Supply and Distribution Method and System Which Considers Environmental or "Green" Practices
First Claim
1. A computer implemented method to manage options in a supply and distribution chain for the purpose of minimizing the environmental impact of various options in the supply and distribution chain based on an estimate of environmental impact, comprising the steps of:
- calculating carbon footprint data in a supply and distribution chain by processing green house gas (GHG) emission data for various options within the supply and distribution chain;
storing the calculated carbon footprint data in a database;
generating by one or more client computers various options for a product or products in a particular point in the supply and distribution chain;
requesting by said one or more client computers using the generated options data from a server data from the server concerning not only monetary costs and delivery times of the various options, but also the environmental impact of those options;
accessing the database by the server in response to requests from said one or more client computers to retrieve the carbon footprint data for each of the various options; and
providing by said one or more client computers data retrieved from the server to users of said one or more client computers so that users can make choices based, at least in part, on the environmental impact of the choices.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The carbon footprint of a supply and distribution chain is modeled as a carbon dioxide (CO2) cost that can be considered alongside monetary or dollar ($) costs in supply, manufacturing, and distribution operations. Databases on products and services, supply chain policies, and targets, costs, and/or greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are used by a GHG calculator to output carbon footprint data and/or by a supply chain optimizer to output supply chain planning and policy data. Client computers obtain carbon footprint and/or supply chain planning and policy data by querying a server with access to a database storing calculated carbon footprint data. Input data to the GHG calculator is updated based on choices made by users of the system.
78 Citations
12 Claims
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1. A computer implemented method to manage options in a supply and distribution chain for the purpose of minimizing the environmental impact of various options in the supply and distribution chain based on an estimate of environmental impact, comprising the steps of:
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calculating carbon footprint data in a supply and distribution chain by processing green house gas (GHG) emission data for various options within the supply and distribution chain; storing the calculated carbon footprint data in a database; generating by one or more client computers various options for a product or products in a particular point in the supply and distribution chain; requesting by said one or more client computers using the generated options data from a server data from the server concerning not only monetary costs and delivery times of the various options, but also the environmental impact of those options; accessing the database by the server in response to requests from said one or more client computers to retrieve the carbon footprint data for each of the various options; and providing by said one or more client computers data retrieved from the server to users of said one or more client computers so that users can make choices based, at least in part, on the environmental impact of the choices. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 12)
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6. A system for supplying products to customers which accounts for a carbon dioxide impact imposed by the supply and distribution of one or more products to one or more customers in a supply and distribution chain, comprising:
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a greenhouse gas (GHG) calculator which calculates a carbon footprint due to GHG emission data for various options within the supply and distribution chain; at least one database for storing the carbon footprint data calculated by the GHG calculator; one or more client computers which generate various options for a product or products in a particular point in the supply and distribution chain, said one or more client computers generating queries concerning not only monetary costs and delivery times of various options, but also the environmental impact of the various options; and a server connected to said at least one database and to said one or more client computers, said server responding to queries from said one or more client computers to access data in said at least one database to provide requested data to said one or more client computers. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9)
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11. A computer readable medium containing code for implementing a method to manage options in a supply and distribution chain for the purpose of minimizing the environmental impact of various options in the supply and distribution chain based on an estimate of environmental impact, said method comprising the steps of:
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calculating carbon footprint data in a supply and distribution chain by processing green house gas (GHG) emission data for various options within the supply and distribution chain; storing the calculated carbon footprint data in a database; generating by one or more client computers various options for a product or products in a particular point in the supply and distribution chain; requesting by said one or more client computers using the generated options data from a server data from the server concerning not only monetary costs and delivery times of the various options, but also the environmental impact of those options; accessing the database by the server in response to requests from said one or more client computers to retrieve the carbon footprint data for each of the various options; and providing by said one or more client computers data retrieved from the server to users of said one or more client computers so that users can make choices based, at least in part, on the environmental impact of the choices.
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Specification