Requirements
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UNTP Business Requirements
This page provides a summary of the high level business requirements for UNTP, grouped into 7 catgories. Each requirement is linked to the page(s) where the solution to the requirement is defined.
Governance Requirements
This set of requirements aim to ensure that UNTP is goverened in an open and transparent manner, is freely avaialable to all, and is extensible to meet specific industry and jurisdictional needs.
| ID | Name | Requirement Statement | Solution Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|
| GV.01 | Consensus driven process | UNTP development MUST me managed via a transparent and consensus-driven process that is open to contributions from all stakeholders - so that implementers can have confidence that the UNTP will meet their requirements. | Governance |
| GV.02 | Freely available | The UNTP IP MUST be owned by the UN and be permanently free to access and free to use - so that implementers can have confidence that there will never be any fees for use or IP infringement claims. | Governance |
| GV.03 | Backwards compatible | New versions of UNTP SHOULD be backwards compatible with earlier versions and each version MUST remain active and supported for a minimum of 2 years - so that implementers can have confidence in the durability of their investment. | Governance |
| GV.04 | Open source | UNTP implementation tools including reference implementations and test services MUST be available under open source and royalty free licensing - so that implementers can confidently use the tools to minimise their own implementation costs | Tools & Support |
| GV.05 | Extensible | The UNTP MUST define a non-breaking extensions methodology - so that UNTP can be extended to meet specific jurisdictional or industry requirements and so that implementers of a registered extension can be confident that their implementation is interoperable with UNTP core. | Extensions |
| GV.06 | Reusable extensions | Industry and/or jurisdictional extensions to the UNTP SHOULD also be governed via an open process and released under royalty free license terms - so that implementers of extensions can have same fees & IP confidence as with UNTP core. | Extensions |
| GV.07 | Implementation pledge | UNTP MUST provide a mechanism for implementers to pledge their support and to register their implementations - so that implementers can choose to register both their sustainability commitment and conformant solutions for discovery by a global community of users and/or customers. | Implementations |
Architectural Requirements
This set of requirements aim to ensure that UNTP is scalable enough to achieve global implementations at a volume of global trade that is sufficient ot have a material impact on greenwashing - by building on top of existing industry systems and practices and using the simplest possible framework that meets the goals.
| ID | Name | Requirement Statement | Solution Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|
| AR.01 | Protocol over platform | The UNTP MUST define a standard protocol that is easily implemented by any business software system - so that every supply chain actor can continue to use their preferred business software without any need for upstream or downstream actors to agree on the use of shared platforms. | Architecture |
| AR.02 | Decentralisation | The UNTP MUST define a decentralised protocol where data is stored wherever the owner chooses - so that supply chain actors retain control of their data and are able to monetise their evidence of sustainable behaviour. | Architecture |
| AR.03 | Natural business | The UNTP MUST accommodate the continued use of existing natural business, product, batch, and shipment identifiers - so that UNTP implementation imposes minimal disruption to existing business processes and can leverage existing business and product registers. | Identifiers |
| AR.04 | Technical maturity | The UNTP MUST accommodate varying levels of technical maturity from (and including) paper based documents up to fully digitalised systems - so that every implementers of UNTP can confidently proceed without dependency on the capability or readiness of upstream or downstream actors. | Data Carriers |
| AR.05 | Simplest possible core | The UNTP MUST prioritise simplicity by focussing on only the minimum specification that represents the common core needs across different jurisdictions and indutries - so that that implementation cost is minimised and interoperability is maximised. | Architecture |
| AR.06 | Re-use not re-invent | The UNTP MUST re-use (rather than re-invent) existing standards (e.g. W3C Verifiable Credentials, GS1 EPCIS, UN vocabularies, etc) wherever they are fit for purpose - so that interoperability is maximised and existing investments in software components is re-used. | Architecture |
| TT.07 | Rules as code | The UNTP MUST define a mechanism to simplify the compliance assessment of entities, products, and processes against the fast growing set of ESG standards and regulations - so that any actor's investment in sustainable practices is easily tested against multiple criteria. | ESG Rules |
Traceability & Transparency Requirements
This set of requirements aim to ensure that UNTP provides the traceability and transparency data needed for each supply chain actor to confidently meet their due diligence obligations and customer epxections for verifiable evidence of sustainable practices.
| ID | Name | Requirement Statement | Solution Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|
| TT.01 | Data carriers | The UNTP MUST define consistent methods for the discovery of data about products from both new and existing data carriers such as ID bar codes, 2D matrix, QR codes, and RFID tags - so that any party that has only a product batch ID or goods shipment ID can find ESG data about that product or shipment. | Data Carriers |
| TT.02 | item/batch granularity | The UNTP MUST provide data at the granularity of the individual items or batch in a shipment so that the downstream actor can easily aggregate their material inputs (e.g. scope 3 emissions) into their own ESG performance data. | Digital Product Passport |
| TT.03 | end-to-end traceability | Subject to privacy & confidentiality constraints, the UNTP traceability model MUST be able to trace value chains from finished product to raw materials through any number of commercial boundaries (sale of goods), or logistics boundaries (consolidation & deconsolidation), and process boundaries (manufacturing transformation of inputs to different outputs) so that the provenance and ESG footprint of goods can be verified as the sum of component parts. | Traceability Events |
| TT.04 | Sustainability data | The UNTP MUST provide a simple and consistent way to access and verify all available sustainability metrics (eg carbon intensity, deforestation, water usage, fair work, etc) about a given product item or batch - so that product buyers can easily meet their sustainability and due diligence obligations | Digital Product Passport, Conformity Credential |
| TT.05 | Provenance data | The UNTP MUST provide verifiable provenance information (raw material content and manufacturing origin countries) about a given product item or batch - so that product buyers can easily meet their supply chain resilience and goods origin controls. | Digital Product Passport, Guarantee of Origin |
| TT.06 | Circularity data | The UNTP MUST provide a simple mechanism to access circularity data including both recycled content metrics as well as end-of-life recycling information - so that product buyers can meet their recycled content goals and recyclers can optimise their recycling processes. | Digital Product Passport, Circularity Data |
| TT.07 | ESG Vocabulary | Given the volume and diversity of ESG standards and regulations, the UNTP MUST define a simple and scalable mechanism to define both the precise meaning and general category of ESG claims - so that downstream actors can map either the specific criteria or the general category of ESG data confidently. | Vocabulary |
Trust & Integrity Requirements
This set of requirements aim to ensure that UNTP provides data that can be be trusted and is resilient to several greenwashing attack vectors.
| ID | Name | Requirement Statement | Solution Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|
| TI.01 | Trust anchors | Trust in truth of sustainability claims can be established by third party audits, or by attestation of trusted authorities, or by long standing evidence of sustainable behaviour. The UNTP MUST provide a mechanism to link ESG claims to any or all of these "trust anchors" so that downstream actors can have confidence that claimed ESG performance is true. | Trust Anchors |
| TI.02 | Identity integrity | Identifiers of businesses, locations, products, and shipments underpin the UNTP. Therefore, the UNTP MUST provide a mechanism to verify that ESG claims made about products or locations or entities are made by actors that are genuine owners of the identifiers or their authorised delegates - so that downstream actors can be sure that ESG claims are made by parties genuinely authorised to do so. | Identifiers |
| TI.03 | Accreditation | Third party audits and assessments add trust. But if the verifier does not know the auditor / certifier then there's a risk that define a mechanism to link third party certifiers to the accreditation authrority under which they perform their work so that downstream actors can trust the certificates even when they do not know the certifiers. | Conformity |
| TI.04 | Verification of documents | The UNTP MUST define standard and interoperable mechanisms to prevent spoofing or tampering of any documents issued by upstream actors so that downstream actors can be confident that ESG credentials were genuinely issued by the claimed identity and have not been altered in any way. | Verifiable Credentials |
| TI.05 | Verification of graphs | Evidence of ESG performance in supply chains is not concentrated in one document but rather is distributed along the entire value chain. The UNTP MUST define a mechanism to describe and verify the collection of evidence that is available from chains of linked documents so that downstream actors can verify the full ESG footprint and provenance data for any shipment. | Trust graphs |
| TI.06 | Product substitution | As the brand value of verifiably sustainable products increases, so does the incentive to make fake products and attach them to genuinely verifiable sustainability evidence. The UNTP MUST define an anti-counterfeiting mechanism so that downstream actors can confirm that they have purchased genuine goods. | Anti-counterfeiting |
| TI.07 | Mass balance fraud | Mass balance fraud occurs when a supply chain actor blends sustainable materials with cheaper non-sustainable materials as inputs to a manufacturing process and then claims that the manufactured product is 100% sustainable. The UNTP MUST define mechanisms to detect mass balance fraud so that downstream actors can be confident of the integrity of their sustainable supply chain and the value of sustainable products is maintained. | Mass balance |
Security & Confidentiality Requirements
This set of requirements aim to ensure that UNTP provides mechanisms to protect the security and confidentiality of supply chain data, allowing each actor to make their own choices about the balance between trceability & transparency.
| ID | Name | Requirement Statement | Solution Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|
| SC.01 | Transparency vs confidentiality | The UNTP MUST allow every supply chain actor to choose their own balance between transparency and confidentiality - so that each actor can choose to share only what delivers value whilst protecting the information they deem confidential. | Confidentiality |
| SC.02 | Multi-layered security | Information about products have a range of commercial sensitivity from public data to highly confidential data. The UNTP MUST provide a range of data protection mechanisms that can be applied appropriately so that supply chain actors can choose the right protection level for specific data sets. | Confidentiality |
| SC.03 | Selective redaction | ESG data and credentials from sellers may contain data that buyers do not want to pass on to their own customers. The UNTP MUST define a selective redaction method that allows any supply chain actor to redact information (without affecting the cryptographic integrity) from credentials received from upstream suppliers before passing it on to their downstream customers - so that verifiable ESG data can be passed on without leaking commercially sensitive data. | Confidentiality |
| SC.04 | Revocation | The UNTP MUST provide a mechanism to revoke previously issued conformity certificates when an actor is found to be non-compliant so that downstream actors can be confident of the currency of the ESG assessments they receive. | Verifiable Credentials |
| SC.05 | Availability | UNTP MUST define a mechanism for high availability and long term durability of ESG evidence - so that data can be accessed by verifiers even when source systems are down, and so that data for long-lifetime products such as batteries or building materials can be accessed long after source systems are retired. | Verifiable Credentials |
| SC.06 | Cryptography | The UNTP MUST support flexibility in cryptographic methods so that new algorithms can be supported as they emerge to meet new challenges such as quantum computing. | Verifiable Credentials |
| SC.07 | Key management | The UNTP MUST provide mechanisms for the discovery of public keys, the protection of private keys, and the rotation of key pairs so that keys remain secure and can be easily chained if compromised. | Verifiable Credentials |
Compatibility & Interoperability Requirements
This set of requirements aim to ensure that UNTP is compatible with existing standards for technology, ESG criteria, and supply chain practices so that implementers can maximise the leverage of existing investments.
| ID | Name | Requirement Statement | Solution Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|
| CI.01 | National regulations compatibility | UNTP conformant data SHOULD be straightforward to map to national ESG regulations so that it can usefully provide the upstream B2B ESG evidence to support national B2C product conformance. | Vocabulary, Extensions |
| CI.02 | Entity ESG reporting compatibility | UNTP conformant ESG data about products & shipments MUST be straightforward to map to entity level ESG reporting obligations so that UNTP transaction level ESG data can be easily aggregated to inform annual ESG reporting that conforms to standards like IFRS sustainability. | Vocabulary |
| CI.03 | ESG standards compatibility | The UNTP MUST be able to support ESG claims against criteria from any ESG standard and MUST provide a mechanism to map those claims to a common vocabulary - so that implementers can align with standards of their choice and verifiers can make sense of the claims even when they are unfamiliar with specific standard criteria | Vocabulary, ESG Rules |
| CI.04 | Credential interoperability (VCs) | The UNTP MUST provide the flexibility to support multiple credential standards such as W3C Verifiable Credentials and Hyperledger Airies Anoncreds - so that ESG data along a value chain can be verified even when different credential standards are adopted by different actors along the value chain. | |
| CI.05 | Blockchain | Whilst some implementers MAY choose blockchain technologoes to underpin their solutions, the UNTP MUST NOT require the use of blockchain for conformant implementations - so that implementers that wish to avoid the costs and complexity of blockahin technologies are free to do so. | |
| CI.06 | GS1 compatibility | GS1 identifiers and standards are ubiquitous at the downstream consumer goods end of most supply chains. The UNTP MUST be compatible with GS1 standards but MUST NOT require the use of GS1 standards - so that supply chain actors that are already invested in GS1 identifiers and standards can maintain and build upon that investment | |
| CI.07 | Other registry compatibility | The UNTP MUST define a mechanism to support existing identity registers so that implementers can continue to leverage existing business identifiers such as tax registration numbers, cadastral lot numbers, shipping container numbers, and so on under UNTP | Identifiers, Extensions |
Implementation Requirements
This set of requirements aim to ensure that UNTP is implementable at the lowest possible cost, and that early implementers gain a marketing advantage, and that the impact of implementations can be tracked.
| ID | Name | Requirement Statement | Solution Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|
| IM.01 | Making a business case | Every UNTP implementer will need confidence that the benefots of their implementation outweighs the cost. UNTP SHOULD provide a set of business case templates so that each stakholder type can fast-track their decision to proceed | Business Case |
| IM.02 | Open source tools | The UNTP MUST include an open source reference implementation that any supply chain actor can embed into their solutions to help fast-track their implementation. | Tools |
| IM.03 | Conformity testing | the UNTP MUST include a conformance test suite and test service so that each implementer can self-assess their conformance and be confidenet that their implementations will be interoperable. | Test service |
| IM.04 | Implementation Support | UNTP MUST provide mechanisms for implementers to get either community support or professional support so that they can minimise their implementation risk. | Support |
| IM.05 | Tracking implementations | UNTP MUST provide a mechanism to track implementations so that uptake and impact can be measured and so that early implementers can publicise their solutions. | Implementations |
| IM.06 | Tracking extensions | UNTP MUST provide a mechansim to track and publish industry & jurisdictional extensions so that new extensions can find and re-use relevant work. | Extensions |
| IM.07 | Greenwashing KPIs | Although uptake is a simple and concrete success measure, the real purpose of UNTP is to lift the value of sustainable practices by countering greenwashing. Therefore, UNTP MUST develop a set of greenwashing KPIs that can be tracked to assess whether UNTP is having a material impact. | Greenwashing KPIs |