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Chain-of-Custody via Scope & Transaction Certificates
This use case demonstrates how traditional Scope Certificates (SC) and Transaction Certificates (TC) — widely used in textile certification schemes — can be mapped to UNTP constructs, enabling auditable, interoperable chain-of-custody for certified materials.
What are Scope & Transaction Certificates
In many textile-certification and sustainability schemes, provenance and chain-of-custody (CoC) are maintained via two complementary certificates:
- A Scope Certificate (SC) — issued to a facility or organization after audit, confirming that the entity is qualified to produce or process certified materials under a given standard. It defines the facility’s allowed activities, product categories, processes, and the time period during which the certificate is valid.
- A Transaction Certificate (TC) — issued for each shipment, batch, or transfer of goods from one certified actor to another, to confirm that the specific batch of material shipped conforms to the standard and may be treated as certified material by the receiver.
Using SC & TC together enables an auditable chain-of-custody: it ensures that certified raw materials and/or processes remain tracked from original producer (or recycler) through processing, manufacturing, and trade — up to the final buyer or brand.
Why This Matters
- Verifiable Material Claims — By requiring a valid SC and accompanying TC for each shipment, downstream actors (buyers, brands, retailers) can verify that goods labeled as “certified” truly come from compliant facilities and follow certified processes.
- Preventing Greenwashing & Mis-labeling — The SC/TC approach helps avoid situations where uncertified materials are mixed with certified ones, or certified claims are made without valid certification. It maintains credibility of sustainability claims.
- Full Supply-Chain Traceability — SCs and TCs together cover every stage: from material origin, manufacturing, and every transfer — enabling downstream actors to trace back through the entire material and processing history.
- Interoperability and Standard Compliance — Many recognized textile standards rely on this SC/TC–based CoC model.
Current Gaps
While SC/TC schemes are widely used, they face structural challenges that limit scalability and interoperability:
Fragmentation & Lack of Interoperability
- Proprietary formats and silos — Each scheme uses its own certificate formats (PDFs, standalone databases), making it difficult to combine or compare data across schemes, actors, or geographies. There is no common data model for multi-certification scenarios or multi-tier supply chains.
Poor Scalability of Manual Systems
- Document-based overhead — Manual exchange of paper/PDF certificates and email chains is labor-intensive and error-prone, leading to breaks in chain-of-custody and making end-to-end traceability impractical at scale.
Lack of Machine-Readable Standards
- Unstructured data — PDFs, spreadsheets, and emails cannot be reliably parsed or validated by automated systems, preventing digital product passports, automated audits, and scalable compliance workflows.
Complex Supply Chain Challenges
- Multi-tier and mixed materials — Traditional SC/TC mechanisms struggle to trace certification across global, fragmented supply chains involving material mixing, splitting, or blending (e.g., recycled content, blended yarns).
Privacy & Transparency Trade-offs
- All-or-nothing approaches — Existing systems typically force either full transparency or full opacity, making it difficult to balance commercial confidentiality with regulatory and sustainability disclosure requirements.
Actors
The following actors participate in the Scope & Transaction Certificate use case:
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Certification Scheme Secretariat / Trust Anchor — Root authority that accredits and certifies auditors, establishing the trust foundation for the certification scheme (e.g., GOTS Secretariat, organic certification bodies). See the Registers register for identity registers providing identifier resolution services.
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Certifier / Auditor — Third-party conformity assessment body that performs facility audits and issues Scope Certificates and Transaction Certificates. Must be certified/accredited by the scheme secretariat. See the Certifiers register for registered certifiers supporting the Textiles Extension.
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Facility / Manufacturer / Producer — Physical facility (mill, farm, recycler, processor) that produces or processes certified materials. Creates a Digital Facility Record and receives a Scope Certificate after audit. See the Industry Actors register for registered industry organizations implementing the Textiles Extension.
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Certified Seller — Supply chain actor (facility or trader) that holds a valid Scope Certificate and sells/ships certified materials to downstream actors. See the Industry Actors register for registered industry organizations.
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Certified Buyer — Supply chain actor (manufacturer, brand, retailer) that receives certified materials and verifies their provenance and certification status. See the Industry Actors register for registered industry organizations.
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Downstream Actors — Brands, retailers, regulators, auditors, and consumers who verify certification and traceability data to validate sustainability claims. See the Industry Actors register for registered industry organizations.
UNTP Mapping
Below is a table providing a conceptual mapping of how the roles of a Transaction Certificate or Scope Certificate would be implemented with the UNTP
| Traditional Certificate Concept | UNTP Equivalent / Construct |
|---|---|
| Scope Certificate (facility-level certification) | A Digital Facility Record (with facility identity, location, certifier, accreditation metadata) + a Digital Conformity Credential representing that the facility meets certification requirements. |
| Transaction Certificate (shipment/batch-level certification) | A Digital Traceability Event (recording transfer/transaction between actors) + a Digital Product Passport (batch-level data) — with linked Digital Conformity Credential for the batch, representing TC-equivalent certification of the shipped goods. |
This mapping allows the same objectives — certified-material traceability, provenance verification, chain-of-custody — to be expressed in a scheme-agnostic, digital, interoperable, machine-readable format.
Data Flow
- A facility is audited by a certifier and granted a Scope Certificate → in UNTP this is expressed as a Digital Facility Record and a Digital Conformity Credential.
- The facility processes certified input materials into yarn, fabric, or other outputs — internal processing data are recorded, and output batches are assigned unique identifiers in Digital Product Passports.
- When a batch is shipped (or sold) to another actor in the supply chain, a Digital Traceability Event is created, recording sender, receiver, batch ID, material details, quantities, date, etc. A batch-level Digital Conformity Credential is attached (playing the role of a Transaction Certificate).
- The receiving actor obtains the product, Digital Product Passport, event history, and linked credentials — enabling them to verify provenance, compliance, and chain-of-custody.
- Downstream actors (brands, retailers, auditors, regulators) can traverse the chain (via UNTP) back to the original certified facility, verifying that every stage complied with certification requirements.
Benefits
- Standardised, interoperable data model — By representing SC/TC and related traceability data in UNTP structures, different certification schemes and supply-chain actors can interoperate without being locked into proprietary certificate formats.
- Digital & machine-readable traceability — Unlike traditional PDF certificates or scanned docs, UNTP data can be programmatically consumed, validated, and integrated into supply-chain systems (ERP, inventory, compliance tools, product passports).
- Scalable chain-of-custody across complex supply chains — Supports multi-tier supply chains with many actors, facilitating traceability through multiple processing, manufacturing, and trade steps.
- Flexibility and scheme-agnosticism — Works regardless of which certification standard is used (organic, recycled, recycled-content, animal welfare, etc.), because UNTP is not tied to a specific scheme.
- Transparency for downstream actors and consumers — Buyers, brands, or end-consumers can access or verify certification and provenance data, supporting trust, claims-substantiation, and regulatory or compliance needs.
Technical Guidance
UNTP Foundations
Reference the core UN Transparency Protocol (UNTP) specification — its architecture supports facility data, product data, traceability data, conformity credentials, and identity data. UNTP uses the W3C Verifiable Credentials Data Model, with JSON-LD and the UNTP-provided @context definitions. For textile-specific metadata, extensions may define additional terms in a separate context, while maintaining compatibility with UNTP core vocabularies.
The UNTP specification defines several key components:
- Digital Product Passport (DPP) — for supply chain actors to publish discoverable information about products
- Digital Facility Record — for supply chain actors to publish discoverable information about facilities
- Digital Conformity Credential (DCC) — for conformity assessment bodies to issue third-party assessments
- Digital Traceability Events (DTE) — for mapping output products to input materials and recording logistics events
Identity & Credential Types
| Entity / Object | UNTP Type / Credential | Key Attributes / Metadata (non-exhaustive) |
|---|---|---|
| Facility / Site | Digital Facility Record + Digital Conformity Credential | Facility identifier, name, location (address or geo), facility type or role, certifier info, accreditation body / reference, scope of certification, certification validity period |
| Scope Certificate | Digital Conformity Credential (DCC) | issuer (certifier), subject (facility), standard or scheme identifier, accreditation metadata, issue date, expiry or validity date, covered material/process scopes |
| Transaction Certificate | Digital Conformity Credential (DCC) | issuer (certifier), subject (facility), standard or scheme identifier, accreditation metadata, issue date, expiry or validity date, covered batch of product |
| Material Batch / Production Output | Digital Product Passport (DPP) | batch identifier, material type(s), composition, output date, reference to input certificate/facility, quantity or weight/volume, metadata about processing and conversion |
| Shipment / Transfer | Digital Traceability Event (DTE) (optionally with attached credential) | event identifier, sender facility identity, receiver facility identity, batch ID(s), quantity/volume, date/time, transport or transfer metadata, optional batch-level conformity credential (TC analogue) |
Scope Certificate Trust Graph
The following diagram illustrates how a Scope Certificate is represented in UNTP, showing the trust relationships between the certification scheme secretariat, auditors, facilities, and digital credentials:
Transaction Certificate Trust Graph
The following diagram illustrates how a Transaction Certificate is represented in UNTP, showing the relationships between certified sellers, certified buyers, transactions, and digital product passports:
Data Flow & Graph Model
Facility undergoes audit and obtains a scope-level Digital Conformity Credential (DCC), associated with a Digital Facility Record. When the facility processes materials, it issues a Digital Product Passport (DPP) for the output, referencing the originating facility and certification. Upon shipment, a Digital Traceability Event (DTE) is created — optionally accompanied by a batch-level Digital Conformity Credential — documenting transfer to a downstream actor. The receiving actor can then verify provenance, certification validity, and chain-of-custody. For further processing, splitting, blending, or recycling, the graph model continues: each output batch and transfer is recorded, maintaining traceability integrity.
Implementation & Integration Guidelines
Use stable, unique identifiers (e.g. DIDs) for all entities: facilities, certifiers, actors, batches. When extending the model for textile-specific metadata (e.g. fiber composition, processing chemicals, certifications), define an extension vocabulary and ensure versioning and namespace separation. For traceability events and batch records, include minimal metadata needed to verify sender, receiver, batch identity, quantity, and certification linkage. Design data sharing policies to support selective disclosure: actors may choose what metadata to expose downstream or publicly, while retaining control over sensitive business data. Include issuance dates, validity or expiry fields, and support for revocation or status updates — enabling downstream actors to detect and reject expired or invalid credentials.
Sample Data
Example credentials and data structures will be added here as the extension is developed. This section will include:
- Sample Digital Facility Record with linked Digital Conformity Credential (Scope Certificate equivalent)
- Sample Digital Product Passport for a material batch
- Sample Digital Traceability Event with attached Digital Conformity Credential (Transaction Certificate equivalent)
- Complete example showing the full chain from facility certification through shipment
For now, refer to the UNTP specification for core data structure definitions and the Technical Guidance section below for implementation patterns.
Conformance & Validation
As the extension is developed, test suites and methods of technical validation will be provided.
Ensure all credentials and traceability records pass UNTP compliance — use the UNTP test suite or validation tools to check JSON-LD structure, correct @context, referential integrity (no dangling references), and credential validity (issue date, expiry, revocation status).
Upon data assembly (facility → batch → shipment → receiver), perform graph validation to verify that the chain is intact and all links correctly reference identifiable entities.
Summary
The traditional model of Scope Certificates + Transaction Certificates remains one of the most widely used mechanisms for ensuring chain-of-custody in textile and apparel supply chains. By mapping SCs and TCs to UNTP constructs, the UNTP-Textiles extension can preserve the benefits of existing certification systems — while adding the advantages of digital, interoperable traceability, cross-scheme flexibility, and machine-readable verification.
This use case demonstrates how UNTP can serve as a unifying, modern backbone for traceability and certification across complex, global textile supply chains — supporting credible sustainability claims and enabling supply-chain transparency at scale.
Key Takeaways
- Scope Certificates map to Digital Facility Records + Digital Conformity Credentials in UNTP
- Transaction Certificates map to Digital Traceability Events + Digital Product Passports with linked Digital Conformity Credentials in UNTP
- UNTP enables scheme-agnostic, machine-readable, interoperable chain-of-custody while preserving the trust model of traditional SC/TC systems
- The trust graph model supports verification from facility certification through to final product delivery
For implementation guidance, see the Technical Guidance section above, or refer to the UNTP specification for detailed component definitions.