Data spaces in emerging sustainability regulation data collection and sharing

Abstract

The increasing emphasis on sustainability of companies has led to the introduction of new regulatory frameworks, such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Digital Product Passport (DPP), under the European Green Deal. These emerging sustainability regulations require companies to disclose sustainability-related data. Consequently, businesses must collect and share this data across their value chains more comprehensively to meet the requirements of these regulations. Data spaces have emerged as a potential solution to support this but still remain relatively unexplored.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how data spaces can support data collection and sharing to comply with emerging sustainability regulations, specifically CSRD and DPP. A secondary goal of this thesis is to explore broader benefits beyond regulatory compliance that data spaces could help to achieve. This thesis focuses on this topic within an industrial setting. First, a literature review on the key topics of data spaces, CSRD, and DPP was conducted to provide background on the subject. Second, an empirical study was conducted through interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. A total of twelve interviewees participated, including eight representatives from six different industrial companies and four experts from a company focusing on digitalization and data consulting.

The results of this thesis indicate that data spaces have not yet been widely adopted in the industry. However, they show potential for supporting CSRD, particularly DPP data collection and sharing, by providing interoperability, especially through data standards and connectors. Interoperability is recognized as the key advantage of data spaces, enabling data exchange across value chains. This can help address challenges related to the limitations of existing systems, various data formats, data quality, supplier engagement, and complex value chains, while also supporting compliance with emerging sustainability regulations. Additionally, data sovereignty was identified as a secondary benefit, as it allows for greater control over data. Although, some concerns about trust were raised regarding data sharing initiatives. Despite these identified benefits, barriers such as the lack of maturity of data spaces and challenges in supplier integration hinder their adoption. Beyond regulatory compliance, the findings indicate that data spaces can enable data sharing across value chains. Data spaces can enhance existing industrial operative data exchange processes and establish trust between stakeholders in the value chain. Additionally, data spaces present opportunities for companies to create new value, particularly through DPP implementations beyond the requirements of regulatory compliance.

This study contributes to theory by addressing the research gap in how data spaces support data collection and sharing in emerging sustainability regulations, emphasizing the role of interoperability. The results contribute to existing literature by suggesting that data spaces should be used as part of DPP implementation while also creating new knowledge indicating that data spaces could support CSRD data collection and sharing. It also provides managerial and practical contributions for industrial companies by encouraging the exploration of data spaces and interoperable data sharing while suggesting that data consulting firms further investigate their potential applications.