator or pointer pointing to downstream node of the downstream participant the requested environmental property / ies are to be transferred to. Such downstream node may correspond to the downstream node requesting the transfer of transferable environmental property / ies. Such downstream node may differ from the downstream node requesting the transfer of transferable environmental property / ies.

[0065] In an embodiment the method further includes a step of processing the gathered environmental property / ies transferable to the one or more downstream node(s) and associated with the product and optionally the input material(s) prior to providing such environmental property / ies for selection and transfer. Processing may include aggregation, filtering, joining and / or enriching of the gathered environmental property / ies. For instance, environmental property / ies gathered from multiple data sources may be aggregated. Aggregation may be performed based on environmental property type.

[0066] In an embodiment the method further includes steps of - receiving - in response to triggering the transfer of environmental property / ies selected from gathered environmental properties transferable to downstream node(s) according to the at least one authorization rule - alternative environmental property / ies,

[0067] - providing the received alternative environmental property / ies for selection and transfer, wherein the transfer is triggered based on a request including environmental property / ies selected from provided alternative environmental properties.

[0068] This allows to request available alternative environmental property / ies in case the requested or selected environmental property / ies have already been transferred by processing a previously received validation rule trigger hence mitigating conflicts arising from applying a FIFO method for processing triggers received from downstream node.

[0069] Available environmental property / ies may include environmental property / ies not matching the requested environmental property / ies but being available for transfer to downstream node. Available environmental property / ies may include environmental property / ies present within a digital storage structure associated with the product producer producing the product. The digital storage structure may store environmental property / ies associated with the production of products produced by the product producer. Environmental property / ies may be allocated to the digital storage structure based on environmental property / ies associated with input material(s) used to produce the product and / or based on environmental property / ies associated with production process(es) used to produce the product. The available environmental properties may be determined via a virtual production process, such as previously described. The available environmental properties may signify balancing units associated with such environmental properties. The balancing units may be determined based on a conversion factor, such as previously described.

[0070] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0071] 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. The description of drawings is provided for illustrative purposes and shall not be considered limiting. The embodiments and examples are illustrative embodiments and examples to further line out the concepts lined out herein. The figures include schematic illustrations and shall not be considered limiting. Other embodiments and examples that fall under the concepts lined out herein are possible and may not be explicitly described herein.

[0072] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a participant network of a product ecosystem associated with a decentral peer-to-peer network for transfer of environmental properties associated with produced products used within the product ecosystem. FIG. 2 illustrates another example of a participant network of a product ecosystem associated with a distributed ledger network for transfer of environmental properties associated with produced products used within the product ecosystem.

[0073] FIG. 3A illustrates an example method for providing access to at least one environmental property associated with a production of a product and being transferable to one or more downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product.

[0074] FIG. 3B illustrates another example method for providing access to at least one environmental property associated with a production of a product and being transferable to one or more downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product.

[0075] FIGs. 4A-4D illustrate different authorization rule(s) associated with the production of products by a production operated by a product producer.

[0076] FIG. 5 illustrates an example apparatus for providing access to at least one environmental property associated with a production of a product and being transferable to one or more downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product.

[0077] FIGs. 6A-6B illustrate examples of digital credentials representing certification of at least partial compliance of at least one authorization rule with a predefined rule set.

[0078] FIG. 6C illustrates an example of a presentation of digital credentials of FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B.

[0079] FIG. 7 illustrates an example method for producing a product associated with a digital asset including at least one environmental property transferable to downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product.

[0080] FIGs. 8A-8C illustrate examples of allocation or attribution schemes usable to link accessible environmental properties associated with a production of products and being requested by product consumers to products produced by a production upon generation of digital asset(s).

[0081] FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a chemical production network with different allocation or attribution schemes.

[0082] FIG. 10 illustrates examples of attribution rules for assigning or attributing at least one environmental property to a chemical product ID based on an attribution or allocation rule.

[0083] FIG. 11 illustrates an example apparatus for producing a product associated with a digital asset including at least one environmental property transferable to downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product. FIG. 12 illustrates an example of converting environmental properties associated with input material to transferable environmental properties associated with products produced from such input materials.

[0084] FIG. 13A illustrates an example of a digital asset associated with a product and including environmental properties transferable to downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product.

[0085] FIG. 13B illustrates a JSON schema of a digital asset illustrated in FIG. 13A, FIG. 13C and FIG. 13D.

[0086] FIG. 13C illustrates an example of an access element associated with a digital asset and including a pointer or locator pointing to the storage location storing the digital asset including environmental properties transferable to downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product.

[0087] FIG. 13D illustrates another example of an access element associated with a digital asset and including a pointer or locator pointing to the storage location storing the digital asset including environmental properties transferable to downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product.

[0088] FIG. 14 illustrates schematically an example of a system for triggering transfer of environmental properties associated with a production of a product to downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product.

[0089] FIG. 15 illustrates a graphical user interface for displaying transferable environmental properties associated with a given product and for triggering transfer of at least a part of the transferable environmental properties to a downstream node associated with downstream participant(s) using the product.

[0090] FIG. 16A illustrates another example of a system for triggering transfer of environmental properties associated with a production of a product to downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product.

[0091] FIG. 16B illustrates yet another example of a system for triggering transfer of environmental properties associated with a production of a product to downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product.

[0092] FIG. 17 illustrates yet another example of a system for triggering transfer of environmental properties associated with a production of a product to downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product. FIG. 18 illustrates an example method for triggering transfer of environmental properties associated with a production of a product to downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product.

[0093] FIG. 19 illustrates an embodiment of the method illustrated in FIG. 18.

[0094] FIG. 20 illustrates an example method for monitoring at least one environmental property associated with a production of a product.

[0095] FIG. 21 illustrates an embodiment of the method of FIG. 20.

[0096] FIG. 22 illustrates an example of a production producing one or more product(s) from one or more input material(s) in connection with an operating system including an environmental property management system for two or more environmental properties.

[0097] FIG. 23 illustrates a virtual production system for producing sustainable chemical products by decoupling the environmental properties of incoming sustainable inputs and converting the environmental properties to balancing units.

[0098] FIG. 24 illustrates an example method for allocating environmental properties associated with input material(s) used to produce a product and / or associated with production process(es) used to produce the product to at least one digital storage structure.

[0099] FIG. 25 illustrates examples of attribution rules for attributing, assigning or allocating at least one environmental property to a virtual balancing account of a digital storage structure.

[0100] FIG. 26 illustrates examples of attribution rule instructions for selecting at least one virtual balancing account of a digital storage structure.

[0101] FIG. 27 illustrates examples of attribution rule instructions for compatibility check of virtual balancing accounts of a digital storage structure.

[0102] FIGs. 28A-28C illustrate examples of digital storage structures and related metadata identifying virtual balancing accounts included in the digital storage structures.

[0103] FIG. 29 illustrates a merger system for producing digital asset(s) associated with chemical products by combining environmental properties represented by balancing units with conventional product data.

[0104] FIG. 30 illustrates a merger system for producing non-fungible tokens associated with environmental properties transferred to chemical products by combining environmental attributes represented by balancing units with conventional product data. FIG. 31 illustrates an example method for monitoring a digital asset associated with a product.

[0105] FIG. 32 illustrates an example method for monitoring digital assets associated with input material(s) used to produce a product.

[0106] FIG. 33A illustrates schematically a sequence for monitoring a digital asset associated with a product and digital assets associated with input materials used to produce the product.

[0107] FIG. 33B illustrates an example system for monitoring a digital asset associated with a product and digital assets associated with input materials used to produce the product.

[0108] DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0109] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a participant network of a product ecosystem associated with a decentral peer-to-peer network for transfer of environmental properties associated with produced products used within the product ecosystem.

[0110] The participant network 130 of the product ecosystem associated may be associated with a decentral peer-to-peer network 134 for exchange of transferable environmental properties and / or accessible environmental properties associated with raw material(s), chemical product(s), discrete product(s), end product(s), recycled material(s) and / or their respective production. The participant network 130 may include one or more network participants 102 to 114 associated with decentral participant nodes 116 to 128. The network participants may be part of an industry or may be part of different industries. The network participants may be part of a product ecosystem including chemical products. The product ecosystem may include production chains to produce one or more end-product(s). The product ecosystem may include recycling chains to recycle at least part of an end-of-life product resulting from the use of the end product(s).

[0111] The product ecosystem may include a raw material producer 104, a chemical product producer 102, a chemical product user 106, an end-product producer 108, an end-product user 110, an EOL product collector 112 and a recycler 114. The product ecosystem illustrated in FIG. 1 is a mere example and may include more or less network participants. For example, the product ecosystem may include a chain of chemical product producers instead of only one chemical product producer 102. The participant network 130 may include a chemical supply chain. 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 material.

[0112] The participant(s) of the participant network 130 may be associated with the production the product and / or recycling of products. The decentral network participant 102 to 114 may refer to a manufacturer of physical products, such as raw material producer 104, chemical product producer 102, chemical product user 106, end-product producer 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 network participant may be associated with a participant node 116 to 128 and a decentral participant identifier related to an associated participant node(s) 116 to 128. The decentral participant identifier may uniquely identify the decentral network participant and its associated decentral participant node within the decentral peer-to-peer network 134.

[0113] The participant(s) of the participant network 130 may be connected via material flows. The material flow may be a loop material flow 136. The loop material flow 136 may be a closed loop material flow. A closed loop material flow may refer to a material loop where recycled material is used to produce the same end products the recycled material is obtained from via recycling. The loop material flow 136 may be an open loop material flow. An open loop material flow may refer to a material loop where recycled material is used to produce different end products than the one the recycled material is obtained from. The material flow may be a linear material flow (e.g. not including recycling). The material flow 136 may correspond to the flow of product from one participant of the participant network 130 to the downstream participant of the participant network 130. The material flow 136 may refer to a continuous or a discontinuous flow of product. The flow of product may include any means of transportation suitable to transport the product from a participant to the downstream participant. The means of transportation may include pipes, containers, barrels, packages. The material flow 136 may be associated with raw materials used to produce the chemical product, such as virgin raw materials 158. The raw materials may be provided to chemical product producer 102 for producing chemical product(s) and / or intermediate chemical product(s) (not shown). The loop material flow 136 may be associated with chemical product(s) 156. The chemical product(s) may be provided from chemical product producer 102 to chemical product user 106 for producing discrete product(s). In contrast to chemical production, the discrete products being produced are distinct units sold as individual products. The loop material flow 136 may be associated with recycled material 160. The recycled material may be provided from recycler 114 to chemical product producer 102 to produce chemical product(s).

[0114] At least part of the participants of the participant network 130 may be associated with decentral participant network nodes 116 to 128. The decentral participant nodes 116 to 128 may be under control of the respective decentral participant associated with the respective decentral participant node 116 to 128. The decentral participant nodes 116 to 128 may form decentral network 134. The decentral network 134 may be a peer-to-peer communication network. The decentral peer-to-peer network 134 may be configured to perform data transactions 132 according to at least one network protocol. The data transactions 132 may be based on at least one 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 116 to 128 associated with network participants 102 to 114 may be established. The one or more authentication mechanism(s) may be associated with or linked to the decentral identifier as described in the context of FIG. 14. The one or more authentication mechanism(s) associated with the decentral identifier may be accessible by the decentral participant nodes 116 to 128 as described in the context of FIG. 14. The decentral configuration allows for more efficient use of computing resources and strengthens control by the data owners of the decentral network by allowing for data sovereignty.

[0115] Data transactions between decentral network participant nodes 116 to 128 may be based on a decentral identifier associated with respective product data to be accessed, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14. 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.

[0116] The data flow 132 (e.g. transactions, depicted by dashed lines) between decentral network participant nodes 116 to 128 may be directly or indirectly associated with the material flow 136 (depicted by bold solid lines) between the network participants 102 to 114. For instance, data flow 132 may be directly associated with material flow 136 if data associated with an input material provided from the raw material producer 104 to the chemical product producer 102 is accessed by decentral participant node 118 associated with said chemical product producer 102. For instance, data flow 132 may be indirectly associated with material flow 136 if data associated with a chemical product produced by chemical product producer 102 is accessed by decentral participant node 128 associated with recycler 114.

[0117] The decentral participant nodes 116 to 128 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 of volatile or non-volatile storages and may depend on the nature and form of the computing node.

[0118] At least part of the decentral participant nodes 116 to 128 may be configured as decentral data providing network nodes. At least part of the participant nodes 116 to 128 may be configured as decentral data consuming network nodes. A participant of the decentral participant network 130 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, end-product producer 108 may be associated with a decentral data providing network node configured to provide product data to a downstream participant (e.g. recycler 114) for example as described in the context of FIG. 14. In addition to or alternatively, end-product producer 108 may be associated with a decentral data consuming network node configured to access data associated with a discrete product produced by an upstream participant (e.g. chemical product user 106). The decentral network 134 may include further decentral network nodes (not shown in FIG. 1). The further decentral network nodes may not be associated with or operated by a participant 102 to 114 of the product ecosystem. The further decentral network nodes may provide services for network participants 102 to 114. For instance, the further decentral network nodes may provide digital marketplaces for network participants 102 to 114. The further decentral network nodes may be decentral infrastructure service nodes. The decentral infrastructure service nodes may provide services for decentral participant nodes 116 to 128, such as verifying the identity of the decentral network participant nodes 116 to 128 prior to performing a data exchange. The decentral network participant nodes 116 to 128 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 116 to 124 may be associated with a unique identifier embedded in a X.509 certificate that identifies the respective decentral network participant node 116 to 128. 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 may be used to verify the identity prior to performing a data exchange (not shown).

[0119] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a participant network 216 of a product ecosystem associated with a distributed ledger network distributed ledger network 220 for transfer of environmental properties associated with a production of products. The distributed ledger network distributed ledger network 220 may include one or more network participants 102 to 114. The decentral network participants 102 to 114 may be part of a product ecosystem as described in the context of FIG. 1 .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.

[0120] The participant(s) of the distributed ledger network distributed ledger network 220 may be associated with the production the product and / or recycling of the product. The 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 product ecosystem illustrated in FIG. 1 is a mere example and may include more or less network participants. For example, the product ecosystem may include a chain of chemical product producers instead of only one chemical product producer 102. The network participant 102 to 114 may be associated with a decentral participant identifier. The decentral participant identifier may uniquely identify the network participant within the distributed ledger network distributed ledger network 220. The decentral participant identifier may correspond to a or be derived from the public key associated with the respective network participant 102 to 114. The decentral participant identifier may signify an account on the distributed ledger network distributed ledger network 220 being associated with the respective network participant 102 to 114.

[0121] The participant(s) of the participant network 216 may be connected via material flows 136 described in the context of FIG. 1 .

[0122] At least part of the participants 102 to 114 of the participant network 216 may be associated with or may have access to distributed ledger network nodes 204 to 214. While only one distributed ledger network distributed ledger network 220 is shown in FIG. 2, the participants 102 to 114 of the participant network 216 may have access to at least one additional distributed ledger network (not shown). The distributed ledger network nodes 202 to 214 may form distributed ledger network distributed ledger network 220. Distributed ledger network distributed ledger network 220 may be a distributed peer-to-peer network. Nodes 202 to 214 of distributed ledger network distributed ledger network 220 may be connected to other node(s) of distributed ledger network distributed ledger network 220. For instance, at least one physical standard network (wired and / or wireless) may be used for connection. Nodes 202 to 214 may have equal rights which may distinguish them from a server-client structure.

[0123] Nodes 202 to 214 may comprise a peer-to-peer application. The peer-to-peer application may be a software run on a computer representing any of nodes 202 to 214. The same peer-to-peer application may be implemented on each node 202 to 214, 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. The nodes running the peer-to-peer application may store a distributed ledger, such as a blockchain. The distributed ledger may be inspected by all participants 102 to 114 of the product ecosystem. The distributed ledger may be inspected by further entities not being part of the product ecosystem, for example for auditing purposes or to support purchase decisions. In one example, each of nodes 202 to 214 may store the (entire) distributed ledger, such as the blockchain. In another example, only part of the distributed ledger may be stored on a node (light node).

[0124] The peer-to-peer application may be configured store digital asset(s) associated with chemical product(s), intermediate chemical product(s), component(s), part(s), part assemblies and / or end products. The peer- to-peer application may be configured to access transferable environmental property data associated with chemical product(s), intermediate chemical product(s), component(s), part(s), part assemblies and / or end products. The peer-to-peer application may be configured to manage digital asset(s) linked to chemical product(s), intermediate chemical product(s), component(s), part(s), part assemblies and / or end products. For instance, the peer-to-peer application may be configured to update digital asset(s) and / or to transfer data set(s) including data related to available environmental property / ies to downstream participant identifier(s) associated with downstream participant(s) requesting transfer of transferable environmental properties. At least a part of the participants 102 to 114 may be connected with peer-to-peer network distributed ledger network 220 via peer-to-peer modules (not shown). The peer-to-peer module may be configured to communicate at least with the peer-to-peer network distributed ledger network 220, i.e. nodes 202 to 214 of the peer-to-peer network distributed ledger network 220 (e.g. nodes 202 to 214 running the peer- to-peer application). Hence, the peer-to-peer modules may signify a participant of the peer-to-peer network distributed ledger network 220. 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 denoted as light node) may comprise a decentral application including at least an endpoint to the peer- to-peer network distributed ledger network 220. Hence, such a peer-to-peer module may have access or may be connected to a gateway running a node, such as node 202 to 214, of the peer-to-peer network (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. 30, FIG. 20, FIG. 24, FIG. 33A and FIG. 33B. 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 network distributed ledger network 220. The peer-to-peer module may be configured to provide generated transaction data to peer-to-peer network distributed ledger network 220 for processing. The peer-to-peer module may be configured to query peer-to-peer network distributed ledger network 220 for data. For instance, the peer-to-peer module may be configured to gather data from peer-to-peer network distributed ledger network 220, such as digital asset(s) stored in the distributed ledger. The peer-to-peer module may be configured to request data from peer-to-peer network distributed ledger network 220, for example transferable environmental properties as described in the context of FIG. 16A and FIG. 16B.

[0125] The peer-to-peer network 220 may be configured to perform data transactions data flow 218 according to a transaction network protocol. Such data transactions data flow 218 may be associated with material flows 136 between participants of the decentral participant network 216. Data transactions data flow 218 may include data transactions between peer-to-peer modules and the peer-to-peer network distributed ledger network 220. For instance, peer-to-peer modules may be configured to generate transaction data and provide the generated transaction data to peer-to-peer network distributed ledger network 220. The transaction data may be associated with the storage of digital asset(s) as described in the context of FIG. 30. The transaction data may be associated with the transfer of digital assets or data set(s) as described in the context of FIG. 20, FIG. 29, FIG. 30, FIG. 33A and FIG. 33B. Transaction data may be associated with the storage of authorization rule(s) associated with produced products, for example as described in the context of FIG. 16A and FIG. 16B. Data transactions data flow 218 may include data transactions between peer-to-peer nodes 202 to 214. For instance, a data transaction received by a node of peer-to- peer network distributed ledger network 220 may be broadcasted to at least part of the other nodes of peer-to-peer network 220. Each transaction provided to peer-to-peer network distributed ledger network 220 may contain a proof data, e.g. a signature. For instance, the transaction data may be signed using a private key associated with the respective participant of network distributed ledger network 220. Prior to processing a transaction, the transaction may be validated by validating the proof data of the transaction for example by comparing the proof data with valid proof data stored e.g. in the peer-to-peer application. A part of nodes 202 to 214 may conduct the validation process. If the transaction is valid, it may be further processed, for example it may be included in a further block of the distributed ledger or 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.

[0126] The peer-to-peer network distributed ledger network 220 may be configured to perform one or more consensus algorithms. 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 peer-to-peer network distributed ledger network 220. The consensus algorithm may include one or more protocol(s) through which all full nodes in the network distributed ledger network 220 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 sub networks.

[0127] The peer-to-peer application may store a distributed ledger. Examples include the XRP Ledger from Ripple. The peer-to-peer application may store a block chain. However, the following remarks can be easily transferred to other peer-to-peer applications, such as peer-to-peer applications storing Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs). 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.

[0128] The distributed ledger or block chain may be permissionless or permissioned. The distributed ledger or block chain may be a public, a consortium or a private distributed ledger or block chain. The peer-to-peer application may be formed with multiple block chains which are connected via mechanisms, such as side chains or smart contracts. Interoperability among block chains may be established. Examples of blockchains include Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana.

[0129] 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 202 to 214 of the peer- to-peer network distributed ledger network 220.

[0130] The block chain may be configured to receive transactions, such as transactions associated with the storage of digital asset(s) and / or transactions associated with the transfer of available environmental property / ies to downstream participants requesting such environmental property / ies. The transactions may be received from a peer-to-peer module as previously described. The block chain may be configured to validate received transactions. The block chain may be configured to save transactions, such as validated transactions, in new blocks of the block chain. For instance, the new block may be appended to existing blocks of the block chain. The block chain may at least be configured to store digital asset(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 30. The blockchain may be configured to store authorization rule(s). The blockchain may be configured to trigger gathering of transferable environmental properties.

[0131] In particular, a (newly) received transaction may be validated, saved and published in the current block of the block chain. The published transaction may be read by at last part of the participants of the peer- to-peer network. Alternatively or additionally, data of a transaction may be stored in a registry storage e.g. on a decentral file service or distributed block chain database controlled by the block chain.

[0132] Only a part of the entire nodes of peer-to-peer network distributed ledger network 220 may be configured to store the peer-to-peer application and / or only a part of the nodes of peer-to-peer network distributed ledger network 220 may be configured to execute the 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 202 to 214 perform the execution of executable means and / or validation algorithm(s) and / or authentication algorithm(s).

[0133] Validation, analytics and optimization may be done on-chain or off-chain, as described hereinbefore. Off- chain validation, analysis and / or optimization can be managed by the peer-to-peer application, like the code on the block chain. 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. Powerful means, in particular, a high computing power.

[0134] 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 or smart contracts or interledger. FIG. 3A illustrates an example method for providing access to at least one environmental property associated with a production of a product and being transferable to one or more downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product. The method may be implemented by the systems illustrated in FIG. 5.

[0135] The environmental property associated with the production of the production of the product may refer to any property or characteristic related to the environmental impact of such production. Such property may be a property or characteristic of input material(s), production process(es) used to produce the product and / or product(s). The environmental property may indicate an environmental performance of input material(s), production process(es) and / or product(s). The environmental property may be derived from properties of the input material(s), production process(es) and / or the product(s). The environmental property may include one or more characteristic(s) that are attributable to environmental or sustainability impact of the input material(s), production process(es) and / or product(s). The environmental property may include environmental, technical, recyclability or circularity characteristics(s) associated with the environmental impact of the input material(s), production process(es) and / or product(s).

[0136] Environmental characteristic(s) may specify or quantify ecological criteria associated with the environmental impact of the input material(s), production process(es) and / or the product(s). Environmental characteristic(s) may be or may be produced or derived from measurements taken during the lifecycle of input material(s) and / or product(s) and / or during production process(es). 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 input material and / or product like recycled content, biobased content, renewable content, vegan, halal, kosher, palm oil-free, natural, amount of green energy used, product carbon footprint data or the like. Amount of green energy used may refer to the amount of green energy (e.g. energy produced from natural resources such as sun, wind, water) used during production of the input material(s) and / or the product(s).

[0137] Technical characteristic(s) may specify or quantify input material or product performance at least indirectly associated with the environmental impact. Technical characteristic(s) may be or may be produced from measurements taken during the lifecycle of one or more input material(s) and / or product(s). Technical characteristics may be determined at any stage of the input material and / or product lifecycle and may characterize the input 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, specification data, component data, safety data, application property data, application instructions and / or quality data. Technical characteristic(s) may for example include physical, chemical or further properties of the input material or product.

[0138] Circularity characteristic(s) may specify or quantify the input material and / 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 input material(s) and / 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 input material and / 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 input material quality or the like. Further circularity material characteristics may be derived by combining circularity characteristic(s).

[0139] Recyclability characteristic(s) may specify and / or quantify the input material and / or product life cycle characteristics associated with recycling uses. Recyclability characteristic(s) may include the composition of the input material(s) and / or product(s) including specifically tailored constituents making the input material(s) and / or product(s) suitable for recycling. Recyclability characteristic(s) may be or may be produced from measurements taken during the lifecycle of one or more input material(s) and / 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 input material and / 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.

[0140] The environmental property / ies may digitally specify the environmental impact of the input material(s), the production process(es) and / or the product(s). The environmental property may include a qualitative data point relating to the type of impact e.g., in view of the input material(s), the production process(es) and / or the product. The qualitative data point may be converted to a quantitative measure such as balancing units. The environmental property may include a quantitative data point relating to the type of impact e.g., in view of the ecological criteria associated with the input material(s), the production process(es) and / or the product.

[0141] Environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) (also referred to as transferable or accessible environmental property / ies hereinafter) may include environmental property / ies which are attributable or allocable to the product via attribution rule(s) and which have not yet been transferred to downstream node(s) (e.g. which may be transferred or which can be transferred upon successful validation). Such transferable environmental property / ies may be determined via attribution rule(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 7 and FIG. 10.

[0142] Transferable environment property / ies may be derived from properties of the input material(s) used to produce the product or the production process(es) used to produce the product. Transferable environmental property / ies may be determined from environmental property / ies associated with the input material(s) and / or production process(es) used to produce the product via one or more attribution rule(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 22 and FIG. 24. The attribution rule(s) may define attribution scheme(s) for attributing environmental property / ies associated with the input material(s) and / or production process(es) used to produce the product to the product. Hence, transferable environmental property / ies may signify environmental attribute(s) theoretically available for attribution and / or allocation to the product. Transferable environmental attribute(s) may vary from transferred environmental attribute(s), for example if the environmental attribute(s) claimed by the product consumer are no longer available for attribution or allocation, resulting in the transfer of different environmental attribute(s) as originally claimed by the product consumer. Transferable environmental attribute(s) may be stored in virtual balancing account(s). Transferable environmental attribute(s) may be accumulated over multiple production stages associated with the production of the product. For instance, if the production of the product involves several production stages, environmental attribute(s) associated with input material(s) used within at least two of such production stages and / or environmental attribute(s) derived from the production performed within at least two of such production stages may be accumulated (e.g. added). Transferable environmental attribute(s) may be associated with the respective product (e.g. may not be accumulated).

[0143] The product may be produced from one or more input material(s) by a production operated by a product producer as described in the context of FIG. 5. The product may include any output product, such as chemical intermediate products, chemical products, components or parts, component-assemblies and end products. The product may be produced by one or more input material(s). The input material(s) may be delivered to the production of the product producer and the producer may use the received input material(s) to produce the product(s), for example as illustrated in FIG. 5. The product may be produced via chemical and / or physical processes. The product may be produced by assembly processes. The production may include one or more production plants performing different production steps. The product may be associated with at least one product identifier. The product identifier(s) may uniquely identify the product within the production. The product identifier may be a digital identifier. The digital identifier(s) may be associated with or linked to a physical identifier element physically attached to the produced product. The product may be provided to one or more product consumers (e.g. downstream participants of the product producer). The product consumer(s) may use the product to produce one or more further products. At least one authorization rule associated with the product identifier(s) may be generated. The at least one authorization rule may relate to one or more authorization rule(s). The authorization rule(s) may be generated per product. The authorization rule(s) may be generated per product class. The authorization rule(s) may be generated for at least two different product classes (e.g. the authorization rule(s) may be associated with or relate to at least two different product classes). The authorization rule(s) may be generated per entity operating a product production. This may allow to reduce the amount of rule(s) that need to be created and maintained, hence reducing complexity and providing reliable access to transferable environmental property / ies. Through the authorization rule(s) access and usage of transferable environmental property / ies can be controlled in a secure manner. In addition, the authorization rule(s) allow access and usage of transferable environmental property / ies from various different data sources in a controlled and secured manner.

[0144] The authorization rule(s) may include transferable environmental property / ies. The authorization rule(s) may relate to transferable environmental property / ies. The authorization rule(s) may be associated with or relate to a digital asset associated with the product and including environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) (see for example digital asset(s) illustrated in FIG. 13A and FIG. 13B).

[0145] With reference to FIG. 4A, the authorization rule may include rule identifier(s) 404 and one or more instruction(s) 408. The rule identifier may uniquely identify the rule associated with the entity producing products. The rule identifier may uniquely identify the rule associated with the entities of the product ecosystem. The rule identifier may be a decentral identifier used by the decentral network nodes. The rule identifier may, for example, be a UUID or DID or an address of the distributed ledger network storing the authorization rule(s). The instructions may be configured to trigger transfer of at least one environmental property associated with the production of the product and being transferable to the downstream node(s) from a producer node associated with the production to the downstream node(s). The instruction(s) may include one or more executable functions. The instruction(s) 408 may include functions that can be compiled into executable code that in turn may be executed by one or more computing node(s). The instruction(s) 408 may include unstructured data that can be transformed into instructions executable by one or more computing node(s). An authorization rule may include one or more instruction(s) 408. The authorization rule(s) may include data transaction instructions, data transaction protocols or executable instructions, such as data usage policies, applications, smart contracts or other data processing instructions associated with product producer network node(s) and / or downstream node(s). The at least one authorization rule may include instruction(s) which gather transferable environmental property / ies specified by the authorization rule and process the gathered environmental property / ies. The at least one authorization rule may relate to or include at least one event trigger related to the transfer of environmental property / ies to the downstream node(s). The event trigger specified by the authorization rule(s) may be the detection of a user interaction indicating the desire to transfer environmental property / ies selected from the transferable environmental property / ies. The event trigger specified by the authorization rule(s) may receipt of a request including selected environmental property / ies transferable according to at least one authorization rule associated with the product. The authorization rule may relate to or include instruction(s) based on the at least one event trigger. The event trigger may trigger or initialize instructions to transfer at least one environmental property selected or requested from environmental properties transferable to downstream node(s) according to the authorization rule associated with the product

[0146] The authorization rule may further include one or more product identifier(s) 406 associated with the produced product.

[0147] With reference to FIG. 4B, instruction(s) 408 may include instructions to authenticate a user, instructions to gather transferable environmental properties associated with the product, instructions to provide the gathered transferable environmental properties for selection and transfer and instructions to trigger transfer of environmental properties selected from gathered or processed environmental property / ies transferable according to the at least one authorization rule to downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) (e.g. product consumer(s)). The instructions may further include instruction(s) to transform gathered data. The instructions may further include verification of proof data included in the gathered data. The proof data, such as digital signature(s), may be associated with the product and / or the product producer. Verification of the proof data may allow to authenticate the product producer and / or the produced product. The instructions may further include instruction(s) to trigger a transfer of financial asset(s), such as a transfer of crypto currency assets, digital fiat currency assets, stable coin assets, or the like and / or instruction(s) to trigger transfer of validated environmental properties from an account or a digital storage structure controlled by the product producer to an account or digital storage structure controlled by the downstream participant. The financial asset transfer may be triggered based on the transfer of validated environmental properties from a participant node associated with the product producer to the downstream participant node requesting the transfer. The financial asset transfer may be triggered upon receiving an indication that validated environmental properties, for example in the form of a data set, have been transferred to the downstream participant node requesting the transfer.

[0148] Validated environmental property / ies may refer to environmental property / ies matching available environmental property / ies stored in the digital storage structure. Available environmental property / ies may be determined based on input material(s) entering the production and / or production process(es) performed within the production. Available environmental property / ies may be allocated or credited to virtual balancing accounts included in the digital storage structure. Allocation or crediting may be performed via one or more attribution rule(s) associated with the digital storage structure and / or virtual balancing account(s) included therein, for example as described in the context of FIG. 22 and FIG. 24. The validated environmental property / ies may be transferred to the downstream node(s) requesting transfer, for example via the generated data set. The validated environmental property / ies may be deducted or debited from the virtual balancing account(s) included in the storage structure upon allocation or attribution to the product and may be transferred to the downstream participant node(s), for example via a generated data set.

[0149] In contrast to the instruction(s) 408 illustrated in FIG. 4B, the instruction(s) 408 illustrated in the example of FIG. 4C do / does not include instructions to authenticate a user. Such authentication may be omitted, for example, if authentication is achieved prior to providing the authorization rule as illustrated in FIG. 14.

[0150] FIG. 4D illustrates an example of different instruction(s) 408, e.g. instruction set 1 410, instruction set 2 412 and instruction set 3 414. The instruction set 1 410 may include instructions to gather transferable environmental property / ies via executable code stored in a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network (e.g. an oracle) and to provide the gathered transferable environmental properties. Instruction set 2 412 may include instructions to authenticate user(s) and / or product(s), to trigger gathering of transferable environmental property / ies, to provide gathered transferable environmental property / ies for selection and transfer and to trigger transfer of selected environmental properties to the downstream participant node requesting the transfer. Instruction set 3 414 may include instructions to transfer validated environmental property / ies to the downstream participant node requesting the transfer. Separation of instruction(s) 408 into different set(s) allows to flexibly combine such instructions upon generation of the authorization rule(s). This allows to consider different architectures used for storage of transferable environmental property / ies, transfer of data set(s) associated with validated environmental property / ies and execution of the authorization rule(s). For example, decentral data storage and distributed ledger networks for the transfer of data set(s) in the form of tokens, such as fungible tokens and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), may be combined with a client-server architecture to execute the instruction(s) included in the authorization rule(s). This avoids having to share data required to interact with the executable code stored in the distributed ledger, such as the smart contract interface (e.g. ABI) with product consumers and increases security.

[0151] Generating the authorization rule(s) may include generating executable code. Generating authorization rule(s) may include generating code and compiling the generated code. The code may be executable within a client-server architecture. The code may be executed within a distributed ledger network, such as distributed ledger network 220 illustrated in FIG. 2. Hence, at least a part of the authorization rule(s) may be smart contracts deployed on a distributed ledger network. The instruction(s) may be present within on or more smart contracts deployed on the distributed ledger network.

[0152] Generating the authorization rule(s) may include determining the storage location storing the transferable environmental attribute(s). Generating the authorization rule(s) may include defining the system architecture the authorization rule(s) are to be implemented in, such as client-server architecture or distributed ledger network. Generating the authorization rule(s) may include determining transferable environmental property / ies associated with the production of the product. The transferable environmental property / ies may be determined, for example, as described in the context of FIG. 7 and FIG. 10.

[0153] A digital credential representing certification of at least partial compliance of the at least one authorization rule with predefined rule set(s) may be selected. Examples of such digital credentials 602, 604 are illustrated in FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B. The digital credentials may represent certification or other credentials issued by a regulator, government, industry consortium, standards setting organization (SSO), certification authority (such as ISCC, TUV, etc.) and the like. It is a secure and portable way to store and share information about an entity’s attributes. The entity may be the authorization rule(s). The entity may be the product producer producing the product the authorization rule(s) are associated with. The predefined rule set may refer to a set of guidelines, rules, or requirements that establish a common framework or a consistent way of doing things. It may be a formal document that provides specifications, procedures, or criteria for products, services, processes, or systems, with the aim of ensuring quality, safety, reliability, interoperability, or other desirable characteristics. The set of guidelines, rules or requirements may refer to, include or relate to allocation model(s) for allocating environmental property / ies associated with the production of a product to a product and / or for validating requested environmental property / ies. The set of guidelines, rules or requirements may include criteria for auditing executable code with respect to the entity providing the code and with respect to the functions performed by the code.

[0154] The digital credential(s) may correspond to verifiable credential(s). A verifiable credential may refer to a tamper-evident credential that has authorship that can be cryptographically verified. Verifiable credential(s) may be generated according to the Verifiable Credentials Data Model v2.0 of W3C (see https: / / www.w3.Org / TR / vc-data-model-2.0 / ).

[0155] The digital credentials may be selected based on the rule identifier(s) included in the generated authorization rule(s).

[0156] With reference to FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B, the digital credentials 602, 604 may include information such as an ID of the digital credential, an identifier associated with the issuer of the digital credential, the date of issuance, the date of expiration and the claims made about the credential subject. With reference to FIG. 6A, the credentialsubject property may signify the at least one authorization rule and the participant or source providing the at least one authorization rule. The credentialsubject property may include decentral participant identifier(s), such as a participant's DID and business partner number, of the entity providing the rule(s). The entity providing the rule(s) may correspond to the entity producing the product (e.g. the product producer). The credentialsubject property may further include a claim with respect to the allocation model used for determining the transferable environmental property / ies associated with or included in the at least one authorization rule (e.g. allocationType). The allocationType may correspond to mass balance or identity preservation or segregation or book and claim depending on the model used to allocate transferable environmental property / ies associated with such authorization rule(s). The credentialsubject property may further include the authorization rule identifier, the rule name and the version number. This may allow to determine whether the provided digital credential is associated with the at least one provided authorization rule. The digital credential 602 illustrated in FIG. 6A may allow the product producer to proof to a third party that a certified or audited allocation scheme is used for allocation of transferable environmental property / ies to products. This may allow to improve the trustworthiness with respect to determination of the transferable environmental property / ies and may render the allocation scheme used for such allocation transparent to product consumers.

[0157] With reference to FIG. 6B, the credentialsubject property may signify the at least one authorization rule via the rule identifier, rule name and rule version as described in the context of FIG. 6A. The credentialsubject may further signify whether the authorization rule has passed an audit. The audit may be performed according to rules or standards by a third party, such as an auditor. The audit may be performed to ensure that the instructions included in the authorization rule execute as required according to the standard and / or do not result in any damage or unwanted side effects on the systems executing such instructions. The audit may be performed to ensure that the provider of the authorization rule is considered to be trusted, for example is considered to be trusted within the product ecosystem illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. The credentialsubject may further define the auditor by its ID and name. In addition, the credentialsubject may include information on the provider of the authorization rule (e.g. source) being a trusted source, such as decentral participant identifier(s) associated with a participant of the decentral network. The participant may be the product producer producing the product the authorization rule is associated with.

[0158] The digital credential may further include digital proof. Digital proof may refer to a cryptographic mechanism that provides verifiable evidence of the authenticity of a digital credential without revealing the underlying data. Digital proofs may be generated by combining the digital credential with a cryptographic proof, such as a digital signature or a zero-knowledge proof, to create a tamper-evident, cryptographically secure record that can be shared with others. The digital proof may include the data contained in the digital credential, such as the issuer, the credential holder, the date of issuance, and other relevant information, as well as a cryptographic signature that verifies the integrity of the data. The cryptographic signature may be the signature of the issuer of the credential.

[0159] The use of digital credentials allows upstream participants to showcase or proof that the determination of transferable environmental property / ies associated with the authorization rule has been done in accordance with certified or audited allocation models, such as identity preservation models, segregated models, mass balance models, or book and claim models, and can help to create transparency and improve trust for downstream participants. In addition, the use of digital credentials allows downstream participants to determine whether the authorization rule(s) are from a trusted source and were audited according to a given standard prior to executing such authorization rule(s). This may help to improve the trust in the authorization rule(s) and ensures safe execution of instructions(s) included in the authorization rule(s) on computing systems of downstream participants.

[0160] A credential presentation may be generated from the selected digital credential(s). The credential presentation may include the selected digital credential(s). The presentation may be a verifiable presentation. A verifiable presentation may be a tamper-evident presentation encoded in such a way that authorship of the data can be trusted after a process of cryptographic verification. The verifiable credential presentation may be generated according to the Verifiable Credentials Data Model v2.0 of W3C (see https: / / www.w3.org / TR / vc-data-model-2.0Z). An example of such a presentation 606 is shown in FIG. 6C. The credential presentation 606 may include at least a part of the data included in the selected digital credential(s) 608, 610. The credential presentation 606 may further include proof data (not shown in FIG. 6C). The proof data may be associated with the holder of the digital credential(s). The proof data may be associated with the entity generating the verifiable presentation.

[0161] The generated authorization rule(s) may be provided for execution based on the product identifier. The generated authorization rule(s) may be provided in association with the generated credential presentation. The generated authorization rule(s) may be provided - optionally along with the credential presentation - to one or more downstream node(s) associated with downstream participants using or consuming the product. The generated authorization rule(s) may be provided - optionally along with the selected digital credential - may be provided via a decentral network, for example as illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. Providing the authorization rule(s) and optionally selected digital credential(s) may include generating a product passport associated with the product which includes the authorization rule(s) and optionally the selected digital credential(s) as described in FIG. 14 and providing the product passport for access via a decentral network (see FIG. 14). Providing the at least one authorization rule may include deploying the executable code representing the authorization rule(s) within a server-client architecture or a distributed ledger network.

[0162] By generating and providing at least one authorization rule relating to environmental properties associated with the production of the product and being transferable to downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product, such environmental properties can be made transparent to downstream participants, enabling such downstream participants to flexibly adapt the environmental impact of their products on an as-needed basis by triggering transfer of transferable environmental attribute(s) via the at least one authorization rule. The at least one authorization rule may be associated with environmental properties arising from one or more production steps required to produce the product, e.g. the at least one authorization rule may accumulate environmental properties resulting from multiple production steps performed to produce the product. This may allow downstream participants to gain transparency on the overall environmental properties which are transferable for a given product via the authorization rule(s) to adjust the environmental impact of product(s) produced by such downstream participants without being restricted to environmental property / ies associated with the product (e.g. having been transferred to or claimed by upstream participants involved int he production of the product). The at least one authorization rule may hence provide an option right to downstream participant(s) with respect to the claiming or transfer of environmental property / ies related to such authorization rule. The improved flexibility with respect to the transfer of environmental property / ies to downstream participants may allow to improve the environmental impact of the product ecosystem since downstream participants can request transfer of environmental property / ies on an as-needed basis. In addition, transparency on remaining transferable environmental properties may be used by auditors or governments to steer the product ecosystem to achieve a reduced overall environmental impact, for example by providing incentives to request transfer of remaining transferable environmental properties.

[0163] The at least one authorization rule may be associated with digital credential(s) certification of at least partial compliance of the at least one authorization rule with predefined rule set(s). The digital credential(s) may certify that the determination of transferable environmental property / ies associated with the authorization rule has been done in accordance with certified or audited allocation models, such as identity preservation models, segregated models, mass balance models, or book and claim models, and can help to create transparency and improve trust for downstream participants. The digital credential(s) may certify that the authorization rule(s) are from a trusted source and were audited according to a given standard. This may help to improve the trust in the authorization rule(s) and the transferable environmental property / ies associated with such rule(s) and ensures safe execution of instructions(s) included in the authorization rule(s) on computing systems of downstream participants.

[0164] FIG. 3B illustrates another example method for providing access to at least one environmental property associated with a production of a product and being transferable to one or more downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product. The method may be implemented by the systems illustrated in FIG. 5.

[0165] The product may be produced from one or more input material(s) by a production. The input material(s) may be delivered to the production of the product producer and the producer may use the received input material(s) to produce the product(s). The input material(s) may include raw materials, recycled materials, chemical intermediate products, chemical products or discrete products. The product may be a product as described in the context of FIG. 3A.

[0166] The production may be a chemical production. The production may include a chemical production network with interconnected production chains, such as a Verbund production.

[0167] The chemical production network may include multiple interlinked processing steps. The chemical production network may be an integrated chemical production network with connected or interconnected production chains. The chemical production network may include multiple different production chains that have at least one intermediate product in common. The chemical production network may include multiple stages of the chemical value chain. The chemical production network may include the producing, refining, processing and / or purification of chemical products. The chemical production network may include multiple production chains that produce from one or more input material(s) that enter the chemical production network multiple chemical products that exit the chemical production network. The chemical production network may include multiple tiers of a chemical value chain. The chemical production network may include physically connected or interconnected supply chains and / or production sites. The production sites may be at the same location or at distinct locations. In the latter case, the production sites may be connected or interconnected by means of dedicated transportation systems such as pipelines, supply chain vehicles, like trucks, ships or other cargo transportation means.

[0168] The chemical production network may chemically convert input materials via chemical intermediates to one or more chemical product(s) that exit the chemical production network. The chemical production network may convert input material(s) by way of chemical conversion to one or more chemical product(s). The input material(s) may be fed into the chemical production network at any entry point. The input material(s) may be fed into the chemical production network at the start of the chemical production network. Input materials may for example make up the feedstock of a steam cracker. The input material may include a bio-based, a recycled and / or a fossil input material for the manufacture of chemical intermediates and / or chemical products.

[0169] The chemical production network may include multiple production steps. The production steps included in the chemical network may be defined by the 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 site of the chemical production network. The system boundary may be defined by production processes controlled by one entity or multiple entities jointly. The system boundary may be defined by a value chain with staggered production processes to an end product, which may be controlled by multiple entities 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 separation step to separate outputs of one process step and further processing steps to convert such outputs to a chemical product leaving the system boundary of the chemical production network.

[0170] The product may be associated with a digital product identifier(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A. At least one of the digital product identifier(s) may be linked to at least one authorization rule including instructions for triggering transfer of at least one environmental property transferable to downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product from a producer node associated with the production to the downstream node(s). The transferable environmental property / ies may include the property / ies described in the context of FIG. 3A. The transferable environmental property / ies may be determined, for example, as described in the context of FIG. 7 and FIG. 10. The at least one authorization rule may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The at least one authorization rule may include authorization rule identifier(s) and instruction(s), as described int he context of FIG. 3A to FIG. 4D. The at least one authorization rule may further include at least one of the digital product identifiers.

[0171] A digital credential representing certification of at least a partial compliance of the at least one authorization rule with predefined rule set(s) may be selected, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A. An example digital credential is illustrated in FIG. 6A.

[0172] The at least one authorization rule linked to the product may be provided to one or more downstream participant node(s) for execution based on the digital product identifier(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The selected digital credential(s) may in addition be provided to such node(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A.

[0173] By linking a produced product with at least one authorization rule relating to environmental properties associated with the production of the product and being transferable to downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product, such environmental properties can be made transparent to downstream participants, enabling such downstream participants to flexibly adapt the environmental impact of their products on an as-needed basis by triggering transfer of transferable environmental attribute(s) via the at least one authorization rule. The at least one authorization rule may be associated with environmental properties arising from one or more production steps required to produce the product, e.g. the at least one authorization rule may accumulate environmental properties resulting from multiple production steps performed to produce the product. This may allow downstream participants to gain transparency on the overall environmental properties which are transferable for a given product via the authorization rule(s) to adjust the environmental impact of product(s) produced by such downstream participants without being restricted to environmental property / ies associated with the product (e.g. having been transferred to or claimed by upstream participants involved int he production of the product). The at least one authorization rule may hence provide an option right to downstream participant(s) with respect to the claiming or transfer of environmental property / ies related to such authorization rule. The improved flexibility with respect to the transfer of environmental property / ies to downstream participants may allow to improve the environmental impact of the product ecosystem since downstream participants can request transfer of environmental property / ies on an as-needed basis. In addition, transparency on remaining transferable environmental properties may be used by auditors or governments to steer the product ecosystem to achieve a reduced overall environmental impact, for example by providing incentives to request transfer of remaining transferable environmental properties.

[0174] FIG. 5 illustrates an example apparatus for providing access to at least one environmental property associated with a production of a product and being transferable to one or more downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product. The apparatus illustrated in FIG. 5 may be used to implement the method(s) shown in FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B.

[0175] In the example illustrated in FIG. 5, the chemical product producer 102 is shown as one possible participant of the product ecosystem. Any other participant may be equally suitable, and the example should not be considered limiting. For example, products may include any output products, such as chemical intermediate products, chemical products, components or parts, component-assemblies and end products. The product(s) may be produced by one or more input material(s) input material 502. The input material(s) may be delivered to the production 504 of the product producer and the producer may use the received input material(s) to produce the product(s) 506. The product(s) may be produced via chemical and / or physical processes. The product(s) may be produced by assembly processes. The production may include one or more production plants performing different production steps.

[0176] As illustrated in FIG. 5, the production may include a chemical production 504. The production may include a chemical production network with interconnected production chains, such as a Verbund production, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The chemical production 504 may produce one or more products, such as chemical products, 506 from one or more input material(s) 502 delivered to the chemical production 504.

[0177] The input material(s) may be fed into the chemical production 504 at any entry point. The input material(s) may be fed into the chemical production 504 at the start of the production 504. The production steps included in the chemical production may be defined by the system boundary 508 of the chemical production 504. Input materials may for example make up the feedstock of a steam cracker, a pyrolysis plant or a separation plant. The input material(s) 502 may include raw materials or recycled materials. The input material(s) 502 may include chemical materials, such as chemical intermediate product(s) and / or chemical raw material(s). The input material may include input material(s) associated with environmental properties and input material(s) not being associated with environmental properties. Environmental properties may include environmental properties described in the context of FIG. 3A. Input materials being associated with environmental properties may include bio-based input materials, recycled input materials, renewable input materials, input materials having a sustainable origin and / or input materials being produced using green energy. The input materials not being associated with environmental properties may include fossil input materials, such as natural gas and naphtha. The chemical production 504 may chemically convert the input materials 502 via chemical intermediates to one or more chemical product(s) 506 that exit the production 504.

[0178] The operating system 510 of the chemical production 504 may monitor and / or control the chemical production 504 based on operating parameters of the different processes. One process step monitored and / or controlled may be the feed of input materials 502 or the discharge of chemical products 506. Another process step monitored and / or controlled may be the generation of authorization rule(s) triggering transfer of environmental property / ies associated with the production of the product and transferable to the downstream node(s). Yet another process step monitored and / or controlled may be the linking of the authorization rule(s) to produced chemical product(s). Yet another process step monitored and / or controlled may be the generation of digital assets including transferable environmental properties associated with the product and the linking of such digital asset(s) to authorization rule(s). Yet another process step monitored and / or controlled may be the validation of requested environmental property / ies, the transfer of such validated environmental property / ies to downstream node(s) requesting such environmental property / ies and the updating of transferable environmental property / ies based on the validated environmental property / ies.

[0179] The produced products 506 may be associated with a digital product identifier, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The product identifier may be associated with or related to a physical identifier element physically attached to the product, such as a bar code, a QR code, a batch number and / or a LOT number. The product identifier(s), such as the digital product identifier(s), associated with product(s) may be provided. The digital product identifier may be provided from a database associated with the operating system 510. The digital product identifier(s) may be generated prior to, upon or after production of the product. The digital product identifiers may be used to collect product data associated with the product, for example from different data sources.

[0180] The produced products 506 may be associated with product data. The product data may be collected prior to, upon or after production of the respective product. Different parts of the product data may be associated with a common output product identifier to allow gathering of output product data based on a single output product identifier. The product data may include output product identifier, property data associated with the output product, output product name data, output product producer data, output product declaration data, output product safety data, environmental property 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.

[0181] Environmental property data may include transferable environmental properties, 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, fossil resource consumption, recycled content, biobased content, renewable content, biodegradability and / or green energy usage.

[0182] 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. The data may be collected before, during and / or after production of the output product. The collected data may be used to determine at least one physical and / or chemical property of the output product. 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 output product 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 output product. 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 output product that is measurable. Hence, the value of a physical property describes a state of the output product. 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.

[0183] 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.

[0184] The operating system 510 may be configured to gather or trigger gathering of input material data associated with the input material(s) based on the product identifier(s). Input material data may be gathered, for example via a decentral network as described in the context of FIG. 1 , for example by input material data collector 514. The input material data may include digital asset(s) containing transferable and optionally transferred (e.g. environmental property / ies already having been transferred to upstream participants) environmental properties associated with the input material. The digital asset may be part of an input material passport gathered via the decentral network. The digital asset associated with the input material may be stored in a distributed ledger of distributed ledger network 220 and may be transferred to an address associated with the chemical product producer 102 upon or after providing of the input material to the production 504, for example as described in the context of FIG. 30. The input material data may be gathered based on input material identifier(s) associated with the input material(s). The input material identifier(s) may be determined by gathering data associated with the production of the product and / or intermediate product, such as a production recipe and / or a BOM (bill of materials) and parsing the gathered production data to determine the intermediate product identifier(s) or input material identifier(s) included in such production data. Data associated with the production of the product may be gathered based on the provided digital product identifier(s).

[0185] Environmental properties associated with the production of the product and being transferable to downstream node(s) associated with product consumer(s) may be determined based on the gathered input material data, for example by EV property determinator 518. The transferable environmental property / ies may be determined via attribution rule(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 7 and FIG. 10.

[0186] At least one authorization rule may be generated by authorization rule generator 520. The authorization rule(s) may include instruction(s) to trigger transfer of at least one environmental property transferable to downstream node(s) associated with product consumer(s) from a producer node associated with the production to the downstream node(s). The authorization rule(s) may be linked by authorization rule generator 520 to the product, for example via the digital product identifier(s). Authorization rule generator 520 may link the generated authorization rule(s) to determined transferable environmental property / ies. For example, authorization rule generator 520 may link the generated authorization rule(s) to a digital asset associated with the product and including transferable environmental property / ies. The authorization rule may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 3A. Examples of authorization rule(s) and instructions are illustrated in FIG. 4A to FIG. 4D.

[0187] The generated authorization rule(s) may be provided to a data storage, such database 522. The stored authorization rule(s) may be gathered from database 522 based on the digital product identifier(s) associated with the product, for example as illustrated in FIG. 14.

[0188] FIG. 7 illustrates an example method for producing a product associated with a digital asset including at least one environmental property transferable to downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product. The method may be implemented by the system illustrated in FIG. 11. The environmental property / ies associated with the production of the product and being transferable to the downstream node(s) may correspond to the transferable environmental property / ies described in the context of FIG. 3A. The product may be produced from one or more input material(s) as described in the context of FIG. 3A and FIG. 5. The product may be produced by a production, such as a chemical production network (see for example FIG. 3A). The input material(s) may include raw materials, recycled materials, chemical intermediate products, chemical products or discrete products. The product may be a product as described in the context of FIG. 3A and FIG. 5.

[0189] A producer identifier associated with the product producer may be provided, this block being generally optional. The producer identifier may include a unique identifier uniquely identifying the product producer within the product ecosystem. This may allow to link the generated digital asset to a product producer. The unique identifier may include a private-public key pair. The unique identifier may include a decentral participant identifier. Block 704 may also be performed after block 706.

[0190] Based on the production of the product, at least one environmental property associated with such production and being transferable to one or more downstream node(s) associated with one or more downstream participant(s) using the product may be determined. The at least one transferable environmental property may be determined based on environmental property / ies associated with the input material(s) used to produce the product and / or the production process(es) used to produce the product. The environmental property / ies associated with the input material(s) may be determined from input material data associated with the input material(s). The environmental property / ies associated with the input materials may be determined using a virtual production process, for example as described in the context of FIG. 22 and FIG. 23.

[0191] Input material data associated with the input material(s) may be gathered based on the product identifier(s), for example via a decentral network illustrated in FIG. 1. The input material data may be gathered as described in the context of FIG. 5 The input material identifier(s) may be determined by gathering data associated with the production of the product, such as a production recipe and / or a BOM (bill of materials), and parsing the gathered production data to determine the input material identifier(s) included in such production data. The input material data may include data set(s) containing transferable and optionally transferred (e.g. environmental property / ies already having been requested and transferred in response to the request(s) to upstream participants of the product producer) environmental property / ies associated with the respective input material. The data set(s) may be part of an input material passport gathered via the decentral network. The data set(s) associated with the input material may be stored in a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network, such as distributed ledger network 220 illustrated in FIG. 2., and may be transferred to an account controlled by the product producer prior to, upon or after purchase of the respective input material, for example as described in the context of FIG. 30.

[0192] To illustrate this concept and with reference to FIG. 12, various chemical products, such as polyamide and polystyrene, may be produced via intermediate chemical product(s), such as ethylene, propylene, benzene, cyclohexanone, and caprolactam or ethylene and benzene and ethylbenzene, from the following input material(s):

[0193] • 3 kg recycled input material such as pyrolysis oil produced from mixed plastics waste,

[0194] • 5 kg bio-based input material such as bio-naphtha produced from vegetable oil that is kosher and vegan,

[0195] • 92 kg of fossil naphtha.

[0196] A steam cracker may produce cracker products from these illustrative input materials. The cracker products, such as ethylene, propylene and benzene, may be further processed and chemically converted. In the illustrative example of FIG. 12, 20 kg ethylene as cracker product as well as 30 kg polyamide and 50 kg polystyrene as chemical products may be provided to the exit point of the chemical production.

[0197] Based on the product identifier associated with the produced chemical products, such as polyamide and polystyrene, intermediate product identifier(s) associated with intermediate product(s) used to produce the chemical products may be determined. The intermediate product identifier(s) may be used to determine the input material identifier(s), such as input material identifier(s) associated with the pyrolysis oil, bio-naphtha and fossil naphtha used to produce the chemical products.

[0198] Referring back to FIG. 7, determining the transferable environmental property / ies based on the environmental property / ies associated with the input material(s) may include determining environmental property / ies associated with the determined input material(s), determining balancing unit(s) associated with such determined property / ies and allocating the balancing unit(s) as transferable environmental property / ies to the product(s) via one or more allocation rule(s). The environmental property / ies associated with the determined input materials may be determined via a virtual production process, for example as described in the context of FIG. 22 and FIG. 23. The environmental property / ies associated with the determined input material(s) may be determined from input material data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 22. Determining the transferable environmental property / ies based on the production process may include determining environmental property / ies associated with the production process and allocating the determined environmental property / ies as transferable environmental property / ies to the product(s) via one or more allocation rule(s). If the input material data contains data set(s) including transferable environmental property / ies, such transferable environmental property / ies may be used directly to determine the transferable environmental property / ies associated with the production of the product.

[0199] Balancing unit(s) may serve as a quantitative measure or value to quantify amounts of environmental property / ies associated with the input material(s) and / or the production process(es) used to produce the product (e.g. the chemical product(s)). The balancing units may be viewed as a credit that may be deposited in an account (e.g., a digital storage structure) or deducted from an account upon allocation to validated requested environmental property / ies, for example as described in the context of FIG. 24 to FIG. 30. The balancing unit(s) may be determined from the input material data via a virtual production process, for example as described in the context FIG. 22 and FIG. 24. The balancing unit(s) may be determined based on the amount of input material provided to the chemical production and the environmental property / ies associated with such amount of provided input material. Then determined balancing unit(s) may be allocated to a digital storage structure, for example as described in the context of FIG. 24 to FIG. 30.

[0200] With reference to the illustrative example of FIG. 12, the environmental property associated with the use of 3 kg of pyrolysis oil from recycled mixed plastics waste as input material 1 may correspond to 3 balancing units and the environmental property associated with the use of 5 kg bio-naphtha from biobased food waste as input material 2 may correspond to 5 balancing units. The use of fossil input materials, such as the fossil naphtha, may not correspond to any balancing units since such fossil input materials are not associated with environmental property / ies. In this example a simplified weight-based approach to determine the balancing units is used for illustrative purposes only. Other approaches may be based on energy, atom counting such as carbon atoms, molecule counting such as methane, or include losses that occur during the production process(es).

[0201] In more elaborate embodiments the balancing units may be determined based on a more complex conversion factor considering chemical and / or physical differences between input materials and their associated yield. The conversion factor may quantify the differences in chemical and / or physical properties of replacing fossil input material(s) by non-fossil input material(s). The conversion factor may relate the use of conventional input material(s) to the use of input material(s) associated with one or more environmental property / ies. The conversion factor may depend on carbon atoms, methane molecules, energy properties, process properties or any other suitable factors for quantifying the environmental impact of the environmental property / ies. For instance, the lower or higher heating value (LHV, HHV) of the fossil and the non-fossil input material may be considered. Further for instance, material losses that occur in the processing of the fossil or the non-fossil input material may be considered. Further for instance, exempted steam cracker products, intermediates or production chains may be considered. Further for instance, only pre-selected production chains may be considered. This way the environmental impact of the non-fossil input materials may be quantified with reference to fossil input materials.

[0202] Referring back to FIG. 7 and with continued reference to FIG. 12, the balancing unit(s) may be allocated as transferable environmental property / ies to at least a part of the produced product(s) based on the respective amount of produced product via one or more attribution rule(s). Attribution rule(s) may be associated with one or more allocation methods or schemes usable to allocate balancing unit(s) as transferable environmental properties to produced products. Allocation or accounting methods or principles for allocating recycled or renewable content are for example defined in ISO 22095. Four different chain of custody models may be used: Identity preservation models, segregated models, mass balance models, or book and claim models. Examples of such allocation methods or schemes are illustrated in FIG. 8A to FIG. 8C. Turning to FIG. 8A, an example of a dedicated or segregated production network where identity preserving models may be used for allocation is illustrated. The production network may comprise a first production chain for producing the chemical product(s) from fossil material(s) materials and a second production chain for producing the chemical product from input material(s) associated with environmental property / ies, such as bio-based input material(s), recycled input material(s), renewable input material(s) and / or input material(s) associated with a sustainable origin. The first and the second production chain are not interconnected. The first and the second production chains produce fossil-based chemical products and chemical products including a bio-based, renewable and / or recycled content or being produced from input materials associated with a sustainable origin, respectively. The renewable content may be based on the use of input material from renewable sources. The renewable content may comprise bio-based input materials produced from living organisms such as different types of crops, wood, or algae. The recycled content may be based on the use of any recycled input material. This may include any recycled input materials produced from chemical and / or mechanical recycling. The sustainable origin content may be based on the use of input material from sustainable origin. The sustainable origin may be certified by certification data included in the gathered input material data. The green energy usage may be based on the amount of green energy used during the production processes of the product. Examples for such dedicated production environments include fermentation or chemical transformation, such as polyethylene production from sugar cane, bio-poly lactic acid (PLA) production from corn, bio- succinic acid, or bio-butanediol (BDO).

[0203] With reference to FIG. 8B and with continued reference to FIG. 7 and FIG. 12, a complex production network where mass balancing models may be used for allocation is shown. In contrast to the production network of FIG. 8A, the fossil-based input material(s) are co-fed and mixed with input materials associated with environmental property / ies. The production network may produce via one or more chemical process chain(s) via chemical intermediates one or more chemical products. For the sake of simplicity FIG. 8B illustrates the mass balancing approach for one chemical process chain producing one chemical product. In the mass balancing model, the physical mixing or co-feeding input material associated with environmental property / ies with conventional fossil input materials is accounted for. Here the feed into the production network and the release of chemical products form a system boundary. The mass balance of input materials and chemical products connects the used input material(s) associated with environmental property / ies to the chemical products produced using said input material(s). Mass balance allows to keep track of the total amount of input material associated with environmental property / ies (e. g. recycled or bio-based or renewable input materials or input materials having a sustainable origin) throughout the production network and allows for allocation of such environmental property / ies to chemical products. Materials with different sets of specified characteristics may be mixed. E. g. recycled or bio-based or renewable feedstock may replace an equivalent amount of fossil feedstock at the beginning of the value chain (input material) and may be allocated to a produced product (chemical product) in such a manner that the input and output match. For this model, the proportion of the input with specified characteristics might only match the initial proportions on average and will typically vary across different outputs. This means that the chemical or technical proportions (e.g. the actual recycled content, renewable content, bio-based content or sustainable origin content) present within each chemical product produced from input material(s) associated with environmental property / ies are not tracked. Mass balance may include conversion factors to ensure the amount of input material is correlated with the amount of produced chemical product. The calculation may be made over a pre-defined or specified time period. Mass balance may be based on a balancing unit such as mass, energy, or carbon.

[0204] With reference to FIG. 8C and with continued reference to FIG. 7 and FIG. 12, a complex production network associated with a book and claim scheme is shown in FIG. 8C. In a book and claim scheme, the input material associated with the environmental property / ies is not linked to the actual material flows. Book & Claim allows to decouple a specific environmental property, such as renewable, from the physical input material and to transfer the environmental property separately via a dedicated registry in the form of a data set. This approach may be used for renewable energy. Book and claim may be based on a book and claim accounting unit such as kilowatt hours for electricity. In identity preservation models or segregated approaches as illustrated in FIG. 8A renewable, recycled, bio-based and / or sustainable origin input materials may not be mixed with fossil input material. In mass balance or book and claim approaches as illustrated in FIG. 8B and FIG. 8C input materials associated with environmental property / ies may be mixed with fossil input material.

[0205] One or more of such allocation methods illustrated in FIG. 8A to FIG. 8C may be used within a production network, such as a chemical production network. Turning for example to FIG. 9 and with continued reference to FIG. 7 and FIG. 12, different allocation methods may be used for different production chains performed within the production network. The production chains may be defined by the chemical product(s) produced via such production chains. The production chain logic may be based on process data associated with process steps from input material(s) to chemical product(s). For each production chain an allocation scheme may be applicable (and the application allocation scheme may be assigned to the production chain).

[0206] Examples of attribution rule(s) which may be used to allocate balancing unit(s) as transferable environmental property / ies to products are illustrated in FIG. 10. With reference to FIG. 10 and with continued reference to FIG. 7 and FIG. 12, the at least one attribution rule may depend on the environmental property type such as recycled input material. The at least one attribution rule may depend on the environmental property type such as recycled input material and the input material type such as recycled input material and pyrolysis oil based on plastics waste. The at least one attribution rule may depend on the environmental property type such as recycled input material and production chain such as the ethanol production chain. The at least one attribution rule may depend on the environmental property type such as recycled input material and the attribution scheme such as mass balance with and without free attribution. The at least one attribution rule may depend on the environmental property type such as recycled input material and the chemical product type such as polyurethane. Via the at least one attribution rule determined balancing units which can be allocated to the produced product may be determined.

[0207] For example and with reference to the illustrative example of FIG. 12, balancing units may be allocated as transferable environmental property / ies for a part of the produced chemical products, e.g. polyamide and polyethylene, while no allocation may be performed for a further produced chemical product ethylene. The allocation may include determining balancing unit(s) available for the product (e.g. which can be allocated to the product) via the at least one allocation rule and converting the balancing unit into transferable environmental property / ies as previously described. The allocation of transferable environmental property / ies may be performed irrespective of the amounts of other product(s) produced from input material(s) associated with environmental property / ies and / or produced by production process(es) associated with environmental property / ies. This may allow to determine the maximum amount or number of environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) for such produced product. For example, the maximum amount or number of transferable environmental property / ies that may be allocated to a given produced product may correspond to the maximum amount of recycled content, biobased content, renewable content or biodegradable content represented by the determined balancing units that can be allocated to the product based on the amount of product and the attribution rule(s). In the illustrative example shown in FIG. 12, transferable environmental property / ies that can be allocated to the produced chemical product polyamide may correspond to 10 % recycled content (e.g. 3 BUs associated with environmental property “recycled” divided by 30 kg of produced polyamide) and 17 % biobased content (e.g. 5 BUs associated with environmental property “biobased” divided by 30 kg of produced polyamide). Similarly, transferable environmental property / ies that can be allocated to the produced chemical product polystyrene may correspond to 6 % recycled content (e.g. 3 BUs associated with environmental property “recycled” divided by 50 kg produced polystyrene) and 10% biobased content (e.g. 5 BUs associated with environmental property “biobased” divided by 50 kg produced polystyrene).

[0208] Referring back to FIG. 7 digital asset(s) associated with the product(s) may be generated. The digital asset(s) may be generated on, during and / or after production of the product. Generating the digital asset may include generating a data set including at least one of the product identifier(s) associated with the product and the determined environmental property / ies transferable to the one or more downstream node(s). An exemplary digital asset for the illustrative example shown in FIG. 12 is illustrated in FIG. 13A. Generating the digital asset may include generating transaction data, signing the generated transaction data and providing said transaction data to the distributed ledger network, for example as described in the context of FIG. 30.

[0209] In one example and with further reference to FIG. 13A, the digital asset associated with the produced polyamide may include the transferable environmental property / ies as previously determined. The transferable environmental property / ies may be designated by a classifier 1304, 1310 discriminating between different transferable environmental properties, such as recycled, biobased, renewable, sustainable origin, green energy usage and biodegradable. The respective transferable environmental property may further be associated with an amount (e.g. 1308, 1312). In addition, the transferable environmental properties may be associated with a binary classifier discriminating between transferable and transferred. The classifier may be updated, for example as described in the context of FIG. 31 to FIG. 33B upon transfer of requested and validated environmental property / ies to downstream node(s). This may avoid that transferable environmental property / ies may be transferred multiple to different downstream nodes, hence ensuring reliable and trustworthy transfer of validated environmental property / ies to the downstream node(s). The digital asset may further include transferable or transferred environmental property / ies associated with the input materials used to produce the product 1316. The digital asset 1302 may hence be considered as a backpack that accumulates transferable and transferred environmental properties along the production chain. The digital asset (e.g. backpack) may be hence document environmental property / ies transferred along the production chain as well as transferable environmental property / ies which can still be requested along the production chain. Hence, the digital asset associated with a given product may reflect the transferable environmental property / ies associated with the production of the product as well as environmental property / ies which already have been transferred to upstream participants of the product producer. The digital asset may include further product data 1318, such as outlined in FIG. 14. Such product data may be gathered, for example based on the product identifier, prior to generating the digital asset. The digital asset may include the provided product identifier 1322. The digital asset may further include the producer identifier 1320. The digital asset may further include signature or proof data. The signature data may be generated by signing the digital asset with the private key controlled by the product producer. The signature or proof data may allow third parties to verify the authenticity of the product producer and the data integrity of the digital asset.

[0210] Turning to FIG. 13B and with continued reference to FIG. 7 and FIG. 13A, the digital asset may correspond to a JSON file. The JSON file may include various properties, such as a description, a productld, a productName and environmentalProperties. The environmentalProperties property may include one or more environmental property / ies associated with the production of the product. Each included property 1328, 1330, 1332 may be defined by a type, a value indicating the amount of transferable or transferred property, a binary classifier discriminating between transferable and transferred and a value indicating the amount of transferred property. The binary classifier as well as the value indicating the amount of transferred property may be updated if validated environmental property / ies are transferred to downstream node(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 31 to FIG. 33B.

[0211] In another example and with further reference to FIG. 30, the digital asset 1302 may be a non-fungible token (e.g. a data set assigned to a given owner and being stored in a distributed ledger of a distributed ledger network which can only be assigned to a further owner as a whole, e.g. cannot be divided). The non-fungible token may include the data illustrated in FIG. 13A. The non-fungible token may serve as an access element as illustrated in FIG. 13C and Fig. 13D including locator(s) or pointer(s) pointing to the storage location(s) storing digital asset(s) associated with the product and optionally input material(s) used to produce the product.

[0212] Referring back to FIG. 7, the generated digital asset(s) may be linked to at least one authorization rule associated with the product. The at least one authorization rule may include instructions for triggering transfer of at least one environmental property transferable to downstream node(s) and being included in the generated digital asset(s). The at least one authorization rule may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The generated digital asset may be linked to the at least one authorization rule via the authorization rule identifier(s). For example, linking may include storing the authorization rule identifier(s) associated with the authorization rule(s) within the respective digital asset(s). Linking the generated digital asset(s) to the at least one authorization rule may include generating an access element including the digital product identifier(s) and data related to the digital asset(s). Data related to the digital asset(s) may include pointer(s) or locator(s) to the storage location(s) storing the digital asset(s). The pointer(s) or locator(s) pointing to the storage location(s) may include a URI(s) or URL(s) pointing to the storage location(s) storing the respective digital asset(s). The access element may be associated with or linked to the authorization rule(s), for example via the product identifier(s). The access element may be included in the authorization rule(s). Use of such access elements may avoid generation of new digital asset(s) upon updating the environmental property / ies transferable to the downstream node(s) and included in existing digital asset(s), for example if at least a part of the transferable environmental properties is transferred to a downstream participant node upon request of such node to transfer such transferable environmental properties.

[0213] Turning to FIG. 13C and with continued reference to FIG. 7, the access element 1340 may include the digital product identifier(s) 1322 and data related to the digital asset(s) associated with the product 1324. The data related to the digital asset 1324 may include a URI pointing to storage 1326 storing digital asset(s) associated with the product. In this example, the storage 1326 may be controlled by or associated with the producer of the product, e.g. the chemical product producer 102. The storage may store the digital asset(s), such as JSON file(s) illustrated in FIG. 13B. The dedicated storage 1326 may be associated with the data owner of the digital asset(s) associated with the produced product. Access to the dedicated storage 1326 may be controlled by the producer of the product or the data owner of the digital asset, for example via the at least one authorization rule linked to the digital asset(s).

[0214] In another example and with further reference to FIG. 13D, the digital asset 1302 may include the digital product identifier(s) 1322, data related to digital asset(s) associated with the product 1324 and data related to digital asset(s) associated with input material(s) used to produce the product 1334. The data related to the digital asset associated with the product 1324 may include a URI pointing to storage 1326 storing digital asset(s) associated with the product as described in the context of FIG. 13C. The data related to the digital asset associated with input material(s) used to produce the product 1334 may include a URI pointing to storage 1336 storing digital asset(s) associated with the input materials(s). The dedicated storage 1336 may be associated with the data owner of the digital asset(s) associated with the input material(s). Access to the dedicated storage 1336 may be controlled by the producer of the input material(s) or the data owner of the digital assets associated with the input materials, for example via the at least one authorization rule. While the example of FIG. 13D shows only 2 pointers or locators to dedicated storages storing digital asset(s), the access element 1340 may include more pointers, depending on the number of input material(s) used to produce the product.

[0215] Returning to FIG. 7 and with continued reference to FIG. 13C and FIG. 13D, the digital asset may be provided to a storage location for storage for access to the transferable environmental property / ies included within such digital assets via the linked authorization rule(s). The storage may be a dedicated storage associated with the data owner of the digital assets, such as the product producer. Access to the dedicated storage may be controlled by the data owner of the digital asset, for example via a data providing node as illustrated in FIG. 14. The storage may be a distributed ledger. The distributed ledger may be part of a distributed ledger network, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2. The distributed ledger may be a distributed file storage, such as IPFS (interplanetary file system) or storj (see for example also FIG. 16B). The storage system such as IPFS may return an identifier associated with the stored data. Such identifier, for example a CID (content identifier), may allow to locate the digital asset stored in the distributed storage system. The distributed ledger may be a blockchain storing digital asset(s) as entries within blocks of the blockchain. For instance, the digital asset(s) may correspond to non-fungible token(s) as described in the context of FIG. 30. The distributed ledger may be a blockchain storing digital asset(s) within the memory associated with executable code running on the distributed ledger network, for example as described in the context of FIG. 16A. Block 712 may also be performed prior to block 710. For example, block 712 may be performed prior to block 710 if linking may include generating an access element including pointer(s) to storage location(s) storing the respective digital asset(s).

[0216] By generating a digital asset associated with the product and by linking the generated digital asset to the at least one authorization rule, environmental properties associated with the production of the product, e.g. environmental property / ies attributable or allocable to the product based on environmental property / ies of input material(s) used to produce the product and / or environmental property / ies of production processes used to produce the product, may be rendered transferable to downstream node(s) via the at least one authorization rule. The digital asset may hence provide environmental properties that can be attributed or allocated to the product based on the production of the product and one or more attribution rule(s) and which can hence be requested by downstream participants, e.g. which are transferable to the downstream node(s) via the at least one authorization rule. The allocable or attributable environmental property / ies may be determined using attribution rule(s) associated with input material(s) and / or production processes allowing to adjust the attribution mechanism in line with the physical setup of the product production. The digital asset may allow to store the attributable / allocable environmental property / ies and to provide access to such attributable / allocable environmental property / ies as transferable environmental property / ies via the at least one authorization rule.

[0217] FIG. 11 illustrates an example system for producing a product associated with a digital asset including at least one environmental property transferable to downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product. The system may be configured to perform the method described in the context of FIG. 7. The environmental property / ies associated with the production of the product and being transferable to the downstream node(s) may correspond to the transferable environmental property / ies described in the context of FIG. 3A. In the example illustrated in FIG. 11 , the chemical product producer 102 is shown as one possible participant of the product ecosystem. Any other participant may be equally suitable, and the example should not be considered limiting.

[0218] The system may include a production configured to produce product(s) 506 from one or more input material(s) 502 entering the production 504, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A and FIG. 5. The production may be a chemical production 504 as described in the context of FIG. 3A and FIG. 7. The chemical production may be a chemical production network as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The product may be a product as described in the context of FIG. 3A.

[0219] The input material(s) may be fed into the chemical production 504 at any entry point. The input material(s) may be fed into the chemical production 504 at the start of the production 504. The production steps included in the chemical production may be defined by the system boundary 508 of the chemical production 504. Input materials may for example make up the feedstock of a steam cracker, a pyrolysis plant or a separation plant. The input material(s) 502 may include raw materials or recycled materials. The input material(s) 502 may include chemical materials, such as chemical intermediate product(s) and / or chemical raw material(s). The input material may include input material(s) associated with environmental properties and input material(s) not being associated with environmental properties. Environmental properties may include environmental properties described in the context of FIG. 3A. Input materials being associated with environmental properties may include bio-based input materials, recycled input materials, renewable input materials, input materials having a sustainable origin and / or input materials being produced using green energy. The input materials not being associated with environmental properties may include fossil input materials, such as natural gas and naphtha. The chemical production 504 may chemically convert the input materials 502 via chemical intermediates to one or more chemical product(s) 506 that exit the production 504.

[0220] The operating system 510 of the chemical production 504 may monitor and / or control the chemical production 504 based on operating parameters of the different processes. One process step monitored and / or controlled may be the feed of input materials 502 or the discharge of chemical products 506. Another process step monitored and / or controlled may be the generation of authorization rule(s) triggering transfer of environmental property / ies associated with the production of the product and transferable to the downstream node(s). Yet another process step monitored and / or controlled may be the linking of the authorization rule(s) to produced chemical product(s). Yet another process step monitored and / or controlled may be the generation of digital assets including transferable environmental properties associated with the product and the linking of such digital asset(s) to authorization rule(s). Yet another process step monitored and / or controlled may be the validation of requested environmental property / ies, the transfer of such validated environmental property / ies to downstream node(s) requesting such environmental property / ies and the updating of transferable environmental property / ies based on the validated environmental property / ies.

[0221] The produced products 506 may be associated with a digital product identifier, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The product identifier may be associated with or related to a physical identifier element physically attached to the product, such as a bar code, a QR code, a batch number and / or a LOT number. The product identifier(s), such as the digital product identifier(s), associated with product(s) may be provided. The digital product identifier may be provided from a database associated with the operating system 510. The digital product identifier(s) may be generated prior to, upon or after production of the product. The digital product identifiers may be used to collect product data associated with the product, for example from different data sources.

[0222] The produced products 506 may be associated with product data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5.

[0223] The operating system 510 may be configured to gather or trigger gathering of input material data associated with the input material(s) based on the product identifier(s) as described in the context of FIG. 5. The input material data may be gathered based on input material identifier(s) associated with the input material(s). The input material identifier(s) may be determined by gathering data associated with the production of the product and / or intermediate product, such as a production recipe and / or a BOM (bill of materials) and parsing the gathered production data to determine the intermediate product identifier(s) or input material identifier(s) included in such production data (see also FIG. 7). Data associated with the production of the product may be gathered based on the provided digital product identifier(s).

[0224] Environmental properties associated with the production of the product and being transferable to downstream node(s) associated with product consumer(s) may be determined based on the gathered input material data, for example by EV property determinator 518. The transferable environmental property / ies may be determined via attribution rule(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 7 and FIG. 10.

[0225] At least one digital asset may be generated, for example by digital asset generator 1102. The digital asset may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 7. The digital asset may include the product identifier(s) and transferable environmental property / ies determined by EV property determinator 518. Examples of digital asset(s) generated by digital asset generator 1102 are illustrated in FIG. 13A, FIG. 13B and FIG. 30. The digital asset may be associated with the product 508, for example via the product identifier(s).

[0226] The generated digital asset may be linked to at least one authorization rule, for example by digital asset generator 1102. The linking may be performed as described in the context of FIG. 7. For instance digital asset generator 1102 may gather authorization rule identifier(s) associated with authorization rule(s) related to the product identifier(s) included in the digital asset from a storage storing authorization rule(s) (e.g. rule db 522). The gathered authorization rule identifier(s) may be included in the generated digital asset. In another instance, the digital asset generator 1102 may generate access elements as described in the context of FIG. 7, FIG. 13C and FIG. 13D.

[0227] The generated digital asset may be provided to a storage location, such as digital asset storage 1104. The generated access element(s) may be provided to a storage location, such as digital asset storage 1104. The digital asset storage 1104 may be part of the operating system 510 as illustrated in FIG. 11 . The digital asset storage 1104 may not be part of the operating system 510 (not shown in FIG. 11). For example, the digital asset storage may be a distributed storage system, such as IPFS, storj or a distributed ledger network as illustrated in FIG. 2. Digital asset generator 1102 may be configured to generate transaction data to store the digital asset in the distributed ledger network. The transaction data may include the product identifier(s) and transferable environmental property / ies. The transaction data may include product identifier(s) and access data. The transaction data may be signed and provided to the distributed ledger network for storage within the distributed ledger of such network. The stored access elements and / or digital assets may be gathered from the storage location via the linked authorization rule(s), for example as illustrated in FIG. 14 to FIG. 16B.

[0228] FIG. 14 illustrates schematically an example of a system for transferring environmental properties associated with a production of a product to downstream node(s) associated with consumers of the product. Transferring environmental properties may include requesting transfer of environmental properties associated with the production of the product and transferable according to at least one authorization rule associated with the product to downstream node(s) associated with downstream participants using the product (e.g. product consumer(s)). The system illustrated in FIG. 14 may be used to implement the method(s) shown in FIG. 18 and FIG. 19.

[0229] In the example the chemical product producer 102 is shown as one possible participant of the product ecosystem. Any other participant may be equally suitable, and the example should not be considered limiting. For example, products may include any output products, such as chemical intermediate products, chemical products, components or parts, component-assemblies and end products. The product(s) may be produced by one or more input material(s). The input material(s) may be delivered to the production of the product producer and the producer may use the received input material(s) to produce the product(s). The product(s) may be produced via chemical and / or physical processes. The product(s) may be produced by assembly processes. The production may include one or more production plants performing different production steps.

[0230] The produced products may be associated with product data as described in the context of FIG. 5. The product data may be collected prior to, upon or after production of the respective product. Different parts of the product data may be associated with a common output product identifier to allow gathering of output product data based on a single output product identifier. The product data may include product identifier(s), property data associated with the product, product name data, product producer data, product declaration data, product safety data, environmental property data associated with the product, production data associated with the product, certificate of analysis data associated with the product, certificate data associated with the product, life cycle data associated with the product, storage instruction data associated with the product, assembly instructions associated with the product, operating conditions associated with the product or a combination thereof.

[0231] The environmental property data may include environmental property / ies transferable to one or more downstream node(s). Environmental property / ies transferable to one or more downstream node(s) may include, for example, 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, fossil resource consumption, recycled content, biobased content, renewable content, sustainable origin content, biodegradability and / or green energy usage.

[0232] For tracking environmental properties across the participant network illustrated for example in FIG. 1 , digital assets associated with produced products and including digital product identifier(s) and environmental property / ies transferable to the one or more downstream node(s) data may be generated, for example as described in the context of FIG. 7. Examples of digital assets are illustrated in FIG. 13A, FIG. 13B and FIG. 30. The digital product identifier may be associated with the physical entity of the product. This may allow to link the digital asset to the physical entity of the product. The digital product identifier may include a batch number, a LOT number, an order number, a serial number or a combination thereof. The generated digital asset may be stored in a storage location, for example as described in the context in the context of FIG. 7.

[0233] The digital asset(s) may be associated with access elements configured to provide access to such digital asset(s) as described in the context of FIG. 7. Such access elements may include the product identifier and access data pointing to the storage location storing the digital asset(s), for example as illustrated in FIG. 13C and FIG. 13D.

[0234] The digital asset(s) may be associated with or linked to at least one authorization rule as described in the context of FIG. 7. The authorization rule(s) may allow to control access to the digital asset(s).

[0235] The authorization rule(s) and the digital asset(s) may be part of a product passport associated with the product. The 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 product. The passport may include the product identifier, at least one decentral passport identifier and data associated with the product (e.g. product data). The product data may include the authorization rule(s) and the digital asset(s). The product data may further include access element(s) associated with the digital asset(s). The product data may be divided into a plurality of data set(s). For instance, the authorization rule(s) may signify a data set, the digital asset may signify a further data set and the access element may signify yet a further data set.

[0236] The passport may include one or more authentication mechanisms associated with the decentral passport identifier(s) and the product data. The passport may relate to one or more authorization mechanisms associated with the decentral passport identifier(s) and the product data. The one or more authorization mechanisms may include authorization rules determining if access to the at least a part of the product data is granted. The passport may be associated with one or more digital representations for accessing the product passport or parts thereof. The digital representations may be regarded as access element(s) providing access to the product passport or parts thereof (e.g. digital asset(s)). The digital representation may include a decentral identifier and access data. The access data may include a locator or pointer, such as an url or uri, to a dedicated storage, such as a dedicated storage address, associated with the data owner of the digital asset(s) and / or the authorization rule(s). 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.

[0237] The passport may be part of a digital twin of the product. The digital twin of the product may be a digital representation of a physical entity of the product with a defined semantic description of said physical entity of the product. The digital twin of the physical entity of the 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 product in a digital representation of a real-world system. The digital twin may be uniquely linked to the physical product via an identifier. The digital twin may be created such that it is identical in form and behavior of the corresponding product. Additionally, the digital twin may mirror the properties of the product, e.g. during its production and / or lifetime. For example, sensors may capture real-time (or near real-time) data, such as transport data or use data, from the physical 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 product. Hence, the digital twin may at any time represent the current state of the physical entity of the 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 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)). Via the decentral identifier and its unique association with the with the producer of the product and the product, access to the digital twin or parts thereof, such as digital asset(s) and authorization rule(s), may be controlled by the producer of the product. The decentral digital twin identifier may be associated with a physical entity of the product the digital twin is associated with. The decentral digital twin identifier may be associated with the physical entity of the 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 product. Through such association of identifiers access to input material data may be possible in a similar way as described for the product data. The decentral digital twin identifier may or may be assigned to a physical identifier connected to the product.

[0238] The product, such as chemical product 156, produced by a producer, such as chemical product producer 102, may be provided to a product user, such as chemical product consumer 106 (corresponding material flow not shown in FIG. 14, see FIG. 1 for corresponding material flow). The chemical product 156 may be produced by a production, such as a chemical production as described in the context of FIG. 3A, FIG. 5 and FIG. 11. The production may include a chemical production network with interconnected production chains, such as a Verbund production, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The produced product may include a tracer material. The tracer material may be unique for the product and / or the product producer. This may allow to identify the product and / or the product producer based on the tracer material. This way, product counterfeits may be detectable, hence improving the trustworthiness in the produced product. The tracer material may be a chemical compound that can be identified within the product using analytical methods. For instance, the tracer material may be a fluorescent material that can be identified using a fluorometer. Data associated with the tracer material may be included in the product passport associated with the product. Data associated with the tracer material may include the tracer material name, tracer material ID, chemical and / or physical property / ies of the tracer material or a combination thereof. The data associated with the tracer material included in the product passport may be compared with tracer material data acquired and / or determined from the product to verify the authenticity of the product. The product user may be any downstream participant of the product ecosystem directly or indirectly using the product 156 produced by the product producer. Direct use may include use of the produced product as input material to produce further products. Indirect use may include use of further products an input material, wherein the further products have been produced using the product.

[0239] The product 156 may be associated with a physical identifier element physically attached to the product. The physical identifier element may be associated with or may encode the product identifier. For example, the physical identifier element may be a code, such as a QR code or bar code, which encodes the product identifier. The physical identifier element may be read by a device 1402, such as a code reader. The data acquired by device 1402 may include the product identifier. The data acquired by device 1402 may be used to gather the authorization rule(s) associated with the produced product 156 by a data consuming service, such node 120, associated with chemical product consumer 106. The data acquired by device 1402 may be provided to a server connected to data consuming node 120. Consumer node 120 may be configured to determine - based on the product identifier included in the data acquired by device 1402 - provider node(s) being associated with the producer of the product 156 associated with such product identifier. For instance, consumer node 120 may be configured to query infrastructure node(s) of decentral network 134 (not shown in FIG. 14) using the product identifier to determine decentral participant identifier(s) of data provider(s) associated with the product identifier. The determined decentral participant identifier(s) may then be used by consumer node 120 to query the infrastructure node(s) to determine endpoints of provider node(s) associated with said decentral participant identifier(s).

[0240] The server 1408 may be configured to generate query data to query decentral registries, such as decentral registry 1406, associated with the obtained endpoint(s) of the provider node(s), such as node 118. The query data may include the product identifier. The query data may include key value pair(s), where at least one value may be the product identifier. The server 1408 may be configured to generate a request for gathering the decentral identifier(s) associated with said product identifier(s). The request may include at least a part of the received end point(s) of provider node(s) and the query data. The request may be provided to consumer node 120. Consumer node 120 may be configured - in response to the request from the server 1408- to query the decentral registries of decentral network 134. The queries may include the query data and a decentral participant identifier associated with the consumer node 120.

[0241] Consumer node 120 may be configured to send such queries to the endpoint(s) of provider node(s), such as node 118, included in the request received from the server 1408. 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 120 and provider node 118. If authentication fails, no data may be provided by respective data provider(s).

[0242] Provider node(s), such as node 118, may be configured to query associated decentral registry(ies), such as decentral registry 1406, to determine whether the associated decentral registry includes decentral identifier(s) (e.g. decentral digital twin identifiers) related to the query data contained in the queries from the consumer node 120. 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 120. Provider node(s), such as node 118, not having determined decentral identifier(s) related to the query data may not send any response to consumer node 120. Provider node(s) 118 having determined decentral identifier(s) related to the query data may initiate data transaction(s) according to a transaction protocol with consumer node 120. Provider node 118 may provide a data set include one or more data usage rule(s) associated with the decentral identifier(s). The data set may be provided to the server 1408. The server 1408 may parse the received data set to determine the data usage rule(s). The determined rule(s) may be provided to a user for consent. The server 1408 may be configured to automatically accept such data set(s) provided by predefined provider node(s). The server 1408 may provide data being indicative of the signature, such as a token including the identifier associated with the data set and proof data (e.g. an electronic signature), to consumer node 120. If the rule(s) are not accepted, the server 1408 may likewise forward data being indicative of declining the data usage rule(s) included in the data set to consumer node 120. Consumer node 1402 may forward this data to provider node 118. Upon declining the data usage rule(s), provider node 118 may terminate the connection and may not provide any data. Use of the data set including data usage rule(s) ensures that the consumer node 120 and further systems handling the data are complying to at least one data usage rule associated with the provided data.

[0243] Provider node(s) 118 having determined decentral identifier(s) related to the query data may provide such decentral identifier(s) to consumer node 120. Such identifier(s) may be provided upon acceptance of data usage rule(s) by the data consumer. Consumer node 120 may provide received decentral identifier(s) to the server 1408. Upon receiving decentral identifier(s), the server 1408 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 120. Consumer node 120 may be configured to request respective access element(s) from provider node(s) 118 having provided decentral identifier(s) in response to the query. The request to respective provider node(s) 118 may include the decentral identifier(s) and the decentral participant identifier associated with consumer node 120. Upon receiving the request, provider node(s) 118 may gather access element(s) from associated decentral registry 1406 based on the decentral identifier(s) contained in the received request. The gathered access element(s) may then be provided to consumer node 120. Consumer node 120 may provide the received access element(s) to the server 1408. The server 1408 may store the access elements in a storage associated with the server, such as storage 1412. The server 1408 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. The server 1408 may be configured to match access data contained in received access elements with data provided by device 1402, such as product identifier(s), or with predefined data, such as key value pair(s) signifying authorization rule(s), to determine decentral identifiers and associated access data matching the provided data or the predefined data. The server 1408 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 upon determining a match between product identifier(s) and access data included in the access elements and the identifier data provided by node 120. The request may be forwarded to consumer node 120. Consumer node 120 may generate a request to gather the product passport including the authorization rule(s) from respective provider node(s) 118. Consumer node 120 may generate a request to gather the authorization rule(s) from respective provider node(s) 118. The request may include the decentral identifiers included in the request received from the server 1408 and the decentral participant identifier associated with consumer node 120. The request may be sent by consumer node 120 to the endpoint defined in the access data gathered from provider node 118. Consumer node 120 and provider node 118 may be authenticating as previously described.

[0244] Provider node 118 may determine whether consumer node 120 is authorized to access the requested product passport or authorization rule(s). Provider node 118 may match the decentral participant identifier provided by consumer node 120 to access rule(s) associated with the respective product passport or authorization rule(s). The access rule(s) may define consumer node(s) allowed to access the product passport or authorization rule(s) via associated decentral participant identifier(s). This may allow to filter consumer nodes requesting access to such product passport or authorization rule(s) based on associated decentral participant identifiers, hence improving security to ensure that no unauthorized consumer nodes can access the product passport or authorization rule(s). Upon determination that the consumer node 120 is authorized to access the product passport or authorization rule(s), provider node 118 may provide data usage rule(s) associated with the product passport or authorization rule(s) for acceptance to consumer node 120 as previously described. Provider node 118 may gather the requested product passport or authorization rule(s) from storage 1404 based on the decentral identifier(s) received from consumer node 120. The product passport or authorization rule(s) may be gathered upon acceptance of the provided data usage rule(s). The gathered product passport or authorization rule(s) may be provided to consumer node 120. The received product passport or authorization rule(s) may be stored in storage 1412. The peer-to-peer communication channel may be terminated and no product passport or authorization rule(s) may be provided by provider node 118 if the data usage rule(s) are not accepted.

[0245] The authorization rule(s) may be provided as part of the product passport. By providing the authorization rule(s) together with the product passport, the authorization rule(s) may be inherently linked to the decentral passport identifier associated with the product and / or product data. This link may be persistent or non-persistent. If the link is persistent the gathering of the transferable environmental properties associated with the product through the production and / or lifecycle chain may be based on usage or processing of the decentral passport identifier associated with the product and / or product data at any participant node of the decentral network. In particular, the authorization rule(s) may be provided in connection with the decentral passport identifier associated with the product and / or the product data and such connection may be maintained on any data exchange relating to the product data. This way the authorization rule(s) may stick directly to the data flow in the decentral network via the decentral passport identifier associated with the product and / or the product data.

[0246] If the link is non-persistent the gathering of the transferable environmental properties associated with the product through the production and / or lifecycle chain can be based on linking the authorization rule(s) to decentral identifier(s) associated with further products produced from the product and / or data related to the further products produced based on the product. In both instances the inherent link to the product used to produce the further product may be maintained to allow for gathering of transferable environmental properties associated with the product at every stage in the production and / or lifecycle chain. In particular, passports associated with further products may include a decentral identifier associated with the further product, the decentral passport identifier associated with the product, data related to the further product and / or data related to the product. The passports may further include authorization rule(s) associated with the further products. This way the authorization rule sticks indirectly to the data flow in the decentral network via the decentral identifier associated with the product and / or the product data.

[0247] Server 1408 may be configured to retrieve authorization rule(s) from the gathered passport(s). Server 1408 may be configured to verify digital credential(s) associated with the authorization rule(s). For example, the authorization rule(s) may be associated with digital credential(s) representing certification of at least partial compliance of the at least one authorization rule with predefined rule set(s), such as certification of the allocation scheme used to determine the transferable environmental property / ies and / or certification of validation of the requested environmental property / ies and / or certification of auditing the authorization rule(s). Verification may include validating the context and schemas defined in the presentation's “©context” to ensure that both parties understand and interpret the information in the same way. Verification may further include examining the proof data provided in the presentation to verify its integrity and authenticity. This may involve checking the digital signatures and ensuring that the proof matches the credentials, such as the public key, within the presentation. Verification may further include examining the proof data associated with the issuer. This may ensure that the credentials were indeed issued by the claimed issuers. Verification may further include performing revocation checks, querying revocation registries or other sources to confirm that the digital credentials have not been revoked since issuance. Verification may further include checking the content of each credential 608, 610 to ensure that it meets the specified criteria and adheres to any additional policies or requirements. Verification of digital credential(s) associated with authorization rule(s) allows to ensure that transferable environmental property / ies accessed by such authorization rule(s) are determined according to certified allocation schemes, hence improving the trustworthiness of such transferable environmental property / ies. In addition, verification of digital credential(s) associated with the authorization rule(s) including executable instructions allows to ensure that the instructions can be executed safely since the authorization rule(s) can be considered to come from a trusted source and include(s) audited instructions. Server 1408 may be configured to execute the instruction(s) after successful verification of the digital credential representing certification of successful auditing of the authorization rule(s). This may allow to avoid executing authorization rule(s) from untrusted sources or non-audited authorization rule(s) which may result in negative influences on the computing systems of the downstream participant(s) executing instruction(s) included in such authorization rule(s).

[0248] Server 1408 may be configured to execute the instruction(s) included in the authorization rule(s). Executing the instruction(s) may include gathering the digital asset(s) storing environmental properties associated with the production of the product and being transferable to downstream node(s) and providing the gathered transferable environmental property / ies for display. The digital asset(s) may be gathered from the provider node 118, for example based on an access element associated with the digital asset(s) and including pointer(s) to the storage location storing the digital asset(s). The access element may be included in the gathered passport(s). The pointer(s) may include the URI(s) or URL(s) of dedicated storages, such as storage 1404, of upstream participants of consumer node 120 storing such digital asset(s). Server 1408 may be configured to parse the access element to determine the pointer(s). Server 1408 may be configured to provide the pointer(s) to consumer node 120 and consumer node 120 may be configured to request the digital asset(s) via the decentral network 134 based on such pointer(s).

[0249] Server 1408 may be configured to initiate determination of provider nodes associated with input materials used to produce the product. The provider nodes associated with such input material(s) may be determined by a decentral service based on access elements associated with assets including relationships between a parent output product and child input material(s) used to produce the parent output product. The assets may be gathered by said service and the relationships resolved to decentral input material identifier(s) associated with such input material(s). The decentral input material identifier(s) may be provided via consumer node 120 to server 1408. Server 1408 may be configured to request provider endpoints associated with such identifier(s) via consumer node 120. Consumer node 120 may query the infrastructure node(s) for such endpoints based on the received identifier(s). Server 1408 may be configured to request determination of transferable environmental property / ies associated with the input material(s) based on bills of material(s) used to produce such input material(s). The request received by such provider node(s) may be provided to a system associated with the upstream participant producing the input material. The system may determine the environmental property / ies associated with the input material based on the bill of material used to produce the input material and may provide the determined environmental property / ies to the provider node. The provider node may provide the determined environmental property / ies to consumer node 120 which may provide the received environmental property / ies to server 1408.

[0250] This may avoid that server 1408 may have access to bills of materials of output products produced by upstream participants which are required to determine transferable environmental property / ies of such input material(s). For instance, the digital asset associated with the product may include pointers to various storage(s) storing digital asset(s) associated with input material(s) used to produce the product. To determine the transferable environmental property / ies associated with the product, bills of materials used to produce such input material(s) need to be known since the amount of input material associated with environmental property / ies may determine the amount of transferable environmental property / ies associated with the product.

[0251] The server 1408 may be configured to process gathered transferable environmental properties included in the digital asset(s), for example by aggregation, filtering, joining, enriching or the like. The server 1408 may be configured to determine the amount of transferable environmental property / ies from transferable environmental property / ies associated with input material(s) based on bills of material(s) associated with the intermediate product(s) and the product(s) produced from such input material(s). The bill of material(s) may be included in the gathered digital asset(s).

[0252] Server 1408 may be configured to provide the gathered or processed transferable environmental properties for selection and transfer. Transfer may be triggered based on a request including environmental property / ies selected from the gathered environmental properties transferable according to the at least one authorization rule to downstream node(s).

[0253] Providing the gathered or processed transferable environmental properties for selection and transfer may include providing the gathered or processed transferable environmental properties via a communication interface. The communication interface may include an API. The gathered or processed environmental property / ies may be provided via the communication interface to a computing system. In addition, transferred environmental property / ies and / or the financial asset may be provided via the communication interface. The computing system may be configured to select provided gathered or processed environmental property / ies. The computing system may be configured to select provided gathered or processed environmental property / ies according to one or more predefined rule(s). The rule(s) may relate to financial asset(s) associated with the transferable environmental property / ies. The rule(s) may relate to transferable environmental property / ies to be selected. The rule(s) may relate to transferable environmental property / ies to be selected and associated financial asset(s). The computing system may be configured to generate the request including the selected environmental property / ies and to provide the request, for example via a communication interface. The selected environmental property / ies may include an environmental property type and optionally an amount associated with the selected environmental property transferable according to the at least one authorization rule. Providing the gathered or processed transferable environmental properties for selection and transfer may include providing the gathered or processed transferable environmental properties for display. Providing the gathered or processed transferable environmental properties for display may include providing instructions to generate a user interface presentation including such properties to a display device, such as device 1402. Device 1402 may be configured to generate the user interface presentation in response to the data received from server 1408 and to display the user interface presentation on the screen of device 1402. With reference to FIG. 15, the user interface 1502 shown on device 1402 may include a field 1504 displaying the product identifier associated with the product. This may allow the user to check whether the displayed transferable environmental properties are indeed associated with the received product, for example by comparing the data acquired by scanner 1402 with the data displayed in field 1504. The user interface 1502 may further include a list of transferable environmental properties 1508 associated with the received product. The transferable environmental properties may be associated with a short description describing the environmental property (not shown). The transferable environmental properties may be associated with a financial asset. The financial asset may signify a price associated with the transfer of such a property to the consumer node 120. Each transferable environmental property may be associated with a checkbox 1506 allowing the user to select transferable environmental properties requested to be transferred. At least a part of the transferable environmental properties, such as recycled content, biobased content, renewable content, biodegradability content, sustainable origin content, green energy usage, product carbon footprint or the like, may be associated with a slider or field 1514 allowing the user to enter the target amount of recycled content, biobased content, renewable content, biodegradability content, sustainable origin content, green energy usage, product carbon footprint or the like (e.g. the target amount of transferable environmental property requested to be transferred). The slider may be associated with a value which is updated as the slider is moved to indicate the current position of the slider. After selecting one or more transferable environmental property / ies and optionally after selecting the amount of transferable environmental property / ies, a reduction in environmental impact of the product achieved by transferring the selected environmental property / ies to the consumer node 120 may be shown in fields 1512. The reduction may be the maximal reduction achievable by transferring the requested environmental property / ies. The reduction may be associated with the value set by the user via the slider or field 1514. The reduction may be generated from reduction data stored in the gathered digital asset(s). The user may trigger transfer of the selected transferable environmental properties by clicking on the “transfer” button 1510. Requesting one or more transferable environmental property / ies associated with the production of the product by one or more product consumers may result in validation of the requested environmental property / ies at the upstream participant side (e.g. the product producer side) and transfer of the validated requested environmental property / ies, for example as described in the context of FIG. 20 and FIG. 21 .

[0254] Turning back to FIG. 14, triggering transfer may include generating a request to transfer selected environmental property / ies transferable to the consumer node 120 according to the authorization rule(s) linked to the product. The request may be generated by server 1408 in response to receiving data indicating a user input from device 1402. The request may be generated by the computing system as previously described.

[0255] The request may include the selected environmental property / ies transferable according to the at least one linked authorization rule, the product identifier and a downstream participant identifier related to the downstream node (e.g. consumer node 120), for example the decentral participant identifier associated with chemical product consumer 106. The downstream participant identifier may include letters and / or numbers. The downstream participant identifier may include one or more Universally Unique Identifier(s) (UUID(s)) and / or one or more Decentralized Identifier(s) (DID(s)). The downstream 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. For instance, the issuer may make a claim about a consumer (e.g. the entity operating data consuming network node(s)) the decentral participant identifier is associated with. The verifiable claim may include those claim(s) as well as proof instructions to prove that claim(s) have not been tampered with and were indeed issued by the claims issuer. The verifiable claim may also include duration information metadata that defines a period of time that the verifiable claim is valid for use or that defines a specific number of times that the verifiable claim is authorized for use. The verifiable claim may also include a DID of the claims issuer and / or the subject, such as a consumer entity. The verifiable claim may be signed by the claim's issuer. The claims issuer may provide the verifiable claim to a claim's holder, such as the consumer, for presentation to any relying party that relies upon the veracity of those claims, such as a decentral data provider. The signature of the verifiable claim may be validated with a public key associated with the claims issuer to determine that the customer entity is a trusted entity within the decentral network.

[0256] The request may be provided to the upstream participant, such as chemical product producer 102. The request may be provided via the decentral network 134 from consumer node 120 to provider node 118, for example to an endpoint configured to receive data from consumer nodes 120. The request may be processed by chemical product producer 102, for example as described in the context of FIG. 20 and FIG. 21. Alternatively (not shown), the request may be provided by server 1408 to another server associated with the product producer.

[0257] By using authorization rule(s) included in product passport(s), transferable environmental properties can be shared in a secure and reliable manner while at the same time allowing the product consumer to generate a request to transfer or claim transferable environmental properties in an efficient and transparent way. Rendering the transferable environmental properties associated with a product transparent for the downstream participants of the product producer allows these downstream participants to determine the transferable environmental properties and to flexibly request transfer of or claim such properties according to their needs. By linking the authorization rule to the decentral passport identifier, the authorization rule(s) may be shared not only with the subsequent downstream participant product user but also with further downstream participants of the product user, allowing such further downstream participants to determine transferable environmental properties (e.g. properties not yet claimed by - from the perspective of the further downstream participants - upstream participants) and to select transferable environmental properties for transfer according to their needs. For instance, the authorization rule(s) may be accessible by all downstream participants of the product producer based on the decentral passport identifier associated with the product passport. Such sharing allows the downstream participants to flexibly select required environmental properties irrespective of the interests of upstream participants, rendering channeling of environmental properties through upstream participants superfluous. This allows to reduce the overall environmental impact associated with the products produced by the product ecosystem since ecosystem participants can more flexible deciding which environmental properties to claim for their products. In addition, this allows steering of the environmental impact of the product ecosystem by evaluating the “remaining” or “non-transferred” environmental properties associated with end-product(s), for example by providing incentives to transfer or claim such environmental properties. This way the overall sustainability or environmental impact can be orchestrated in product ecosystems giving participants control over what product properties they offer or claim.

[0258] FIG. 16A illustrates another example of a system for transferring environmental properties associated with a production of a product to downstream node(s) associated with consumer(s) of the product. Transferring the environmental properties may include requesting transfer of or claiming one or more transferable environmental properties associated with the production of the product by one or more downstream participant node(s) associated with downstream participants using the product (e.g. product consumer(s)). Product consumers may include the product consumers described in the context of FIG. 1 or FIG. 14. Transferable environmental properties may refer to transferable environmental properties described in the context of FIG. 3A based on the production operating system’s function to track environmental properties of products. The product may be a product as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The system illustrated in FIG. 16A may be used to implement the method(s) shown in FIG. 18 and FIG. 19.

[0259] Participants of the product ecosystem, such as chemical product producer 102, chemical product consumer 106 and OEM 108, may be connected via a distributed ledger network, such as network distributed ledger network 220 illustrated in FIG. 2. The participants may be connected to member nodes of the distributed ledger as described in the context of FIG. 2. The member nodes may comprise a peer- to-peer application as described in FIG. 2. Member node(s) of the distributed ledger network distributed ledger network 220 may store executable code. The executable code may be associated with authorization rule(s) associated with produced products, for example may be associated with a part of the authorization rule(s) as illustrated in FIG. 4D. The executable code may implement the instruction(s) included in the authorization rule(s). The executable code may correspond to instruction(s) included in the authorization rule(s). The authorization rule(s) may include instructions to gather transferable environmental property / ies for a given product identifier and to request or trigger transfer of or transfer transferable environmental property / ies to a requesting node, such as a product consumer node, or to transfer available environmental property / ies to a requesting node, such as a product consumer node. The authorization rule(s) may further include instructions to trigger a transfer of financial asset(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 14.

[0260] Instruction(s) may be included in executable code deployed (e.g. stored) on member node(s) of the distributed ledger network distributed ledger network 220. Each product producer may deploy authorization rule(s) associated with produced products. Deploying may include generating transaction data including the executable code. The generated transaction data may be signed and provided to a member node of the distributed ledger network distributed ledger network 220. The member node may process the transaction data. Processing may include generating an account and storing the executable code within the account. Alternatively, only one set of authorization rule(s) may be deployed and used for a plurality of products of different producers. Transferable environmental property / ies may be stored within the distributed ledger of the distributed ledger network distributed ledger network 220. The stored transferable environmental property / ies may be associated with executable code configured to store and provide transferable environmental property / ies associated with the production of the products. The executable code may be deployed per product producer. The executable code may be deployed for a plurality of product producers.

[0261] Product consumers, such as chemical product consumer 106 and OEM 108, receiving products produced by upstream participants may trigger gathering of transferable environmental property / ies. Gathering may be triggered by providing the product identifier associated with the product via client 1608, 1610 associated with the product consumer to a server 1606 operated by the product producer or on behalf of the product producer (see step [1]). The product consumer may scan the physical identifier element attached to the product, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14. The acquired data may include a locator or pointer, such as a URI or URL, pointing to server 1606. Based on the acquired data, product consumer may access server 1606 via client 1608, 1610. At least some authorization rule(s) associated with the product(s) produced by product producer may be implemented on server 1606. With reference to FIG. 4D, the authorization rule including instructions to authenticate the user and / or the product, authorization rule(s) to trigger gathering of transferable environmental property / ies and the authorization rule to trigger transfer of validated environmental property / ies may be implemented on server 1606, while the other authorization rule(s) may be implemented on distributed ledger network distributed ledger network 220 in the form of executable code stored in the distributed ledger of the distributed ledger network. Server 1606 may be configured to verify digital credential(s) associated with the authorization rule(s). For example, the authorization rule(s) may be associated with digital credential(s) representing certification of at least partial compliance of the at least one authorization rule with predefined rule set(s), such as a predefined allocation scheme used to determine the transferable environmental property / ies and / or used to validate requested environmental property / ies.

[0262] Server 1606 may be configured to authenticate the client 1608, 1610 (or product consumer node) associated with the product consumer. For instance, client 1608, 1610 may need to provide credentials, such as username and password, verifiable credential, etc. to server 1606. Server 1606 may validate the received credentials. Upon successful validation, client 1608, 1610 may be prompted to provide the product identifier. The server 1606 may be configured to query the distributed ledger network 220 for transferable environmental property / ies matching the received product identifier (see step [2]). The server may send the query to wallet 1612 for signature. The wallet 1612 may be associated with the product producer, such as chemical product producer 102. The signed query data may be sent by wallet 1612 to a member node of the distributed ledger network distributed ledger network 220, such as node 204. The query may contain the product identifier and the contract identifier, such as the address the executable code was deployed to.

[0263] In response to the query, member node 204 may retrieve digital asset(s) including transferable environmental property / ies stored in such distributed ledger, such as stored in the storage of the executable code associated with the contract identifier, by matching the product identifier included in the query data with the data stored in the storage of such account. Based on the matching, digital asset(s) may be provided to the requesting server 1606 (see step [3]). The server may be configured to process the gathered digital asset(s), in particular the transferable environmental property / ies included in such gathered digital asset(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 14. The server 1606 may provide the transferable environmental property / ies or the processed environmental property / ies for selection and transfer to a client, such as clients 1608, 1610, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14. The product consumer (e.g. user) or client may select transferable environmental property / ies to be claimed or requested from the provided transferable environmental property / ies. Transfer may be triggered by a request including the selected environmental property / ies transferable to the downstream node(s) according to the linked at least one authorization rule, as described in the context of FIG. 14. The request may be provided to server 1606 (see step [4]). The downstream participant identifier may include a distributed ledger network address under control of the user.

[0264] In response to receiving the request including the selected or requested environmental property / ies, server 1606 or an operating system associated with the production of the product (see FIG. 11) being associated with the server 1606 may validate the requested environmental property / ies, for example as described in the context of FIG. 20 and FIG. 21. Upon validation of the requested environmental property / ies, transaction data to transfer validated environmental property / ies to the requesting downstream node may be generated. The transaction data may include the product identifier, the validated environmental property / ies and the address controlled by the product consumer requesting the environmental property / ies. Alternatively, the transaction data may include digital asset identifier(s) associated with the digital asset(s) to be transferred to the product consumer (e.g. the digital asset(s) associated with the production of the product) and the address controlled by the product consumer requesting the environmental property / ies. The transaction data may further include the remaining environmental property / ies. The transaction data may further include a value of a financial asset to be transferred from the product consumer to the product producer in return for transferring the validated environmental property / ies, the address controlled by the product producer receiving the financial asset and a contract identifier associated with a contract executed within the distributed ledger network 220. The transaction data may be provided to a wallet associated with server 1606 (see step [5]). The wallet may be under control of the owner of the digital asset(s). The wallet may store the public-private key pair of the owner of the digital asset(s). The wallet may sign the received transaction data and may provide the signed transaction data to a member node, such as node 204, of the distributed ledger network 220. The member node may process the received transaction data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2. Processing may include invoking executable code configured to create and / or transfer digital asset(s) from the current owner, such as the product producer, to the downstream participant identifier related to the requesting downstream node. The code may further be configured to store an indication of the new owner of the transferred digital asset(s) in the storage associated with the executable code. After successful transfer of the digital asset(s), the code may be configured to transfer the financial asset from the user identifier (e.g. an address controlled by the product consumer) to an address controlled by the product producer.

[0265] Alternatively, server 1606 may send a request to initiate transfer of a financial asset to the clients 1608, 1610. The request may include value of the financial asset and an account or address associated with the product producer. Product consumers associated with the clients 1608, 1610 may initiate transfer of the financial asset by generating transaction data including the value of the financial asset, the account or address associated with the product consumer and the account or address associated with the product producer. The transaction data may be signed by a wallet associated with the respective product consumer. After signature, the wallet may provide the signed transaction data to a member node, such as node 208 or 206 for processing as described in the context of FIG. 2. Processing may transfer the financial asset from an account or address controlled by the product consumer to the account or address controlled by the product producer. Completion of the transfer of the financial asset may trigger transfer of the validated environmental property / ies as previously described.

[0266] By storing transferable environmental property / ies associated with products within a distributed ledger in an immutable manner, transparency on such transferable environmental property / ies may be achieved. For instance, third parties, such as auditors, may query the distributed ledger to determine the transferable environmental property / ies associated with a product. By using executable code to provide accessible environmental attributes and to trigger transfer of the environmental properties, transparency on the functions performed to access such environmental properties and to transfer such environmental properties may be achieved. This may improve trust for product ecosystem participants and may result in improved willingness to support environmentally more friendly production environments by way of transparently available environmental properties. By using executable code to automatically transfer a financial asset to cover an outstanding debt of the product consumer(s) associated with the transfer of validated environmental properties to downstream node(s) associated with such product consumer(s), transfer of validated environmental properties from product producers to product consumer(s) can be automated in a secure and reliable manner, hence rendering transfer of environmental properties more efficient and helping to reduce the environmental impact associated with produced products by enabling efficient and reliable transfer of environmental properties on an as needed basis independent of the decisions in terms of required environmental properties made by upstream participants of the product ecosystem. This may, for example, allow end product users to claim transferable environmental properties (e.g. environmental properties which have not yet been claimed by upstream participants of the production chain in relation to the end product users) to reduce the environmental impact associated with the purchased end-product. Hence, end-product users can use the transparency on transferable environmental properties to flexibly adjust the environmental impact of the purchased product without having to rely on claims of environmental properties made by upstream participants of the production chain.

[0267] FIG. 16B illustrates yet another example of a system for transferring environmental properties associated with a production of a product to downstream node(s) associated with consumer(s) of the product. Transferring the environmental properties may include requesting transfer of or claiming one or more transferable environmental properties associated with the production of the product by one or more downstream participant node(s) associated with downstream participants using the product (e.g. product consumer(s)). Product consumers may include the product consumers described in the context of FIG. 1 or FIG. 14. Transferable environmental properties may refer to transferable environmental properties described in the context of FIG. 3A based on the production operating system’s function to track environmental properties of products. The product may be a product as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The product may be associated with digital asset(s) including the product identifier and transferable environmental property / ies associated with the production of the product. The digital asset(s) may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 7 to FIG. 13B. The digital asset(s) may be associated with an access element, for example as described in the context of FIG. 7, FIG. 13C and FIG. 13D. The system illustrated in FIG. 16B may be used to implement the method(s) shown in FIG. 18 and FIG. 19.

[0268] Participants of the product ecosystem, such as chemical product producer 102, chemical product consumer 106 and OEM 108, may be connected via a distributed ledger network, such as network distributed ledger network 220 as described in the context of FIG. 2 and FIG. 16A. Member node(s) of the distributed ledger network 220 may store executable code. The executable code may be associated with authorization rule(s) associated with produced products, as described in the context of FIG. 16A. At least a part of the authorization rule(s) may further be associated with or be linked to digital asset(s) associated with the product and / or input material(s) used to produce the product and being stored in storage(s) 1614.

[0269] Product consumers, such as chemical product consumer 106 and OEM 108, receiving products produced by upstream participants, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5) may scan the physical identifier attached to the product with a code scanner as described in the context of FIG. 14. The code scanner may be running on a device, such as device 1402. With reference to FIG. 4D, device 1402 may run an application implementing at least a part of the authorization rule(s), for example authorization rule(s) including instructions to gather transferable environmental property / ies associated with product(s), instructions to display transferable environmental property / ies within a user interface, for example as illustrated in FIG. 15, and instructions to trigger transfer of selected environmental property / ies. The device 1402 may serve as a client with respect to server 1606. The acquired data may include a pointer to server 1606 as described in the context of FIG. 16A and product identifier(s) associated with the product. The pointer may be used by device 1402 to send a request to gather transferable environmental property / ies associated with the product identifier(s) to the server 1606 (see step [1] of FIG. 16B). The request may include authentication schemes for authentication of the product consumer associated with the client device 1402 and the product identifier associated with the product.

[0270] At least some authorization rule(s) associated with the product(s) produced by product producer may be implemented on the server 1606. With reference to FIG. 4D, the authorization rule including instructions to authenticate the user and / or the product, the authorization rule including instructions to trigger gathering of transferable environmental property / ies and the authorization rule to trigger transfer of requested environmental property / ies transferable according to the authorization rule(s) may be implemented on server 1606, while other authorization rule(s) may be implemented on distributed ledger network 220 in the form of executable code stored in the distributed ledger of the distributed ledger network, for example authorization rule(s) including instructions to gather the transferable environmental property / ies, to transfer validated environmental property / ies to the respective downstream node requesting transfer and to transfer financial assets to cover outstanding debt(s) of product consumer(s) associated with the transfer of the validated environmental property / ies. Server 1606 may be configured to verify digital credential(s) associated with the authorization rule(s) as described in the context of FIG. 14. For example, the authorization rule(s) may be associated with digital credential(s) representing certification of at least partial compliance of the at least one authorization rule with predefined rule set(s), such as a certified allocation scheme used to determine the transferable environmental property / ies and / or a certified validation of the requested environmental property / ies and / or a certification of audited authorization rule(s).

[0271] Server 1606 may generate a request to gather transferable environmental property / ies associated with the product identifier. The request may be generated upon successful authentication of the client device 1402. The request may include the product identifier received from device 1402 or data related to the product identifier and a contract identifier associated with executable code stored within the distributed ledger network 220. Data related to the product identifier may include an identifier, such as a content identifier, used within the storage system 1614, such as IPFS or storj, to locate stored digital asset(s) including transferable environmental property / ies associated with the production of the product within such storage system. The request may be sent to wallet 1612 for signature (see step [2] in FIG. 16B). Wallet 1612 may sign the request and send the signed request to a member node, such as node 204, of distributed ledger network 220. The request may invoke a first executable code stored on such member node. The executable code may be configured to invoke a further executable code (called oracle code hereinafter) and may pass on the product identifier to the further executable code upon invoking such code (see step [3] of FIG. 16B). The oracle code (e.g. code executed on node 1602) may be configured to emit an event indicating that transferable environmental property / ies for the received product identifier should be provided by an off-chain storage (see step [4] of FIG. 16B).

[0272] A server 1604 may subscribe to events emitted by the oracle contract and may generate and send a request to a data storage, such as a distributed file system (e.g. IPFS, storj) or a dedicated database associated with the data owner(s) of the digital asset(s) associated with the production of the product (see step [5] of FIG. 16B). The request may include the product identifier or data related to the product identifier. The server 1604 may store access element(s) associated with digital asset(s) and may use the access data included therein to determine data storage(s) storing digital asset(s) including transferable environmental property / ies associated with the production of the product. Digital asset(s) matching the provided product identifier or data related to the product identifier may be returned by the API to server 1604 (see step [6] of FIG. 16B). Server 1604 may transmit the received digital asset(s) to the oracle contract (see step [7] of FIG. 16B). The oracle contract may invoke the first executable code and may provide the received digital asset(s) upon invoking the first code (see step [8] of FIG. 16B). The first code may store the received digital asset(s) in an associated storage. Server 1604 may be configured to gather the stored digital asset(s) (see step [8] of FIG. 16B). Gathering may include deleting the received digital asset(s) from the storage of the first code to avoid storing large amounts of data within the distributed ledger network 220. The gathered digital asset(s) may be provided to server 1604. Server 1604 may be configured to parse the received digital asset(s) to determine transferable environmental property / ies included therein. Server 1604 may be configured to process determined transferable environmental property / ies as described in the context of FIG. 14. Server 1604 may be configured to provide the gathered or processed transferable environmental property / ies to device 1402 for selection and transfer, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14 (see step [8] of FIG. 16B). Device 1402 may be configured to select provided transferable environmental property / ies and to generate a request to trigger transfer of such selected environmental property / ies. The request may include selected environmental property / ies transferable according to the at least one authorization rule to downstream node(s) and a downstream participant identifier. Device 1402 may be configured to display the transferable environmental property / ies within a graphical user interface, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14 and FIG. 15. A user may select one or more displayed transferable environmental property / ies (e.g. environmental property / ies to be transferred) and device 1402 may be configured to generate a request to trigger transfer of environmental property / ies transferable according to the at least one authorization rule associated with the product. Device 1402 may provide the generated request to server 1604.

[0273] In response to receiving the request, server 1606 or an operating system associated with the production of the product (see FIG. 11) being associated with the server 1606 may validate the requested or selected environmental property / ies included in such request, for example as described in the context of FIG. 20 and FIG. 21. Upon validation of the requested environmental property / ies, transaction data to transfer validated environmental property / ies to the requesting downstream node may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 16A. The transaction data may be provided to a wallet associated with server 1606 (see step

[0010] of FIG. 16B). The wallet may be under control of the owner of the digital asset(s). The wallet may store the public-private key pair of the owner of the digital asset(s). The wallet may sign the received transaction data and may provide the signed transaction data to a member node, such as node 204, of the distributed ledger network 220. The member node may process the received transaction data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2 and FIG. 16A.

[0274] Alternatively, server 1606 may send a request to initiate transfer of a financial asset to the device 1402 as described in the context of FIG. 16A. Product consumers associated with the devices 1402 may initiate transfer of the financial asset as described in the context of FIG. 16A. Completion of the transfer of the financial asset may trigger transfer of the validated environmental property / ies as described in the context of FIG. 16A.

[0275] By storing the transferable environmental property / ies associated with the production of products off- chain (e.g. outside of a distributed ledger network), costs associated with the storage on-chain (e.g. within distributed ledger(s) of the distributed ledger network) can be avoided. By using a distributed storage system, such as IPFS or storj, storage of transferable environmental property / ies) can be achieved in an immutable yet transparent way without requiring the use of a distributed ledger network entailing costs for storing such data. The distributed storage system may be queried by third parties, such as auditors to gain transparency on transferable environmental property / ies associated with the production of products if required.

[0276] FIG. 17 illustrates yet another example of a system for transferring environmental properties associated with a production of a product to downstream node(s) associated with consumer(s) of the product. Transferring the environmental properties may include requesting transfer of or claiming one or more transferable environmental properties associated with the production of the product by one or more downstream participant node(s) associated with downstream participants using the product (e.g. product consumer(s)). Product consumers may include the product consumers described in the context of FIG. 1 or FIG. 14. Transferable environmental properties may refer to transferable environmental properties described in the context of FIG. 3A based on the production operating system’s function to track environmental properties of products. The product may be a product as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The product may be associated with digital asset(s) including the product identifier and transferable environmental property / ies associated with the production of the product. The digital asset(s) may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 7 to FIG. 13B. The digital asset(s) may be associated with an access element, for example as described in the context of FIG. 7, FIG. 13C and FIG. 13D. The system illustrated in FIG. 17 may be used to implement the method(s) shown in FIG. 18 and FIG. 19.

[0277] In contrast to the methods and systems illustrated in FIG. 16A and FIG. 16B, the methods and systems illustrated in FIG. 17 do not use a distributed ledger network. Instead, the authorization rule(s) associated with the product may be implemented on a server in a client-server architecture. The server may be associated with or may be under control of the product producer, such as chemical product producer 102.

[0278] The product may be provided to the product consumer, such as chemical product consumer 106. The product consumer may scan the physical identifier element attached to the product, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14. The data acquired by device 1402 may include a locator or pointer, such as a URI or URL, pointing to server 1606 as described in the context of FIG. 16A and FIG. 16B. Based on the acquired data, product consumer may access server 1606 via device 1402 (e.g. device 1402 acts as a client) (see step [1] in FIG. 17). Access to the server 1606 may be subject to successful authentication as described in the context of FIG. 16A and FIG. 16B. Upon successful authentication, the product consumer may be prompted to provide the product identifier.

[0279] At least some authorization rule(s) associated with the product(s) produced by product producer and triggering transfer of environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) may be implemented on the server 1606. With reference to FIG. 4B, the authorization rule(s) implemented on the server may include instructions to authenticate the user and / or the product, to gather transferable environmental property / ies associated with the production of the product, to provide gathered or processed transferable environmental property / ies for selection and transfer and instructions to trigger transfer of selected environmental property / ies to the respective downstream node requesting the transfer. Server 1606 may be configured to verify digital credential(s) associated with the authorization rule(s) as described in the context of FIG. 14. For example, the authorization rule(s) may be associated with digital credential(s) representing certification of at least partial compliance of the at least one authorization rule with predefined rule set(s), such as a certified allocation scheme used to determine the transferable environmental property / ies and / or a certified validation of the requested environmental property / ies and / or a certification of audited authorization rule(s).

[0280] Server 1606 may generate - based on the received product identifier - a request to gather transferable environmental property / ies (see step [2] in FIG. 17). The transferable environmental property / ies may be included in digital asset(s) stored in dedicated database(s) associated with data owner(s), such as the chemical product producer 102 or input material suppliers 104 (not shown, see for example FIG. 1 and FIG. 14). The transferable environmental property / ies may be included in digital asset(s) stored in a distributed storage system, such as IPFS or storj. Server 1606 may be configured to send a request to an API of the storage storing the respective digital asset(s). The server 1606 may store access element(s) associated with digital asset(s) and may use the access data included therein to determine data storage(s) storing digital asset(s) including transferable environmental property / ies associated with the production of the product. The API may respond with digital asset(s) matching the request data (see step [3] in FIG. 17). Server 1606 may be configured to parse the received digital asset(s) to determine transferable environmental property / ies included therein. Server 1606 may be configured to process the determined transferable environmental property / ies as described in the context of FIG. 16A. Server 1606 may be configured to provide the gathered or processed transferable environmental property / ies to device 1402 for selection and transfer as described in the context of FIG. 14, FIG. 16A and 16B (see step [4] of FIG. 17). Device 1402 may be configured to select provided transferable environmental property / ies and to generate a request to trigger transfer of such selected environmental property / ies. The request may include selected environmental property / ies transferable according to the at least one authorization rule to downstream node(s) and a consumer identifier. Device 1402 may be configured to display the transferable environmental property / ies within a graphical user interface, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14 and FIG. 15. A user (e.g. chemical product consumer 106) may select desired environmental property / ies from the displayed transferable environmental property / ies and device 1402 may be configured to generate a request to trigger transfer of environmental property / ies transferable according to the at least one authorization rule associated with the product. Device 1402 may provide the generated request to server 1606. In response to receiving the request, server 1606 or an operating system associated with the production of the product (see FIG. 11) being associated with the server 1606 may validate the requested or selected environmental property / ies included in such request, for example as described in the context of FIG. 20 and FIG. 21.. Upon validation of the requested environmental property / ies, a data set including the validated environmental property / ies may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 20. The data set may be provided for transfer to the at least one downstream node requesting the transfer based on the downstream participant identifier associated with such downstream node, for example as described in the context of FIG. 20.

[0281] By using a client-server architecture in combination with a distributed storage system, transferable environmental properties can be stored in an immutable way yet allowing reliable retrieval without invoking costs associated with the retrieval of such transferable environmental properties.

[0282] FIG. 18 illustrates an example method for triggering transfer of environmental properties to downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using a product. The environmental properties may be associated with a production of the product from one or more input material(s). Triggering transfer of the environmental properties may include requesting transfer of or claiming one or more transferable environmental properties associated with the production of the product by one or more downstream node(s) associated with downstream participants using the product (e.g. product consumer(s)). Downstream participant(s) may include the product consumers described in the context of FIG. 1 or FIG. 14. Transferable environmental properties may refer to transferable environmental properties described in the context of FIG. 3A based on the production operating system’s function to track environmental properties of products. The method illustrated in FIG. 18 may be implemented by the apparatuses and systems shown in FIG. 16A to FIG. 17.

[0283] The product may be produced from one or more input material(s) by a production, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5. The product may be a product as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The product may be associated with a digital asset including environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) associated with product consumer(s). Transferable environmental property / ies associated with the product may be determined from environmental property / ies associated with the production of the product may be determined, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A and FIG. 7. The digital asset may further include a financial asset representing a debt associated with the transfer of one or more transferable environmental property / ies included in such digital asset and / or transferred environmental property / ies.

[0284] The product may be used by downstream participants (e.g. product consumer(s)) as input material to produce one or more further products (such as discrete products) which in turn may be used by further downstream participants as input material(s) to produce one or more further products (such as end products) (see also FIG. 1 and FIG. 2). The product may be associated with a physical identifier element. The physical identifier element may be associated with or relate to product identifier(s), such as digital product identifier(s). The identifier element may encode product identifier(s). The data encoded in the identifier element may allow retrieval of the product identifier(s) or data related to the product identifier(s), such as an identifier of a digital asset stored within a distributed storage system (see for example FIG. 16B).

[0285] Digital product identifier(s) associated with the product may be provided. The digital product identifier(s) may be provided as described in the context of FIG. 14 and FIG. 16A to FIG. 17.

[0286] At least one authorization rule associated with the product may be provided. The at least one authorization rule may be provided based on the product identifier. The authorization rule(s) may be associated with the digital product identifier. The authorization rule(s) may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The authorization rule(s) may provide access to environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) and may trigger transfer of such transferable environmental property / ies to such downstream node(s). The authorization rule(s) may be included in a product passport associated with the product, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14. The authorization rule(s) may be associated with or relate to a decentral passport identifier associated with transferable environmental property / ies. The authorization rule may be provided as part of a product passport associated with the product, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14. Providing the authorization rule(s) may include deploying authorization rule(s) within a decentral network, such as distributed ledger network 220. Deploying the authorization rule(s) may include generating transaction data including executable code or compiled executable code and providing such transaction data to a node of the distributed ledger network 220 for processing. Deployment may result in generating account(s) or address(es) storing code executable by nodes of the distributed ledger network 220.

[0287] With reference to FIG. 4A, the authorization rule(s) may include rule identifier(s) and one or more instructions. Examples of instruction(s) are illustrated in FIG. 4B to FIG. 4D. The authorization rule(s) may further include a product identifier and / or a product producer identifier.

[0288] Returning to FIG. 18 and based one or more instructions included in the authorization rule(s) and the product identifier(s), environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) and being associated with the product identifier(s) may be gathered. Gathering transferable environmental property / ies may include gathering product data including such transferable environmental property / ies. Gathering transferable environmental property / ies may include gathering digital asset(s) including transferable environmental property / ies associated with the production of the product. The digital asset(s) or transferable environmental property / ies may be gathered from a storage location associated with the data owner of the digital asset(s) or the transferable environmental property / ies, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14 and FIG. 16A to FIG. 17. The gathered data, in particular the transferable environmental property / ies, included in the gathered data may be processed, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14.

[0289] The gathered or processed transferable environmental property / ies may be provided selection and transfer. Transfer may be triggered based on a request including environmental property / ies selected from the gathered environmental properties transferable according to the at least one authorization rule to downstream node(s).

[0290] Providing the gathered or processed transferable environmental properties for selection and transfer may include providing the gathered or processed transferable environmental properties via a communication interface, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14 to FIG. 17. In addition, transferred environmental property / ies and / or the financial asset may be provided. The computing system may be configured to select provided gathered or processed environmental property / ies, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14 to FIG. 17. The computing system may be configured to generate the request including the selected environmental property / ies and to provide the request to the computing system implementing the method illustrated in FIG. 18.

[0291] . Providing the gathered or processed transferable environmental properties for selection and transfer may include providing the gathered or processed transferable environmental property / ies for display, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14 to FIG. 17. The gathered or processed transferable environmental property / ies may be displayed within a graphical user interface, such as the user interface illustrated in FIG. 15. In addition, transferred environmental property / ies and / or the financial asset may be provided for display and may be displayed within the graphical user interface. In response to receiving a user input indicating a selection of provided transferable or processed environmental property / ies, a request including the selected environmental property / ies transferable according to the at least one authorization rule to downstream node(s) may be generated and provided to the computing system implementing the method illustrated in FIG. 18.

[0292] Transfer of transferable environmental property / ies to downstream node(s) requesting such transfer may be triggered by receipt of the request. If a request is received, the method may trigger transfer of selected environmental property / ies included in the received request. If no request is received, the method may end or may return to block 1802. The request may include one or more selected environmental property / ies. The request may be received from a user device displaying the transferable environmental property / ies. The request may be received from a device selecting provided transferable environmental property / ies. The request may further include the amount of selected environmental property / ies, for instance the amount of recycled content, bio-based content, renewable content or biodegradable content to be transferred to the downstream node(s). The request may further include downstre...

Claims

CLAIMS1. A method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for triggering transfer of at least one environmental property to one or more downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using a product, wherein the at least one environmental property is associated with a production of the product from one or more input material(s), the method comprising: providing one or more digital product identifier(s) associated with the product, providing at least one authorization rule including instructions for triggering transfer of at least one environmental property from a producer node associated with the production of the product to the one or more downstream node(s), wherein the at least one environmental property is associated with the production of the product and is transferable to the downstream node(s), based on one or more instructions included in the provided at least one authorization rule and at least one of the provided digital product identifiers, gathering at least one environmental property associated with the production of the product and being transferable to the downstream node(s), providing the gathered environmental property / ies for selection and transfer, wherein the transfer is triggered based on a request including environmental property / ies selected from gathered environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) according to the at least one authorization rule.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the environmental properties associated with the production of the product are determined from environmental property / ies associated with the input material(s) via a virtual production process.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the product is associated with a digital asset including digital product identifier(s) associated with the product and at least one environmental property transferable to the one or more downstream node(s) via the at least one authorization rule.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the digital asset is generated by determining least one environmental property associated with the product and being transferable to the one or more downstream node(s), generating the digital asset including the digital product identifier(s) and the at least one environmental property transferable to the one or more downstream node(s) and optionally linking the digital asset to the at least one authorization rule.

5. The method of any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the at least one environmental property transferable to the downstream node(s) is determined via at least one attribution rule from environmental properties associated with the input material(s) and / or production process(es) used to produce the product.

6. The method of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the at least one authorization rule provides access to environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) and triggers transfer of such transferable environmental property / ies to such downstream node(s).

7. The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the at least one authorization rule is provided based on at least one of the digital product identifiers.

8. The method of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the at least one authorization rule is provided as part of a product passport associated with the product or is provided in combination with the product passport, wherein the product passport includes a decentral identifier associated with the chemical product and / or the at least one environmental property transferable to the downstream node(s).

9. The method of any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the at least one authorization rule is provided in combination with digital credential(s) associated with the at least one authorization rule and representing certification of at least partial compliance of the at least one authorization rule with a predefined rule set, and wherein the provided digital credential(s) are verified, in particular prior to gathering at least one environmental property associated with the production of the product and being transferable to the downstream node(s).

10. The method of any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein gathering environmental property / ies transferable to the one or more downstream node(s) includes gathering product data associated with the product and including the environmental property / ies transferable to the one or more downstream node(s) and optionally gathering input material data associated with the input material(s) and including the environmental property / ies transferable to the one or more downstream node(s) or wherein gathering transferable environmental property / ies includes gathering digital asset(s) associated with the product and including the environmental property / ies transferable to the one or more downstream node(s) and optionally gathering digital asset(s) associated with the input material(s) and including the environmental property / ies transferable to the one or more downstream node(s).

11. The method of any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the request includes the environmental property / ies selected from gathered environmental properties transferable to downstream node(s) according to the at least one authorization rule and a downstream participant identifier related to the downstream node requesting the transfer.

12. The method of any one of claims 1 to 11 , further including a step of processing the gathered environmental property / ies transferable to the one or more downstream node(s) and associated with the product and optionally the input material(s) prior to providing such environmental property / ies for selection and transfer.

13. An apparatus for triggering transfer of at least one environmental property to one or more downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using a product, wherein the at least one environmental property associated with a production of the product from one or more input material(s), the apparatus comprising: a data providing interface configured to provide one or more digital product identifier(s) associated with the product, a rule providing interface configured to provide at least one authorization rule including instructions for triggering transfer of at least one environmental property from a producer node associated with the production of the product to the one or more downstream node(s), wherein the at least one environmental property is associated with the production of the product and is transferable to the downstream node(s), a data collecting unit configured to gather - based on one or more instructions included in the provided at least one authorization rule and at least one of the provided digital product identifiers - at least one environmental property associated with the production of the product and being transferable to the downstream node(s), a data providing interface configured to provide the gathered environmental property / ies for selection and transfer, wherein the transfer is triggered based on a request including environmental property / ies selected from gathered environmental property / ies transferable to downstream node(s) according to the at least one authorization rule,.

14. A product associated with at least one authorization rule, wherein the at least one authorization rule includes instructions for triggering transfer of at least one environmental property from a producer node associated with a production of a product to one or more downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product, wherein the at least one environmental property is associated with the production of the product and is transferable to downstream node(s) according to the at least one authorization rule.

15. A digital credential associated with at least one authorization rule and certifying at least partial compliance of the at least one authorization rule with a predefined rule set, wherein the at least one authorization rule includes instructions for triggering transfer of at least one environmental property from a producer node associated with a production of the product to one or more downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the product, wherein the at least one environmental property is associated with the production of the product and is transferable to downstream node(s) according to the at least one authorization rule.

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