WO2006131789A1

WO2006131789A1 - A global pollution rating system for products and services

Info

Publication number: WO2006131789A1
Application number: PCT/IB2005/052129
Authority: WO
Inventors: Mehran Sam; Claude Vorilhon
Original assignee: Mehran Sam
Priority date: 2005-06-10
Filing date: 2005-06-28
Publication date: 2006-12-14

Abstract

A simple numeric algorithm is developed to measure the pollution impact of any product or service. The Pollution Rating (PR) system is based on basic economic and environmental principles and is designed to be a robust tool that is broad in its application in order to be pertinent to all human activities involved in the making or use of all products and services.

Description

A Global Pollution Rating System for Products and Services Disclosure of Invention

Technical Problem

[1] Pollution causes damage to ecosystem and to human health and welfare. There is increasing awareness about the harmful consequences of waste products. As a result there is increasing effort to measure and regulate pollution in order to eliminate its negative impact.

[2] The Pollution Rating (PR) system is a simple numerical algorithm developed to measure the pollution impact of every product and service. It is based on basic economic and environmental principles and is designed to be a robust tool that is broad in its application in order to be pertinent to all human activities including manufacturing, production and services.

[3] A pollution rating system of products and services is necessary to protect environment and ecosystem from long term negative human impact. This rating is devised in the belief that environmental initiatives such as the Kyoto protocol, although genuine in intention and goals, are not robust enough and are too limited in scope to reverse negative human impact on environment, (see U.S. Chamber Position on Climate Change).

[4] The forces of market economy have repeatedly overwhelmed the plans to control or regulate it. What is different with the PR system is that its driving force is based on the very same factors in a market economy that cause the pollution in the first place, namely, the consumer choice.

[5] Presently consumers have little or no options in considering the environmental impact of products or services they decide to purchase and use. If all products and services carry a Pollution Rating number as described here, consumers will have a convenient and easy-to-understand measure to ascertain and compare environmental impact of the products they select for purchase.

[6] In this document, products are defined very widely and includes all products or services that are exchanged for an economic purpose or otherwise. 'Products' and 'services' and any combinations of these words are used broadly and interchangeably throughout this document. Similarly, 'production' is used as a very general term encompassing all activities required to produce a product or service until it reaches the consumer. Such activities include but are not limited to discovery, invention, design, building, manufacturing, assembly, marketing, transport and distribution of the product or service.

Technical Solution

[7] Production Pollution Rating (PPR) and Utilization Pollution Rating (UPR)

[8] Each product will contain two pollution numbers which are added together to form the final PR number. The two numbers are Production Pollution Rating (PPR) and Utilization Pollution Rating (UPR). PPR is the pollution rating number of a product or service that describes in a simple numeric figure the quantity and type of all measurable pollution generated as a result of the production of a unit of the product or service.

[9] Production as mentioned includes all activities involved such as the discovery, assembly, manufacturing, marketing, transport and distribution of the product or service until it reaches the consumer. In quantifying the PPR of a product or service, the PRs of its constituent material, parts and components are taken into account as will be described later in the examples provided below.

[10] UPR on the other hand is the pollution rating number that describes the quantity and type of all measurable pollution generated as a result of the use, disposal or recycling of a unit of the product or service by the consumer until the product or service is decomposed back to its original molecular form in the ecosystem or until it is recycled to a reusable material form.

[11] Consumers will be able to judge a product for its impact on environment by simply comparing their PPR and UPR numbers. To simplify consumer choice, PPR and UPR numbers can be combined in multiple ways such as by simply adding them to give the final Pollution Rating or PR.

[12] Formula 1 : PR = PPR + UPR

[13] Pollution Rating (PR) is therefore a single number that indicates the pollution factor per unit of a product sold or a service rendered to the consumer. Companies must constantly attempt to lower the PR number of their products and services in order to remain competitive in the market place. This will constitute a strong market force that continually lessens the impact of technology and industry on environment.

[14] Example 1. AU services can also carry PR numbers. As an example, wireless phone services will carry a PR number for the service itself that can be per unit time (a month or a year), distinct from the PR number of the equipment like the mobile phone or chargers. Consumers will therefore have a simple yet important environmental PR criteria to help them choose among alternatives offered by the service providers.

[15] How to measure Production Pollution Rating (PPR)

[16] PPR is simply the total pollution generated per unit of a product or service before the product or service reaches the consumer. The PPR is the summation of all PRs of the constituent materials and components of a product, as well as the PRs of all the processes that are required before the product reaches a consumer. These include but are not limited to the PRs of research, discovery, design, invention, mining of raw materials, manufacturing of components, transport, assembly, packaging, marketing, distribution and selling.

[17] All materials, components, processes and services in the life cycle of a product requires energy, human resources and material resources as input and generates a variety of pollution (in the forms of gas, liquid, solid, sound, wave, heat, electronic or information waste) as output, all of which can be measured and quantified. All materials and components, from their discovery, research, mining for raw material to their assembly and transport, will have their own PR values.

[18] To quantify materials, resources and processes for their pollution impact, all the elements and factors that are involved in the manufacturing of a product or rendering of a service can be classified into the following categories: material resources (MR), human time (HT), energy (E) and process (Pr). In turn, what is produced, is the product or service (P/S) itself plus waste material or pollution (Po). (see Figure 1)

[19] The PPR of a product or service is computed by adding the PR values of all elements and factors necessary for its production. Since MR, HT, E and Pr are utilized to manufacture the product, the PR (which includes both the PPR and the UPR) of these factors are all added up to compute the PPR of the products. In other words, since energy, materials and other factors are utilized and disposed or recycled during the production, the PR values reflect more accurately the pollution rating of these factors.

[20] Formula 2: PPRfP/S^{^}) = MR + HT + E + Pr + Po

[21] In this context, Human Time and different forms of Energy themselves are nothing but a product or service that industries use to manufacture their own products. Therefore Human Time and different Energy forms have their own PR values computed using the same formulas described here.

[22] Example 2. To drill and extract crude oil from wells, it requires energy, human time, resources and many processes including transportation and refinery operations before the extracted gasoline can be used as energy for cars. So each gallon of each type of gasoline in each locality will have a specific PPR number encompassing all its constituent factors, using the formulas described. The PR value of all energy forms such as fossil fuels, hydroelectric, solar, radioactive and others can be similarly quantified.

[23] Example 3. Human Time can also carry a PR number per hour of work based on these formulas because humans need food, commute to their work, and generate pollution as well. Each of these factors will have its own PR value and they will be added up to quantify PR value of Human Time. If robotic machines with a lower PR value than humans can do the same work, industries will shift more work to robots not only to lower costs but to lower the PR values of their products as well.

[24] It may seem like a daunting task to compute PR values for all materials, energies, human time, products and services for consumers in all localities, specially that these values are dynamic as technologies change and the many required processes continually improve. However, a variety of standards and methodologies are already being developed to evaluate environmental impact of basic and common products throughout their life cycle. See for example Eco-Indicator, Global Warming Potential (GWP), and the Waste Index (WI) systems in the Reference list.

[25] Such methodologies allow for labeling of basic materials and services for their

Pollution Ratings from which the PR values for more complex products and services can be computed. These methodologies which all fall under the rubric Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), attempt to measure the waste implications of any product and their impact on environment and human health. However these methodologies have not so far expanded their applications to actual products and services that reach consumers. In addition they have so far failed to use market forces adequately to make pollution production a factor in consumer choice of products and services. This present patent covering a pollution rating system is a novel approach to address this shortcoming.

[26] How to measure Utilization Pollution Rating (UPR)

[27] UPR is simply the total pollution generated per unit of a product or service from the time it reaches the consumer until the product or service and all its components are recycled or decomposed back to raw materials. The UPR similar to PPR is quantified based on the summation of all PRs of the required elements and factors that are involved in its utilization, recycling and decomposition, namely, material resources (MR), human time (HT), energy (E), process (Pr) and pollution (Po). (see Figure 1)

[28] In addition to utilization pollution cost, UPR includes disposal and recycling cost in terms of pollution it generates. It is reasonable to include pollution cost of disposal and recycling in the UPR since consumer is generally the ultimate agent that decides how and when to dispose of the product or service. Thus UPR takes into account all pollution generated during utilization, disposal, and recycling or decomposition until the product turns back into raw materials in nature or it becomes material resource for another product or service. In summary:

[29] Formula 3 : UPRflP/SI = MR + HT + E + Pr + Po

[30] Example 4. A computer printer needs energy to run, and needs paper and ink cartridges during its utilization as material resources needed for its operation. It also needs transportation and other processes for its recycling and generates many possible pollution types such as plastic, ink, and metal until the components are recycled or decomposed. Each element and each process has its own specific PR which are all added to compute the final UPR of the printer. The PR of each element or factor involved (MR, HT, E, Pr, Po) is computed using the same formulas.

Advantageous Effects

[31 ] The Unique Features of PR

[32] Pollution Rating numbers can be computed for a bottle of water, a computer network, a vacation trip, or even for a whole city. When the PR of the basic energies, materials and processes are computed, standardized, indexed and put in place, computation and use of complex PRs will be feasible and will not be any more complicated than estimating the price of a product when industries compute the monetary costs involved in their products. [33] The state of the art and knowledge in each field and industry determines how best to measure and establish PPR and UPR numbers for products and services in that field starting with the PR numbers of the basic materials and processes.

[34] A feasible index that can be used to measure pollution is the Waste Unit (WU) developed by Jan Emblemsvag and Bert Bras called the Waste Index system. One WU is very large and is equal to the global release of CO2 from all fossil fuel burning. Although the unit is derived from carbon dioxide release, all pollutants can be indexed and scored in terms of the Waste Unit according to the relative damage they cause to the environment.

[35] This system therefore allows all waste to be measured in a comparative manner using a universal scale which is based on the same WU unit. To illustrate the concept of pollution rating, we here use 1 pico WU = 10^~12 WU as the unit to measure and calculate the Production Pollution Rating (PPR) of an automobile manufactured in an industrial facility. Using the same principles described here for PPR and those in other examples, one will also be able to quantify UPR of an automobile as well. Then the summation of UPR and PPR would define the final PR of an automobile.

[36] We use pico WU here as the unit for PR values only for illustration purposes. The use of pico WU is just to clarify the process of PR quantification and is not meant to limit the utility of this invention or to restrict the units that can be used for PR quantification. Indeed more accurate measures and units of pollution may be developed in order to more accurately quantify the PR of products and services.

[37] When PR values and labeling on products become widespread, industrial facilities with the largest toxic releases, including mines, smelters, and pulp mills will quickly need to find ways to reduce their waste discharges in air, water, land or underground injection by reducing their PR values to remain competitive in their operations. Technological progress will not only be utilized to reduce costs but to reduce the pollution rating of products and services as well.

[38] There are alternative methodologies under development to measure waste and pollution in gas, liquid and solid forms all of which will contribute to a better determination of PR numbers. In addition pollution in sound, sight and other wave forms are under investigation and there are methodologies to measure and index them. All such measurements will be added in determining more accurate PR numbers as these methodologies mature over time.

[39] New forms of pollution may come into existence as new products and technologies are developed, all of which can be eventually measured and included in determining PRs. One such example is information pollution like spam email and other similar data-related waste which already have significant impact on economic productivity and will be integrated into the PR number of relevant products and services.

[40] It should be clear how the PR system has the potential to transform our views on the environmental impact of industry and how this system has the potential to establish an effective and novel approach in terms of pollution reduction and the protection of the environment.

Industrial Applicability

[41] Example 5. An automobile manufacturing facility with 5,000 employees produces

250,000 units per year. Every part, component, machinery, tools and resources, electricity and other energy forms that is utilized will have their own PR values from which the final PR of an automobile will be measured.

[42] We assume each employee in this facility commutes 45 minutes per day round-trip on average for a total of 3.4 million hours of automobile use per year. If one hour of automobile use is measured to equal to a PR of 2 pWU, then manufacturing 250,000 automobiles per year requires a PR of 6.8 million (2 X 3,400,000) pWU just for the annual commute of the employees. This may be the total PR of Human Time (HT) factor described before or there may be other elements needed to be taken into consideration to quantify the total HT, such as the PR of the trash produced by the employees after each meal.

[43] Similarly the PR of all parts, components and energy forms used will be calculated and added together to find the annual PR of the facility and the machinery used to manufacture the 250,000 automobiles from its components. We must add to this number, the cost of pollution generated (in pWU) as a result of transportation, marketing and delivery of the automobiles to the consumers as well as all the other associated processes and resources used until the automobile reaches the consumer. Dividing the total annual PR so calculated by 250,000 will result in the production PR (PPR) of each automobile. Again quantifying the PR value will not be any more difficult than quantifying the final monetary cost of an automobile to the consumer.

[44] From the time a consumer acquires an automobile, all processes, energy expenditure and pollution generated as a result of all its utilization, maintenance and repairs needed during its life cycle will be measured and used in quantifying the utilization PR (UPR) of the automobile. As explained before, the UPR includes all utilization, processes and resources involved until the automobile is fully recycled back to materials usable for the production of other goods or until the automobile is decomposed back to its natural elements in nature. Any combinations of partial recycling and partial decomposition is also possible.

[45] Car manufacturers will be able to reduce the final PR of their automobiles by reducing the PRs of any components or at any step of the manufacturing and also by gaining efficiencies in any of the processes involved. Consumers in choosing products with lower PR values will be the driving force in protecting the environment from pollution and waste. PR values also allow for a convenient evaluation of environmental performance of all facilities.

[46] PR values are expected to be clearly marked as a pollution index rating (PIR) label on all products or as an integral part of the literature describing any services. The label can be a simple square box enclosing the letters 'PIR' and a numeric value quantifying the PR of the product or service. Drawing 2 illustrates an example of a PIR label.

References

[47] Eco-Indicator. www.pre.nl/eco-indicator99/default.htm

[48] Environmental Priority Strategy, The EPS Indicator. Steen, Bengt, EPS-Default

Valuation of Environmental Impacts from Emission and Use of Resources Version

1996. AFR-REPORT 111, Swedish Environmental Research Institute, IVL, Goteborg. [49] Global Warming Potential (GWP) of gases, www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/gwp.html; www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchangel/current/lectures/samson/global_warming

_potential/ [50] Industry Consortia for Life-Cycle Assessment. www.life-cycle.org/Industry.htm; www.bsdglobal.com/tools/systems_lca.asp [51] ISO 14000 Waste Accounting Standard. ISO 14000 Series Environmental

Management Systems. www.iso 14000-iso 14001 -environmental-management.com/iso 14000.htm [52] LCA Comparability and the Waste Index (WI). Jan Emblemsvag and Bert Bras.

Georgia Institute of Technology. www.srl.gatech.edu/education/ME4171/LCA_WI_

Emblemsvag.pdf

[53] Raelian Movement, www.rael.org

[54] U.S. Chamber Position on Climate Change. The United States Chamber of

Commerce, www.uschamber.com/issues/index/environment/climatechange.htm [55] US Environmental Protection Agency, www.epa.gov

Description of Drawings [56] Figure 1. PPR and UPR. For illustration purpose only. Not to limit the scope of the patent in any form. [57] Figure 2. An example of a Pollution Index Rating (PIR) label to be marked on products or included in the description of a service. For illustration purpose only. Not to limit the scope of the patent in any form.

Mode for Invention [58] The idea for a Pollution Rating System of products and services was first championed by Claude Vorilhon (RAEL), the founder and president of the Raelian

Movement. Using the simple approach described here, we, Claude Vorilhon and

Mehran Sam, developed a feasible methodology to utilize strong market forces such as the consumer power of choice in order to reduce industrial waste and pollution for the protection of environment and its resources. It is the goal of the Raelian Movement

(rael.org) to promote a rational society where intelligent use of science and technology benefits all human beings across generations.

Claims

[1] A method for measuring pollution rating of all products and services to determine the environmental impact of their production as well as their utilization, disposal and recycling.

[2] A method according to claim 1 wherein the environmental impact of production, utilization, disposal and recycling of the product or service is measured by its pollution rating, PR.

[3] A method according to claims 1 or 2 wherein pollution rating, PR is a rating encompassing both production pollution rating (PPR) and utilization pollution rating (UPR).

[4] A method according to any of the preceding claims wherein the production pollution rating (PPR) of a product or service encompasses all the pollution ratings of all the materials, elements, factors, resources and processes including human resources and others necessary for the production of the product or service.

[5] A method according to any of the preceding claims wherein the utilization pollution rating (UPR) of a product or service encompasses all the pollution ratings of all the materials, elements, factors, resources and processes including human resources and others necessary for the use, utilization, disposal, and/or recycling of the product or service.

[6] A method according to any of the preceding claims wherein the utilization pollution rating (UPR) of a product or service encompasses the use, utilization, disposal, and/or recycling of the product or service by the consumer or anyone else.

[7] A method according to any of the preceding claims wherein the materials, elements, factors, resources and processes including human resources and others necessary for the production or utilization of the product or service used in quantifying the pollution rating (PR) encompasses all of the following but not limited to human time, material resources, all energy forms, all necessary machinery, tools and processes, all manufacturing and industrial plants, all necessary inventory and storage, and all packaging and all transfer, shipping or transport of the product or service.

[8] A method according to any of the preceding claims wherein the materials, elements, factors, resources and processes, including human resources, necessary for the production or utilization of the product or service used in quantifying the pollution rating (PR) encompasses all of the pollution generated whether in the form of energy, gas, liquid, solid or other known or as yet unknown forms.

[9] A pollution index rating (PIR) according to any of the preceding claims wherein the pollution rating (PR) or its constituent parts, PPR or UPR, of products or services may be tabulated for any use or reference by consumers, manufacturers, a third party or anyone else.

[10] A pollution index rating (PIR) according to any of the preceding claims wherein the pollution rating (PR) or its constituent parts, PPR or UPR, of products or services may be tabulated for appraisal, evaluation, or recommendation of a product or service by consumers, manufacturers, a third party or anyone else.

[11] A pollution index rating (PIR) label according to any of the preceding claims used as a label to be presented or marked on products or as an integral attribute of a service to be included in any description of the service.