Information processing system, information processing method, and program

Abstract

To make it possible to manage the voucher related to calculation of greenhouse gas emissions.SOLUTION: An information processing system includes: a voucher acquisition unit which acquires voucher data that indicates basic data for calculating an environmental index; a basic data acquisition unit which acquires the basic data; a voucher data storage unit which stores the voucher data; an environmental index calculation unit which calculates an environmental index based on the basic data; an association database which stores information specifying the environmental index and information specifying the voucher data, in association with each other; and a voucher output unit which receives a designation of information specifying an environmental index, specifies, from the association database, voucher data corresponding to the designated environmental index, and reads, from the voucher data storage unit, and outputs the specified voucher data.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an information processing system, an information processing method, and a program. [Background technology]

[0002] Emissions of carbon dioxide and other substances have been calculated (see Patent Document 1). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2007-164754 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] It is required to maintain evidence to verify the data on which emissions are calculated.

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of the above background, and aims to provide a technique capable of managing evidence related to environmental indicators. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] The main invention of the present invention for solving the above problem is an information processing system comprising: a supporting document acquisition unit for acquiring supporting document data displaying basic data for calculating an environmental index; a basic data acquisition unit for acquiring the basic data; a supporting document data storage unit for storing the supporting document data; an environmental index calculation unit for calculating the environmental index based on the basic data; a correspondence database for linking and storing information identifying the environmental index and information identifying the supporting document data; and a supporting document output unit for accepting designation of information identifying the environmental index, identifying the supporting document data corresponding to the specified environmental index from the correspondence database, and reading out and outputting the identified supporting document data from the supporting document data storage unit.

[0007] Other problems and solutions disclosed in this application will be made clear in the description of the preferred embodiments of the invention and the drawings. Effect of the Invention

[0008] According to the present invention, evidence relating to the calculation of greenhouse gas emissions can be managed. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the overall configuration of an information processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of a server device 2. [Diagram 3] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a software configuration of the server device 2. [Figure 4] 4 is a diagram illustrating the flow of a process for calculating an emission amount in the information processing system according to the present embodiment. FIG. [Diagram 5] 11 is a diagram illustrating the flow of output processing of evidential data in the information processing system of this embodiment. FIG. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0010] <System Overview> An information processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below. The information processing system of this embodiment is intended to manage supporting data that certifies data used in calculating environmental indices. The environmental indices may include, for example, information indicating loads related to environmental problems such as the following:

[0011] Environmental Issues: 1. Climate Change Load: Greenhouse gas emission indicators (CO2 emissions, CH4 emissions, N2O emissions, CFC emissions, etc.)

[0012] Environmental Issues: 2. Ozone Layer Depletion Load: Ozone depleting substances (ODP) consumption index (CFC and halon consumption, etc.)

[0013] Environmental Issues: 3. Eutrophication Loads: Nitrogen and phosphorus emissions to water and soil, nutrient balance (fertilizer consumption and nitrogen and phosphorus from livestock, etc.)

[0014] Environmental issues: 4. Acidification Load: Acidifying substance emission indicators (NOX, SOX emissions, etc.)

[0015] Environmental Issues: 5. Hazardous Substance Status Load: Heavy metal emissions, organic compound emissions (e.g. pesticide consumption)

[0016] Environmental issues: 6. Urban environmental quality Load: SOX, NOX, VOC emissions in urban areas (urban traffic density, urban vehicle ownership, urbanization rate (urban population growth rate, urban land use), etc.)

[0017] Environmental Issues: 7. Biodiversity Loads: Alteration of habitat from natural conditions and land conversion (road network density, changes in soil cover, etc.)

[0018] Environmental Issues: 8. Landscape Loads: presence of man-made elements, areas protected for historical, cultural or aesthetic reasons, etc.

[0019] Environmental Issues: 9. Waste Load: Waste generation (municipal waste, industrial waste, hazardous waste, nuclear waste) (e.g. transportation of hazardous waste)

[0020] Environmental issues: 10. Water resources Load: Water resource use intensity (collection fee / available resource amount)

[0021] Environmental issues: 11. Forest resources Load: forest resource utilization intensity (actual harvest volume / production capacity)

[0022] Environmental Issues: 12. Fisheries Resources Load: Catch

[0023] Environmental issues: 13. Soil degradation (erosion and desertification) Loads: Erosion risk: Potential and actual land use for agriculture (e.g. land use change)

[0024] Environmental issues: 14.Special material resources Load: Intensity of use of material resources, etc.

[0025] Environmental issues: 15. Socio-economic sectoral and general indicators (not limited to specific environmental issues) Loads: population growth rate / density, GDP growth rate and composition, private and government final consumption expenditure, industrial output, composition of energy supply, road traffic, vehicle ownership, agricultural production, etc.

[0026] In this embodiment, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions is assumed as the environmental index, but the environmental index is not limited to this.

[0027] 1 is a diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of an information processing system according to this embodiment. The information processing system according to this embodiment is configured to include a server device 2. The server device 2 is communicably connected to a user terminal 1 via a communication network. The communication network is, for example, the Internet, and is constructed by a public telephone line network, a mobile phone line network, a wireless communication path, Ethernet (registered trademark), or the like.

[0028] The server device 2 is a computer that calculates greenhouse gas emissions. The server device 2 may be a general-purpose computer such as a workstation or a personal computer, or may be logically realized by cloud computing.

[0029] The user terminal 1 is a computer used by a user, such as a smartphone, a tablet computer, a personal computer, etc. The user operates the user terminal 1 to access the server device 2 and calculate the amount of greenhouse gas emissions.

[0030] <Server device 2> FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of the server device 2. Note that the illustrated configuration is an example, and other configurations may be used. The server device 2 includes a CPU 201, a memory 202, a storage device 203, a communication interface 204, an input device 205, and an output device 206. The storage device 203 is, for example, a hard disk drive, a solid state drive, or a flash memory that stores various data and programs. The communication interface 204 is an interface for connecting to the communication network 3, and is, for example, an adapter for connecting to Ethernet (registered trademark), a modem for connecting to a public telephone line network, a wireless communication device for wireless communication, a USB (Universal Serial Bus) connector or an RS232C connector for serial communication, etc. The input device 205 is, for example, a keyboard, a mouse, a touch panel, a button, a microphone, etc. that input data. The output device 206 is, for example, a display, a printer, a speaker, etc. that output data. Each functional unit of the server device 2 described below is realized by the CPU 201 reading a program stored in the storage device 203 into the memory 202 and executing it, and each storage unit of the server device 2 is realized as part of the storage area provided by the memory 202 and the storage device 203.

[0031] 3 is a diagram showing an example of the software configuration of the server device 2. The server device 2 includes a voucher data storage unit 231, a corresponding database 232, a basic data storage unit 233, a voucher acquisition unit 211, a basic data acquisition unit 212, an emission amount calculation unit 213, a voucher output unit 214, and a basic data output unit 215.

[0032] The voucher acquisition unit 211 acquires voucher data in which basic data for calculating the amount of greenhouse gas emissions is displayed. The basic data can be, for example, at least one of the amount of activity and the emission coefficient.

[0033] Evidence data related to activity amounts is data that represents evidence, such as invoices, receipts, and contracts. Evidence related to Scope 1 (direct emissions) of the GHG (Green House Gas) Protocol could include, for example, receipts for filling up at a gas station, invoices for gas or coal, etc. Evidence related to Scope 2 (indirect emissions) could include, for example, electricity receipts and contracts. Evidence related to Scope 3 (emissions by related companies) for Category 1 (purchased goods and services) could include, for example, purchase orders, invoices, contracts, and receipts related to the procurement of raw materials and parts, or procurement system data and bills of materials.

[0034] Furthermore, examples of supporting data relating to emissions include primary data on the emission intensity of raw materials obtained from suppliers (which may be calculated independently by the supplier or may be verified by a third party).

[0035] The evidence data may be, for example, image data. The image data may be, for example, data captured by a camera (not shown) included in the user terminal 1. The evidence data may be, for example, a document such as a PDF file, or a structured file such as XML.

[0036] For example, the evidence acquisition unit 211 may accept upload of evidence data from the user terminal 1, or may acquire evidence data attached to a message such as an email or a chat message sent from the user terminal 1. In addition, when the user can directly operate the server device 2, the server device 2 may be provided with a camera and a scanner, and the evidence may be photographed using the camera and the scanner of the server device 2. The evidence acquisition unit 211 can register the acquired evidence data in the evidence data storage unit 231.

[0037] The evidence data storage unit 231 stores evidence data. For example, the evidence data storage unit 231 can store evidence data in association with an evidence ID that identifies the evidence and a user ID that indicates the user who registered the evidence. The evidence data storage unit 231 can be implemented as a relational database or an object database, or can be implemented as a file system (in this case, the evidence ID can be a path and a file name).

[0038] The basic data acquisition unit 212 reads out basic data from the evidence data. The basic data acquisition unit 212 can read basic data from image data by, for example, OCR processing. The basic data acquisition unit 212 can also extract basic data from text included in a document. The basic data acquisition unit 212 can register the acquired basic data in the basic data storage unit 233.

[0039] The basic data storage unit 233 stores basic data. The basic data storage unit 233 can store the basic data and a user ID indicating the user who registered the basic data in association with a basic data ID that identifies the basic data.

[0040] The emission calculation unit 213 calculates the emission amount based on the basic data. For example, when the basic data is information indicating the activity amount of a company, the server device 2 is provided with an emission coefficient storage unit that stores an emission coefficient related to the activity of the company, and the emission amount can be calculated by multiplying the read activity amount by the emission coefficient. When the basic data is an emission coefficient of a company, the activity amount of the company (for example, in the case of emissions related to Scope 1, it may be the amount of fuel burned by the user, and in the case of emissions related to Scope 2, it may be the amount of electricity used by the user, and in the case of emissions related to Scope 3, it may be the amount of goods purchased by the user from the company, the amount of goods sold by the user, or the delivery ton-kilometers of the goods sold by the user) can be obtained by, for example, accessing an accounting system or accepting an input from the user, and the emission amount can be calculated by multiplying the obtained activity amount by the read emission coefficient. When the basic data includes both an emission coefficient and an activity amount, the emission amount can be calculated by multiplying the read emission coefficient and activity amount. When the basic data is an emission amount, the emission amount read from the supporting data can be used as is.

[0041] The correspondence database 232 stores information specifying the emission amount (emission amount specifying information, environmental indicator specifying information) and information specifying the supporting data in association with each other. The correspondence database 232 can also store information specifying basic data in association with each other. In this embodiment, the correspondence database 232 stores emission amount specifying information, a basic data ID specifying the basic data, and a supporting document ID indicating the supporting document in association with each other. The emission amount specifying information can include time information such as the year, month, and day. The emission amount specifying information can also include information (such as a user ID) specifying the greenhouse gas output entity (such as a company) related to the emission. The emission amount specifying information can also include the product or service to be calculated.

[0042] The evidence output unit 214 outputs evidence data. The evidence output unit 214 can accept designation of emission amount identifying information. For example, the evidence output unit 214 can accept designation of time information such as a year, a month, or a day. The evidence output unit 214 can also accept designation of a subject of emission in addition to or instead of the time information. The evidence output unit 214 can also accept information identifying a product or service to be calculated in addition to or instead of the time information and / or the subject of emission. The evidence output unit 214 can identify a evidence ID corresponding to the accepted emission identifying information from a corresponding database, and read out and output evidence data corresponding to the identified evidence ID from the evidence data storage unit 231.

[0043] The evidence output unit 214 can output evidence data in response to a request from a third-party certification body (audit body), for example. Also, in response to a request from a user who calculates emissions related to the GHG Protocol, it can specify evidence data related to basic data that is the basis for calculating the emissions from the corresponding database 232, and transmit the specified evidence data together with the emissions to (the information processing device of) the third-party certification body.

[0044] The evidence output unit 214 can also accept the designation of basic data in addition to the emission amount specifying information. In this case, the evidence output unit 214 can specify a evidence ID corresponding to the emission amount specifying information and the basic data ID indicating the specified basic data from the corresponding database, and read out the evidence data corresponding to the specified evidence ID from the evidence data storage unit 231 and output it (for example, send it to the user terminal 1).

[0045] The evidence output unit 214 can output a list of evidence data stored in the evidence data storage unit 231. The evidence output unit 214 can output a list of evidence data in response to a request from the user terminal 1. The evidence output unit 214 can read out evidence data corresponding to the user ID of the user terminal 1 from the evidence data storage unit 231 and display the data in a list.

[0046] A user who can access the evidence data may be specified. For example, the server device 2 may be provided with an access information storage unit that stores a user ID (multiple IDs are possible) that identifies a user who can access the evidence data in association with the evidence ID that identifies the evidence data. The evidence output unit 214 can determine whether to output the evidence data (for example, transmit it to the user terminal 1) depending on whether a user ID indicating a user who is going to output the evidence data is registered in the access information storage unit in association with the evidence ID that indicates the evidence data. In addition, the access information storage unit is configured to register whether the evidence data can be browsed, updated, and deleted in association with the user ID and the evidence ID, and the evidence output unit 214 can determine whether to read and output the evidence data in association with the user ID indicating the user who is going to output the evidence data in association with whether the evidence data is set to be browseable, determine whether to update (including overwriting) the evidence data in accordance with an instruction from the user in association with whether the evidence data is set to be updatable in association with the user ID, and determine whether to delete the evidence data in accordance with an instruction from the user in association with whether the evidence data is set to be deletable in association with the user ID.

[0047] The basic data output unit 215 can output basic data (which may be information indicating basic data; the same applies below). The basic data output unit 215 can output, for example, a list of basic data registered in the basic data storage unit 233. The basic data output unit 215 can output a list of basic data in response to, for example, a request from the user terminal 1. The basic data output unit 215 can read out basic data corresponding to the user ID of the user terminal 1 from the basic data storage unit 233 and display the list. The basic data output unit 215 can accept the designation of a basic data ID from the user terminal 1, and read out basic data corresponding to the designated basic data ID from the basic data storage unit 233 and output (for example, transmit to the user terminal 1).

[0048] When outputting a list of basic data, the basic data output unit 215 can determine whether or not a voucher ID corresponding to the basic data ID indicating each basic data is registered in the corresponding database 232, and output the list of basic data together with the determination result.

[0049] The basic data output unit 215 may accept a specification from the user terminal 1 as to whether the supporting data is linked (or not linked), and extract and output basic data whose corresponding supporting data ID is registered (or not registered) in the corresponding database 232.

[0050] The basic data output unit 215 can, for example, accept a designation of emission amount identification information, read a basic data ID corresponding to the accepted emission amount identification information from the corresponding database 232, and read and output (for example, transmit to the user terminal 1) basic data corresponding to the read basic data ID from the basic data storage unit 233.

[0051] <Operation> FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the flow of the emission amount calculation process in the information processing system of this embodiment.

[0052] The server device 2 receives the evidence data from the user terminal 1 (S301), reads basic data from the evidence data by OCR processing or the like (S302), and calculates the greenhouse gas emissions using the basic data (S303).

[0053] The server device 2 stores the supporting evidence data in the supporting evidence data storage unit 231 (S304), and registers in the correspondence database 232 the emission identification information that identifies the emission amount, the basic data ID that indicates the basic data, and the supporting evidence ID that indicates the supporting evidence data in association with each other (S305).

[0054] When multiple types of basic data are received to calculate the emission amount, there may be cases where the basic data is received without receiving the supporting data.

[0055] FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the flow of output processing of evidence data in the information processing system of this embodiment.

[0056] The server device 2 receives the emission amount identification information and the basic data ID from the user terminal 1 (S321). The basic data ID may be omitted. The server device 2 identifies the evidence ID corresponding to the received emission amount identification information and basic data ID from the corresponding database 232, reads out the evidence data corresponding to the identified evidence ID from the evidence data storage unit 231 (S322), and outputs (sends to the user terminal 1) the read evidence data (S323).

[0057] As described above, the information processing system of this embodiment can manage supporting data related to basic data used to calculate greenhouse gas emissions in association with the emissions and basic data. Therefore, in the case of an audit or third-party certification, the supporting data corresponding to the emissions and the basic data used to calculate the emissions can be easily presented.

[0058] Although the present embodiment has been described above, the above embodiment is intended to facilitate understanding of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the present invention. The present invention may be modified or improved without departing from the spirit of the present invention, and equivalents thereof are also included in the present invention.

[0059] For example, in the present embodiment, the system is a client-server system. However, the user terminal 1 may also have the functions of the server device 2.

[0060] In addition, in this embodiment, the basic data is read from the evidence data by processing such as OCR, but for example, when the basic data is corrected by the user terminal 1, the input of the basic data may be accepted from the user terminal 1 and learned. For example, the range of the basic data described in the evidence data and the contents of the basic data may be received from the user terminal 1, and the learning model for performing OCR may be updated by machine learning using the evidence data, the range, and the contents as training data. This can improve the reading accuracy by so-called AIOCR.

[0061] In addition, in this embodiment, the basic data is read from the supporting data, but for example, the basic data may be received from the user terminal 1, the amount of emissions may be calculated using the basic data received from the user terminal 1, and the supporting data related to the basic data may be received from the user terminal 1, and the server device 2 may associate the basic data with the supporting data. In this case, the server device 2 may include a learning model storage unit that stores a learning model that has been subjected to machine learning using the basic data and the supporting data as training data, and the type of basic data (basic data ID) may be inferred from the supporting data received from the user terminal 1 using the learning model, and the supporting data may be associated with the basic data. The server device 2 may link the basic data ID indicating the inferred basic data with the supporting data ID indicating the supporting data in the correspondence database 232.

[0062] In addition, in this embodiment, the correspondence database 232 corresponds the emission amount, basic data, and supporting evidence, but it may also correspond between the emission amount (emission amount identification information) and supporting evidence (support ID), or between the basic data (basic data ID) and supporting evidence (support ID). [Explanation of symbols]

[0063] 1 User terminal 2. Server equipment

Claims

1. The information processing system: The supporting document data is acquired and stored in the supporting document data storage unit. Basic data is obtained from the supporting data. Greenhouse gas emissions are calculated based on the above basic data. The emission amount specifying information that specifies the emission amount and the supporting data specifying information that specifies the supporting data are linked and stored in a corresponding database. The device accepts the designation of the emission specification information, identifies the supporting data specification information corresponding to the emission specification information from the corresponding database, and outputs the supporting data corresponding to the identified supporting data specification information.

2. The information processing system according to claim 1 further performs the following. Evidence data is output in response to requests from auditing institutions.

3. obtaining supporting document data; storing the evidence data in a evidence data storage unit; acquiring basic data from the supporting data; calculating greenhouse gas emissions based on the basic data; a step of storing emission amount identification information that identifies the emission amount and evidence data identification information that identifies the evidence data in a correspondence database in association with each other; receiving designation of the emission amount specifying information, specifying the supporting data specifying information corresponding to the emission amount specifying information from the correspondence database, and outputting the supporting data corresponding to the specified supporting data specifying information; An information processing method characterized by being executed by an information processing device.

4. obtaining supporting document data; storing the evidence data in a evidence data storage unit; acquiring basic data from the supporting data; calculating greenhouse gas emissions based on the basic data; a step of storing emission amount identification information that identifies the emission amount and evidence data identification information that identifies the evidence data in a correspondence database in association with each other; receiving designation of the emission amount specifying information, specifying the supporting data specifying information corresponding to the emission amount specifying information from the correspondence database, and outputting the supporting data corresponding to the specified supporting data specifying information; A program for causing an information processing device to execute the above.

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