Free-market environmental management system having insured certification to a process standard

• US 20030014342A1
• Filed: 03/27/2001
• Published: 01/16/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mark E. Vande Pol
• Original Assignee: Mark E. Vande Pol
• Inventors: Vande Pol, Mark E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,401,036 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 90/00 Systems or methods specially adapted for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes, not involving significant data processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/90 Financial instruments for climate change mitigation, e.g. environmental taxes, subsidies or financing

Abstract

Environmental regulation by government is structurally incapable of satisfying its mandate. The present invention is an alternative, free-market management system designed to deliver a superior product, at lower cost, with an insured guarantee, and without regulatory oversight by government. The system uses an insured, certified best-practice form of process certification that objectively accounts the financial value of ecosystem resources. The conduct of practice within the system accounts the price of assets at risk and characterizes their function by which to market them for their ability to offset the environmental impacts of industrial, commercial, and residential activities.

Claims

1. A free-market environmental management system, comprising:

means for developing operational processes specifications for land use to conform to specified outputs;

means for validating that said operational processes produce outputs that meet said specifications;

means for auditing and certifying that said operational processes produce outputs that meet said specifications;

means for assessing financial cost of mitigating said operational processes to restore or protect corresponding ecosystem assets;

means for assigning said financial cost to remaining ecosystem assets at risk;

means for indemnifying failure to produce outputs that meet said specifications and to repair or to mitigate said failure; and

means for indemnifying failure to allocate sufficient primary coverage and to repair or to mitigate said failure.

2. A method for managing ecosystem assets, comprising the steps of:

developing experimental processes;

deviating from said processes to meet conformance specifications to improve condition of ecosystem assets;

validating that said experimental processes were conducted according to said specifications;

auditing and certifying that said experimental processes were conducted according to said specifications;

assessing financial cost of said experimental processes to improve the condition of said ecosystem assets;

indemnifying failure to produce outputs that meet specifications posited by the experiment and repair or mitigate said failure;

indemnifying failure to allocate sufficient primary coverage to repair or to mitigate said failure;

developing natural process descriptions from data derived from said experimental mitigating process operations;

validating and certifying that said natural processes correspond with said process specifications;

assigning financial value to ecosystem assets for their ability to mitigate operational processes;

marketing financial value to mitigate operational processes with ecosystem process assets for their ability to mitigate operational processes;

indemnifying failure to produce outputs that meet said conformance specifications and mitigate said failure; and

indemnifying failure to allocate sufficient primary coverage to mitigate said failure.