Apparatus, System, and Method for Quantifying Bundling, and Applying Credits and Incentives to Financial Transactions

• US 20090228320A1
• Filed: 03/09/2009
• Published: 09/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: EQS Incorporated
• Original Assignee: EQS Incorporated
• Inventors: Baker, James A., Lopez, Teresa
• Granted Patent: US 8,412,643 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/123 Tax preparation or submission
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 40/70 Smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the energy generation sector
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/50 Systems or methods supporting the power network operation or management, involving a certain degree of interaction with the load-side end user applications

Abstract

An apparatus, system, and method for quantifying, aggregating and bundling green incentives based on green construction enables applying at least a portion of the credits/incentives to financial transactions. Quantification includes estimating and/or monitoring usage of utilities, comparing the usage to a predetermined baseline value, and valuating an effectual energy savings that includes actual savings plus incentive values. Quantification relies on a database, which may include credits, deductions, and other green incentives data that contribute to the effectual savings. The effectual savings may be applied to early repayment of a mortgage loan, improved terms for the loan, investment in securities, and/or other trading. The method standardizes values of green incentives in energy units and/or monetary units. The method aids in qualifying the building projects based on a concrete estimation of the effectual energy savings. The method forms a bridge between green or sustainable/renewable technologies and the financial institutions and markets.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising a computer program storage medium readable by a processor and embodying one or more instructions executable by a processor to perform a method for determining incentives for green transactions, the apparatus comprising:

an analysis module configured to quantify respective values of at least one green incentive from a group of green incentives;

a bundling module configured to bundle the values that have been quantified according to at least one party of interest; and

an execution module configured to apply at least a portion of the values of the at least one green incentive that have been quantified to at least one financial transaction on behalf of the at least one party of interest.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of parties of interest including the at least one party of interest, wherein:

the parties of interest are from the group consisting of financial institutions, developers, utility companies, and building owners associated with a plurality of green construction projects including at least one green construction project;

the bundling module is configured to group the values according to the respective parties of interest; and

the execution module is configured to apply the values of the green incentives to financial transactions involving the parties of interest.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the bundling module is configured to group the values for green construction projects associated with respective parties of interest for a specified geographic region.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a correlation module configured to correlate the at least one green incentive to a plurality of green construction projects.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein:

the correlation module is configured to selectively combine a plurality of the green incentives into a package; and

the bundling module is configured to combine a plurality of packages including the package into a bundle associated with the party of interest based on at least one of retrofit construction and new building construction that involves at least one of sustainable features and green features.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein:

the correlation module is configured to correlate all green incentives that are available to the plurality of green construction projects, the green incentives being from the group consisting of national tax credits, national tax deductions, state tax credits, state tax deductions, local tax credits, local tax deductions, municipal bonds, utility company buy backs, carbon credits, and renewable energy credits; and

the analysis module is configured to quantify a value of each of the green incentives that is available.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the execution module is configured to apply for the green incentive to at least one of a national government, state government, local government, carbon credit securities agency, and utility company;

the execution module further comprising a forms module that accesses at least one form with which to apply for the green incentive; and

the forms module accesses a plurality of forms corresponding to a respective plurality of recipients, the forms module configured to automatically fill in at least a portion of the forms.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a securities exchange module configured to apply for carbon credits based on carbon emissions reduction.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a securities exchange module configured to enable purchase and sell of at least one of carbon credits, energy at conserving incentive values, and energy generating incentive values.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the analysis module is configured to determine a baseline value and compare a usage of at least one utility to the baseline value and calculate an energy savings;

the analysis module adds the value of the at least one green incentive to the energy savings for an effectual energy savings value; and

the execution module is configured to apply at least a portion of the effectual energy savings value to the financial transaction.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the execution module applies the portion of the effectual energy savings to a plurality of payments from an escrow account.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the modules is configured to convert the value of the green incentive and a unit of usage for a utility into a single common unit of at least one of energy and currency.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the analysis module further comprises a modeling module configured to model reduced financial risk due to green incentive values in the model; and

the modeling module configured to illustrate an effectual energy savings to facilitate capital funding for at least one of retrofit construction and new build construction that includes at least one of sustainable features and green features;

wherein the modeling module illustrates cost outlays and utility spreads for at least one of break even and profit potential models.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the modeling module quantifies a carbon load reduction for each of a plurality of buildings and calculates a total carbon load savings for the plurality of buildings.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the total carbon load savings is an estimate to determine a potential savings in a predetermined region.

16. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a mortgagor module including at least a portion of one of the analysis module and the execution module, the mortgagor module configured for setting terms of a loan and applying at least a portion of the value of the green incentive to repayment of the loan.

17. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a tax incentives module configured to identify, quantify, and apply for at least one tax incentive from among the green incentives.

18. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is an article of manufacture comprising the computer program storage medium readable by the processor and embodying one or more instructions executable by the processor to perform a method for determining at least one green incentive and applying at least a portion of the green incentive to a financial transaction, the method comprising:

determining the at least one green incentive according to the instructions; and

applying at least a portion of a value of the green incentive to a financial transaction.

19. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a metering module configured to receive signals representing usage of one or more of energy, temperature, flow, current, volume, and mass of at least one utility;

the analysis module configured to predetermine a baseline value and compare usage of the at least one utility to the predetermined value and determine a savings of energy; and

the execution module configured to apply at least a portion of the savings to the financial transaction.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising at least one sensor operatively connected to the metering module for detecting usage of at least one of the energy, temperature, flow, current, volume, and mass of the at least one utility.

21. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

the analysis module configured to predetermine a baseline value of energy usage for a conventional energy building;

the analysis module configured to;

quantify at least one of an actual energy usage and a predicted energy usage for at least one of a green energy building and a sustainable energy building;

compare the at least one of the actual and the predicted energy usage to the predetermined baseline value; and

determine a savings of energy; and

the execution module configured to save at least one of the base line value, actual energy usage, predicted energy usage, and energy savings to a database.

22. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an article of manufacture comprising the computer program storage medium readable by the processor and embodying one or more instructions executable by the processor to perform a method for determining an energy savings and applying at least a portion of the savings to a financial transaction, the method comprising:

automatically quantifying an energy savings according to the instructions; and

applying at least a portion of the energy savings to a financial transaction.

23. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the green incentive is for a green feature on an automobile.

24. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the bundling module is configured to bundle the incentives based on eligibility of at least one of the parties of interest.

25. A method of quantifying a green incentive and applying the green incentive to a financial transaction, the method comprising:

automatically quantifying respective values of at least one green incentive from a group of green incentives;

automatically bundling the values of the at least one green incentive that have been quantified, wherein bundling the values is for at least one party of interest; and

automatically applying at least a portion of the values of the at least one green incentive that have been quantified to at least one financial transaction on behalf of the at least one party of interest.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising a plurality of parties of interest including the at least one party of interest, the method further comprising:

bundling the values according to the respective parties of interest, wherein the parties of interest are associated with a plurality of green construction projects, the parties of interest being from the group consisting of financial institutions, developers, utility companies, and real property owners;

applying the values of the green incentives to financial transactions involving the parties of interest.

27. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

selectively combining a plurality of the green incentives into a package; and

bundling a plurality of packages including the package into a bundle associated with the party of interest based on at least one of retrofit construction and new building construction that involves at least one of sustainable features and green features.

28. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

quantifying an energy usage;

determining an effectual energy savings by comparing the energy usage to a predetermined baseline and adding a quantified value of the at least one green incentive.

29. The method of claim 25, further comprising automatically correlating the at least one green incentive to a plurality of green construction projects.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein:

automatically correlating further comprises correlating all green incentives that are available for the plurality of green construction projects, the green incentives being from the group consisting of national tax credits, national tax deductions, state tax credits, state tax deductions, local tax credits, local tax deductions, municipal bonds, utility company buy backs, carbon credits, and renewable energy credits;

wherein automatically quantifying further comprises quantifying a value of each of the green incentives that is available for each of the green construction projects.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein:

automatically correlating comprises receiving input through a user interface regarding the plurality of incentives;

the operation of receiving input comprises receiving input regarding the green incentives in at least one of a particular, city, state, country and region; and

the operation of receiving input comprises receiving input under control of machine readable code physically embodied in storage media in a digital processing device.

32. The method of claim 25, further comprising applying for the green incentive to at least one of a national government, state government, local government, carbon credit securities agency, and utility company, wherein applying for the green incentive comprises accessing at least one form from among a plurality of forms and applying for the green incentive with the at least one form.

33. The method of claim 25, further comprising automatically charging a fee to the at least one party of interest for using the method, wherein the party of interest is from the group consisting of financial institutions, developers, utility companies, and real property owners.

34. The method of claim 25, further comprising absorbing an infrastructure cost for the at least one green construction project by applying at least a portion of the value of the green incentive to payment of the infrastructure cost.

35. The method of claim 25, wherein automatically quantifying respective values of at least one green incentive comprises quantifying a value of a green incentive for a green feature on an automobile.