Product lifecycle sustainability score tracking and indicia

• US 10,013,666 B2
• Filed: 04/24/2009
• Issued: 07/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Inventors: Walker, Marcia Elaine, Kaufman, Philip John
• Primary Examiner(s): Singh, Gurkanwaljit
• Application Number:
  US12/429,795
• Publication Number:
  US 20100274629A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,357 Days
• Field of Search: 705 732, 705 28, 705 38, 705 729, 705 50, 238380, 235385, 709204, 709226
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/30 Administration of product recycling or disposal
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: Y02W 90/00 Enabling technologies or technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions mitigation

Abstract

The claimed subject matter relates to an architecture that can facilitate sustainability monitoring and indicia thereof for a product over the course of the entire lifecycle of the product. In particular, the architecture can acquire a status update associated with a state of the product. Based upon the state, the architecture can determine an impact of that state to a sustainability score associated with the product.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates sustainability tracking in connection with a manufactured good, comprising:

at least one processor coupled to memory retaining instructions carried out by the processor, in operation, for;

a tracking component that, in operation, employs one or more sensors to monitor a state of a manufactured product;

an acquisition component that, in operation, receives a plurality of status updates associated with the state of the manufactured product via the tracking component during a product lifecycle of the manufactured product;

an analysis component that, in operation, determines an impact value to a lifecycle sustainability score associated with the product based upon at least one of the plurality of status updates, wherein the impact value relates to energy consumption, energy efficiency, energy providers, water usage or other resource utilization, emissions, carbon footprint, waste, effluent, worker safety, corporate policy, labor policy, regulatory mandates, or some combination thereof, associated with the product; and

an archival component that, in operation, employs a product ID that pertains to the product to access a data store and to update the lifecycle sustainability score maintained by the data store with the impact value; and

a graphical user interface configured to display the updated lifecycle sustainability score during the product lifecycle in response to receiving an input signal requesting the updated lifecycle sustainability score, wherein the graphical user interface comprises a display coupled to the manufactured product.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of status updates pertains to at least one of operation of all or a portion of the product, modification of all or a portion of the product, maintenance of all or a portion of the product, transfer, disposal, or recycling of all or a portion of the product, or addition of a sustainability factor.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of status updates relates to a post-retail sale state of the product in the product lifecycle.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the product ID is associated with the product, or associated with a service provided by the product.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the archival component, in operation, updates the data store with the plurality of status updates in order to maintain a history of states or transactions associated with the product.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the analysis component, in operation, recalculates impact values included in the history based upon a configurable set of parameters in order to generate a current sustainability score for each set of parameters provided.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the archival component, in operation, stores to the data store a respective current sustainability score for each entity that provides a respective set of parameters.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the analysis component, in operation, generates or updates a third party sustainability rating based upon at least one of the sustainability score of the product, the impact value, an additional sustainability factor, or a history of states or transactions associated with the product.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the tracking component, in operation, constructs the plurality of status updates based upon information received from the one or more sensors.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors comprise at least one of an emissions detector, a control or operation sensor, a radio frequency identification (RFID) module, a global positioning satellite (GPS) module, a bar code scanner module, an optical state recognition module, or a software state recognition module.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a labeling component that, in operation, constructs a label update based upon a current sustainability score maintained by the data store, wherein the label update comprises at least one of a data set or a set of instructions for updating a product label or an interface that corresponds to the product, wherein the product label or the interface comprises indicia associated with the current sustainability score, a future sustainability score, the impact value, a future impact value, or any combination thereof.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the labeling component, in operation, constructs the label update based upon an input to the graphical user interface.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the input relates to an intended or desired future state of the product.

14. A method for facilitating sustainability tracking in connection with use or consumption of a manufactured product comprising:

employing one or more sensors for monitoring a state of the manufactured product during an entire lifecycle of the manufactured product, wherein the state is monitored with respect to a set of sustainability factors;

receiving, via one or more computers, a plurality of status updates associated with the state of the manufactured product;

determining, via the one or more computers, an impact to a sustainability score associated with at least one sustainability factor included in the set as a function of the state based on at least one of the plurality of status updates, wherein the impact relates to energy consumption, energy efficiency, energy providers, water usage or other resource utilization, emissions, carbon footprint, waste, effluent, worker safety, corporate policy, labor policy, regulatory mandates, or some combination thereof, associated with the manufactured product;

updating, via the one or more computers, the sustainability score based upon the impact; and

displaying, via the one or more computers in response to receiving an input signal requesting the updated lifecycle sustainability score, the updated sustainability score on a graphical user interface during the lifecycle of the manufactured product, wherein the graphical user interface is coupled to the manufactured product.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising at least one of the following:

employing, via one or more computers, a second impact associated with a particular state of the manufactured product resulting from an act or behavior associated with a third party for constructing or updating a sustainability rating for the third party;

or

associating, via one or more computers, the sustainability rating with the third party.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising at least one of the following:

reformulating, via one or more computers, at least one of the sustainability score or the impact based upon configuration parameters or sustainability factors provided by an authorized entity;

or

determining, via one or more computers, a forecasted impact for an indicated future state of the manufactured product based upon at least one of the sustainability score for the product, one or more sustainability factors, a state history associated with the manufactured product or a score history associated with the manufactured product.