The Role of Digitalization in the Ecological Transition: An Analysis of Digital Tools for Sustainability

The intersection of digital transformation and environmental strategy is reshaping industrial value chains, shifting focus from operational efficiency toward a sustainability-oriented ecological transition. This thesis investigates the role of digital sustainability tools, with a specific focus on the Digital Product Passports (DPPs), IoT, and blockchain as central tools within EU regulatory frameworks like the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). While these instruments theoretically operationalize Circular Economy (CE) principles, a critical "empirical impact gap" persists between their conceptual potential and the availability of quantified, longitudinal evidence in practice. To address this gap, the research conducts a secondary case analysis of 27 empirical studies, mapping 43 coded observations using the Digital Functions for Circular Economy (DF4CE) framework. Findings revealed that digital tools’ immense capabilities to serve as ecological transformation is present in practical application, but empirical impact tracking remains limited. It also revealed a rapid market shift toward integrated "Mixed-Tool" ecosystems and DPPs, which lead to achieving broad lifecycle coverage across multiple operational stages. However, a profound measurement inconsistency emerges tools with narrow lifecycle scopes (e.g., IoT) yield the most rigorously quantified short-term evidence, whereas technologies driving long-term structural transformation (e.g., DPPs, blockchain) rely almost entirely on qualitative claims. The analysis also confirms a near-total marginalization of social sustainability outcomes in favor of narrow environmental and economic optimizations. Finally, the study highlights significant implementation barriers, including a digital maturity divide threatening Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), and a transparency challenge where companies actively withhold granular data due to competitive fears. The thesis concludes that unless current qualitative digital implementations are reconciled with the highly structured, auditable data demanded by emerging EU governance, corporate actors face massive compliance vulnerabilities.