Dynamic sustainability search engine

Abstract

The innovation relates to systems and/or methodologies for facilitating dynamic sustainability searches. A sustainability search component executes a query, and returns one or more results that satisfy a set of search criteria and a set of sustainability factors. The search criteria can include keywords, such as product types, process types, and additional features related to the keywords, such as price, location, brand, and so forth. The sustainability factors are alternative cost measures for a given process, product, or plant element. The sustainability search component can analyze the returned results, and rank the results based on sustainability.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A sustainability search system, comprising:
 at least one processor coupled to memory retaining instructions for:   a query component that searches at least one target for data elements, wherein the query component is configured to:
 receive a set of search criteria and a set of sustainability factors, wherein the set of search criteria comprises a process, a product made by the process, an article of manufacture of the process, a plant element carrying out the process, or any combination thereof, and wherein the set of sustainability factors comprises one or more measurements of an environmental impact, a socio-environmental impact, or any combination thereof, for the process, the product made by the process, the article of manufacture of the process, the plant element carrying out the process, or any combination thereof; and 
 identify one or more data elements based on the set of search criteria and the set of sustainability factors, wherein the one or more data elements comprise data associated with the process, the product made by the process, the article of manufacture of the process, the plant element carrying out the process, or any combination thereof; and 
   an evaluation component configured to analyze the one or more data elements identified by the query component based on a sustainability score associated with each of the one or more data elements, wherein the sustainability score is a quantitative metric of the sustainability of the data elements and is based at least in part on the set of sustainability factors associated with the data elements.   
     
     
         2 . The sustainability search system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one target comprises a controller, a network device, a website, a data store, a cloud-based data store, or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         3 . The sustainability search system of  claim 1 , wherein each of the one or more data elements comprises the sustainability score. 
     
     
         4 . The sustainability search system of  claim 1 , wherein the evaluation component is configured to determine the sustainability score for each of the one or more data elements. 
     
     
         5 . The sustainability search system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one target is configured to determine the measurements of the environmental impact, the socio-environmental impact, or any combination thereof, for the process, the product made by the process, the article of manufacture of the process, the plant element carrying out the process, or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         6 . The sustainability search system of  claim 1 , wherein the query component is configured to receive the one or more measurements of the environmental impact, the socio-environmental impact, or any combination thereof for the process, the product made by the process, the article of manufacture of the process, the plant element carrying out the process, or any combination thereof from the at least one target. 
     
     
         7 . The sustainability search system of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more data elements comprise a process identifier, a product identifier, or any combination thereof, wherein the process identifier and the product identifier comprises one or more tags relating to the set of search criteria, the set of sustainability factors, or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         8 . The sustainability search system of  claim 1 , comprising a ranking component configured to organize the one or more data elements identified by the query component into a list, a table, a chart, a graph, a matrix, or any combination thereof based on the sustainability scores associated with the one or more data elements. 
     
     
         9 . The sustainability search system of  claim 1 , comprising an interface component comprising an adapter, a connector, a channel, a communication path, or any combination thereof, wherein the interface component is configured to integrate the sustainability search system into an operating system, a database system, or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         10 . The sustainability search system of  claim 1 , wherein the set of sustainability factors comprises the sustainability score for at least one of the one or more data elements. 
     
     
         11 . The sustainability search system of  claim 1 , comprising an artificial intelligence component configured to determine the at least one target via an automatic classifier system and process configured to use an inference approach to determine the at least one target based on an analysis of previous queries. 
     
     
         12 . A controller, comprising:
 memory; and   a processor operatively coupled to the memory and configured to:
 receive a set of search criteria, wherein the set of search criteria comprises a process, a product made by the process, an article of manufacture of the process, a plant element carrying out the process, or any combination thereof; 
 receive a set of sustainability factors comprising one or more measurements of an environmental impact, a socio-environmental impact, or any combination thereof for the respective process, the respective product made by the process, the respective article of manufacture of the process, the respective plant element carrying out the process, or the respective combination thereof; 
 search at least one target for one or more data elements based on the set of search criteria and the set of sustainability factors, wherein the one or more data elements comprise data associated with the process, the product made by the process, the article of manufacture of the process, the plant element carrying out the process, or any combination thereof; and 
 generate query results comprising the one or more data elements. 
   
     
     
         13 . The controller of  claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to analyze the one or more data elements based on a sustainability score associated with each of the one or more data elements, wherein the sustainability score is a quantitative metric of the sustainability of the data elements and is based at least in part on the set of sustainability factors associated with the data elements. 
     
     
         14 . The controller of  claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to analyze the one or more data elements by determining a sustainability score for each of the one or more elements based at least in part on the set of sustainability factors associated with each data element, and wherein the sustainability score is a quantitative metric of the sustainability of the respective data element. 
     
     
         15 . The controller of  claim 12 , wherein the at least one target comprises of a controller, a network device, a website, a data store, a cloud-based data store, or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         16 . The controller of  claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to receive the one or more measurements of the environmental impact, the socio-environmental impact, or any combination thereof, for the process, the product made by the process, the article of manufacture of the process, the plant element carrying out the process, or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         17 . A system, comprising:
 a sustainability search system configured to:
 receive a set of search criteria, wherein the set of search criteria comprises a process, a product made by the process, an article of manufacture of the process, a plant element carrying out the process, or any combination thereof; 
 receive a set of sustainability factors, wherein the set of sustainability factors comprises one or more measurements of an environmental impact, a socio-environmental impact, or any combination thereof, for the process, the product made by the process, the article of manufacture of the process, the plant element carrying out the process, or any combination thereof; and 
 search at least one target for one or more data elements based on the set of search criteria and the set of sustainability factors, wherein the one or more data elements comprise data associated with the process, the product made by the process, the article of manufacture of the process, the plant element carrying out the process, or any combination thereof; and 
 generate query results comprising the one or more data elements; and 
   an interface component configured to integrate the sustainability search system into an operating system, a database system, or any combination thereof.   
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein the interface component comprises an adapter, a connector, a channel, a communication path, or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein the sustainability search system is configured to analyze the one or more data elements based on a sustainability score associated with each of the one or more data elements, wherein the sustainability score is a quantitative metric of the sustainability of each data element and is based at least in part on the set of sustainability factors associated with each data element. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 19 , wherein the sustainability search system is configured to rank the query results based on the sustainability scores associated with each of the one or more data elements.