Sustainability Indicator Algorithm for Product Component Assessment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems for calculating a product's sustainability, or 'green-ness,' do not consider membership of its components in regulatory lists worldwide, which are crucial for a comprehensive environmental impact assessment.
Innovation Solution
A computer-based algorithm that calculates a sustainability indicator by determining the membership of product components in regulatory lists, assigning weighting factors to these categories, and combining interim indicators to provide a total sustainability score for classifications such as health and environmental impact.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If current sustainability calculation systems are used, then the calculation process is simple, but the assessment is incomplete because regulatory list membership is not considered
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the sustainability assessment into multiple regulatory categories (e.g., health hazards, environmental hazards, physical hazards) with sub-categories for different regulatory lists. This segmentation allows comprehensive assessment by systematically evaluating each regulatory aspect separately while maintaining overall system organization and manageability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary database layer that stores regulatory list memberships and connects product component data with regulatory requirements. This intermediary structure facilitates comprehensive assessment without requiring direct complex interactions between all system elements, thereby managing complexity while enabling complete evaluation.
2Measurement precision
If regulatory list membership is considered, then the sustainability assessment becomes more comprehensive, but the calculation complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by assigning different weighting factors to different regulatory categories and sub-categories based on their relative importance. This allows the system to emphasize critical regulatory aspects (e.g., known carcinogens) while still considering all regulatory requirements, thereby achieving accurate assessment without uniformly complex treatment of all data.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes parameters by introducing weighting factors that can be adjusted to reflect different regulatory priorities and product types. This parameter adjustment mechanism enables the same comprehensive assessment framework to adapt to different assessment needs, maintaining accuracy while allowing flexibility in managing computational complexity through prioritization.
Data Source
AI summary
The system and method of this disclosure calculates an indicator of a product's sustainability (i.e., green-ness) based on an algorithm that considers membership of a component(s) of the product in regulatory lists (grouped by regulatory category), the percentage of the component in the product and weighting factors for the regulatory categories. The algorithm can run the calculation for every component of the product, and for every regulatory category to determine a sustainability indicator for a classification, such as a health related classification, environmental related classification, physical hazard classification, etc.