Assessment of Turkish textile companies' compliance with digital product passport regulation: A survey in Turkey

Sustainability and environmental awareness have become increasingly prominent concerns, driving research and innovation across industries. Within this context, ecodesign and traceability have assumed central importance, and the Digital Product Passport (DPP) has recently been promoted and, through various European Union (EU) regulations, gradually mandated. The present study aims to assess the levels of awareness regarding digital product passports, digitalization, and traceability among SMEs and large enterprises operating in Turkey's textile sector, and to offer an academic perspective on recommended courses of action. A survey was administered to 80 textile enterprises to capture their demographic profiles, fundamental awareness of the DPP concept, the extent of any ongoing DPP-related initiatives, and their approaches to data traceability. The collected responses were subjected to chi-square tests, t-tests, and correlation analyses. Based on these results, twelve hypotheses concerning the interrelations of different variables were examined, and targeted recommendations were formulated for those variable pairs exhibiting statistically significant associations. This research was facilitated through an industry–academia collaboration, with support from İHKİB (Istanbul Apparel Exporters' Association) for participant recruitment and survey administration. The findings contribute valuable empirical evidence to inform the development of roadmaps and strategic plans related to digitalization, Digital Product Passport implementation, and traceability, thereby underpinning future policy and industrial efforts with a solid scientific foundation.