System and method for converting consumer activities into tradable carbon credits

A system for generating a tradable carbon-credit record from consumer activity, the system comprising:

• a data collection module configured to receive primary consumer activity data associated with a consumer account from a plurality of independent source systems including at least two of a retail transaction system, a travel or transportation data system, and a utility consumption monitoring system;
• a normalization submodule configured to generate a canonical activity record from the primary consumer activity data;
• a calculation engine configured to retrieve an emission factor and a factor-version identifier corresponding to the canonical activity record and to generate quantified emissions data from the canonical activity record;
• a verification module configured to generate a verification record by evaluating the canonical activity record and the quantified emissions data against predefined verification criteria;
• a fingerprint generation submodule configured to generate a unique activity fingerprint responsive to the verification record indicating satisfaction of the predefined verification criteria;
• a registry interface submodule configured to query a registry using the unique activity fingerprint to determine whether a previously issued carbon offset record corresponds to the canonical activity record and to suppress issuance when a matching previously issued carbon offset record is identified;
• an offset issuance submodule configured to issue a carbon offset record when the registry indicates no matching previously issued carbon offset record exists, and to write the issued carbon offset record and the unique activity fingerprint to the registry;
• a trading platform interface configured to cause the issued carbon offset record to be listed as a tradable carbon-credit record;
• and
• a rewards module configured to allocate at least a portion of transaction value to the consumer account in response to execution of a transaction involving the tradable carbon-credit record.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

• receive, by the one or more processors, primary consumer activity data associated with a consumer account from a plurality of independent source systems, the plurality of independent source systems comprising at least two of:
• a retail transaction system,
• a travel or transportation data system, and
• a utility consumption monitoring system;
• normalize, by the one or more processors, the primary consumer activity data into a canonical activity record comprising:
• an activity identifier,
• a source-system identifier,
• a timestamp,
• a quantified activity parameter, and
• an account association identifier corresponding to the consumer account;
• retrieve, by the one or more processors, an emission factor corresponding to the canonical activity record and a factor-version identifier associated with the emission factor;
• generate, by the one or more processors, quantified emissions data representing carbon emissions or carbon emission savings attributable to the canonical activity record by applying the emission factor to the quantified activity parameter;
• generate, by the one or more processors, a verification record by evaluating the canonical activity record and the quantified emissions data against predefined verification criteria, the predefined verification criteria comprising at least one of:
• source-data authenticity,
• required-field completeness,
• cross-source consistency, and
• tolerance-threshold compliance;
• responsive to the verification record indicating satisfaction of the predefined verification criteria, generate, by the one or more processors, a unique activity fingerprint for the canonical activity record;
• query, by the one or more processors, a registry using the unique activity fingerprint to determine whether a previously issued carbon offset record corresponds to the canonical activity record;
• suppress, by the one or more processors, issuance of a new carbon offset record when the registry indicates that the previously issued carbon offset record corresponds to the unique activity fingerprint;
• issue, by the one or more processors, when the registry indicates that no previously issued carbon offset record corresponds to the unique activity fingerprint, a carbon offset record representing a defined quantity of carbon dioxide equivalent and associate the carbon offset record with the consumer account;
• write, by the one or more processors, the issued carbon offset record and the unique activity fingerprint to the registry;
• cause, by the one or more processors, the issued carbon offset record to be listed on a trading platform as a tradable carbon-credit record;
• and
• allocate, by the one or more processors, in response to execution of an electronic transaction involving the tradable carbon-credit record, at least a portion of transaction value to the consumer account associated with the issued carbon offset record.