Business Carbon Footprint

LEGAL INFORMATION

(Effective as of December 13, 2011)

SUSTAINABLE CARBON RECOMMENDS YOU TO READ THESE TERMS OF USE BEFORE USING THIS WEBSITE AND ANY OF ITS FEATURES.

This Website is operated by Sustainable Carbon – Projetos Ambientais Ltda. ("Sustainable Carbon"), a limited liability company incorporated under the Laws of Brazil, registered under Brazilian company registration number CNPJ n.09.510.073/0001-06, with registered office at Rua Doutor Bacelar, 368, suite 52, Vila Clementino, São Paulo – SP, Brazil, CEP 04026-000. These Terms of Use (the "Terms of Use") govern your rights and responsibilities concerning your use of the website and all webpages provided by Sustainable Carbon under the internet address www.sustainablecarbon.com (the "Website"), including but not limited to the Carbon Footprint Calculator.  BY CONTINUING TO ACCESS OR USE THIS WEBSITE, YOU EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE TO THESE TERMS OF USE. Sustainable Carbon reserves the right to modify these Terms of Use at any time, so you should review these Terms of Use whenever accessing or using the Website. By using the Website after the posting of modifications to these Terms of Use, you signify your acceptance to such Terms of Use, as modified. You may not use this website if, at any time, you do not wish to accept these Terms of Use.

YOU MAY NOT USE THIS WEBSITE FOR ANY ILLEGAL PURPOSE OR IN ANY MANNER INCONSISTENT WITH APPLICABLE LAW OR THESE TERMS OF USE. YOU AGREE TO COMPLY WITH ANY OTHER APPLICABLE TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET FORTH ON THE WEBSITE.

Use of the Website

The Website and the information and materials, including, without limitation, all text, documents, reports, data, graphics, charts, logos, buttons, icons, images, audio and video (collectively, "Content") are provided solely for informational purposes and their provision by Sustainable Carbon is not intended to, and shall not, constitute any offer or acceptance with the respect to any agreements, transactions or other matters, except as otherwise provided in these Terms of Use.

Except for the relationship provided in this Terms of Use, your access to and use of the Website and Content shall not create any legal relationship between you and Sustainable Carbon. The Website and the Content may be changed or removed at any time by Sustainable Carbon without notice.  Sustainable Carbon reserves the right to suspend, terminate or restrict your access to or use of the Website at any time for any reason, at Sustainable Carbon’s sole and exclusive discretion. Sustainable Carbon does not intend the information provided on this Website to be distributed to, or used by, any person or entity in any jurisdiction or country where such distribution or use would be contrary to law or regulation or which would subject Sustainable Carbon to any registration requirement within such jurisdiction or country.

Users may view, print and download Content only for non-commercial use provided that individuals below the age of 18 years old must be represented by their parents or legal guardians.

The Carbon Footprint Calculator

The Carbon Footprint Calculator is a data base system created to provide estimations of greenhouse gases emission reductions arising from certain activities such as air travel, road transport and energy consumption by individuals, events, residences and offices by through algorithms which consider the information provided by each user. Due to the lack of a universally accepted method to calculate emissions of greenhouse gases, Sustainable Carbon has developed a methodology that it believes will bring the results as close as possible to accurate figures, by using multiple and respectable sources of data such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and GHG Protocol as primary sources. In addition Sustainable Carbon used secondary sources such as the United Kingdom Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) for air travel emission factor and the Climate Analyses Tool developed by the World Resources Institute for the emission factor of the electricity grid. Nevertheless despite Sustainable Carbon’s efforts it is not possible to assume nor represent that the calculations results will be exact and accurate and by using the Carbon Footprint Calculator YOU ARE ACCEPTING THAT THE CALCULATIONS PROVIDED BY SUSTAINABLE CARBON ARE MERE ESTIMATIONS AND AGREEING THAT NO RESPONSIBILITY OR LIABILITY WILL ARRISE TO SUSTAINABLE CARBON IN CASE THE RESULTS OF THE CARBON FOOTPRINT CALCULATOR DIFFER FROM OTHER CALCULATIONS MADE BY THIRD PARTIES.

You may calculate any Carbon Footprint free of charge. Only the offsetting of Carbon Footprints by the purchase of Carbon Credits will be charged, as provided on the article below.

Offsetting your Footprint

After you calculate the Carbon Footprint you may choose to offset those emissions by adding the calculated footprint to your cart. The actual prices of Carbon Credits are set in Brazilian Reais (BRL) but shall be displayed in different currencies depending on your geographical location as determined by your Internet Protocol Address (IP Address). Sustainable Carbon will periodically review the prices in foreign currencies to reflect variation but you agree that there may be a slight difference of value in the prices displayed in Brazilian Reais versus other currencies due to the dynamic nature of currency exchange markets.

On Step 2 you may choose one Project that has reduced CO2e emission reduction units (Carbon Credits) that you want to support. Sustainable Carbon shall keep one or more Project choices available at Step 2 and it may change the Projects available there from time to time, at its discretion and without notice.

All projects offered were developed by Sustainable Carbon according to the guidelines of one or more standards from the carbon market, such as Verified Carbon Standard, SOCIALCARBON® Standard and/or Gold Standard, and have been validated by an independent third party. In addition to validation, the process of periodical monitoring of the project are also verified by independent auditors to assert that the number of greenhouse gas emission reductions units (the Carbon Credits) arising from the project is consistent with the methodologies adopted and the project reality. After verification the Carbon Credits were issued at an independent registry system called the Markit® Environmental Registry, available at [http://www.markitenvironmental.com], where each unit has received a unique serial number to identify it, each unit is therefore, unique. The participation of several independent third parties and the use of strict guidelines and methodologies secure an impartial system and prevent double-counting. Sustainable Carbon however, to the extent allowed in Law, does not take liability from acts and omissions from third parties.

Once you choose the project, you will be required to follow to Step 3, where you shall input your information. You agree to provide complete and truth information. See article ‘Information from Users’ below for more provisions about User information. After Step 3 is completed you will follow to Step 4 – check out, where you will be reverted to Paypal website which allows you to pay using your PayPal account or the Paypal system for payments with credit card, according to Paypal terms and conditions.

Sustainable Carbon will revert 50% percent of the gross revenues from the sale of Carbon Credits to the Project site developer (such as ceramic industries) in up to sixty (60) days from the Purchase.

When payment is successfully completed you will be reverted from Paypal page back to Sustainable Carbon website, where you will be required to fulfill an electronic form with information that will be indicated on a certificate of your purchase. You may choose to insert a logo, trademark or another image at the certificate. You represent and agree that you will not upload any logo, trademark or another image if you are not lawfully authorized to do so. The certificate provided by Sustainable Carbon is a representation that Sustainable Carbon acknowledges that the amount of Carbon Credits informed therein shall be retired on behalf of the purpose and/or entity indicated therein. The certificate does NOT indicate that have you have acquired neither legal nor beneficial title over the Carbon Credits. In up to sixty (60) days, Sustainable Carbon will forward instructions to an administrator of the Markit Environmental System, who shall then retire the number of Carbon Credits purchased from Sustainable Carbon registry account on behalf of the purpose you will have indicated at the Carbon Footprint Calculator.

Information such as the amount of Offset Units retired, project documents and the indication of the purpose on behalf of which the Offset Units were retired may be made available for public view at Markit Environmental Registry in up to sixty days from the purchase of Carbon Credits at the Calculator. Subject to changes at Sustainable Carbon discretion, the general disclaimer of retirement of units available for public view at Markit Environmental Registry System will read as follows: (i) For individual carbon footprint: “Retired on behalf of Sustainable Carbon clients who have offset their Individual Carbon Footprint”; (ii) For business carbon footprint from events and air travels “Retired on behalf of Sustainable Carbon clients who have offset their Carbon Footprint from events and/or air travel” ; (iii) For business carbon footprint “Retired on behalf of [name of your company as informed on the certificate] for the offsetting of [purpose as informed on the certificate]”.

You agree that (i) Markit Group Limited and any subsidiary or affiliate that may operate the Markit Environmental Registry (the Markit) is the entity responsible for the holding and retirement of the Carbon Credits and (ii) that once you purchase Carbon Credits Sustainable Carbon will be required to transfer all legal and beneficial title in such Units to Markit in accordance with the procedure set out in the user guidelines of the Markit Environmental Registry; (iii) neither Sustainable Carbon, nor Markit, nor you, nor any third party will have any further rights to take the benefit of such Units nor the underlying environmental benefits corresponding to such Carbon Credits. (iv) you will not attempt to transfer the Carbon Credits or any the underlying environmental benefits corresponding to such Carbon Credits.

You may cancel your purchase, in up to seven days from the date of payment, by sending one e-mail to ‘sales@sustainablecarbon.com’ informing (i) your full name; (ii) the date of the purchase; (iii) the amount of Carbon Credits purchased, (iv) why you wish to cancel your purchase. You will receive the refund of the Carbon Credits’ price in up to sixty days from your request. In case your purchase is made in any currency other then Brazilian Reais (BRL) the refundable amount may vary up or down according to the currency exchange rate practiced by the applicable financial institution at the date of refund. Taxes and fees of third parties (such as Paypal, credit card, or other) that may arise from the purchase will not be refunded.

Information from Users

Sustainable Carbon will collect information from you during your visit to the Website, either by requiring you to fill in certain electronic forms or automatically. This data may include, but is not limited to (i) the data of consume you inform at the Carbon Footprint Calculator; (ii) your name, address, e-mail and other contact details; (iii) your IP address and other information in connection to it. For safety measures, Sustainable Carbon will not have access to any of your financial information during the purchase of Carbon Credits. All financial information, including credit card number, are informed to and kept only by Paypal. In case you request a purchase cancellation, you may receive an e-mail requesting details for the remittance of refund, but none of our staff is authorized to require you to inform any banking password or credit card security code on behalf of Sustainable Carbon.

Sustainable Carbon may use information from Users for several purposes including, but not limited to (i) calculating Carbon Footprint; (ii) contacting you; (iii) for research, statistical and marketing purposes; and (iv) improving our Content and services. In all of such uses the information provided will be used anonymously to protect your privacy. Sustainable Carbon may also use and disclose the following information to third parties and make it available for public view in connection with the retirement of Carbon Credits: (i) amount of Carbon Credits purchased (ii) the purpose of the retirement (iii) identity of the person or entity responsible for the offsetting. In addition, Sustainable Carbon may disclose your information to current or prospective affiliates, shareholders and investors and, if so required by Laws, to any legal or administrative authority in Brazil, or abroad for the purposes of any current or prospective legal proceedings.

Sustainable Carbon server is located in United States and uses security measures to protect your information. However Sustainable Carbon cannot guarantee the security of data transmitted across the internet. The Website contains links to other websites that are outside Sustainable Carbon’s control and are therefore not covered by this Terms of Use. Any information collected from you on such sites will be used by them in accordance with their own privacy policy.

Attention

THE WEBSITE AND THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THIS WEBSITE OR IN RESPECT OF ANY MATERIALS OR PRODUCTS REFERRED TO ON THIS WEBSITE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.

Although the information provided on the Website was obtained or compiled from sources believed to be reliable, Sustainable Carbon cannot and does not guarantee the accuracy, validity, timeliness or completeness of any information or data made available to you for any particular purpose. Sustainable Carbon does not warrant that the Website is compatible with your equipment or that the Website is free of errors, viruses or worms. All warranties, whether express or implied, are hereby excluded to the extent permitted by law.

Intellectual Property

The Website and the Content, and all rights of any kind  therein, are the exclusive property of Sustainable Carbon and/or its affiliates or licensors (collectively the Sustainable Carbon IP Owners), and is subject to legal protection under Brazilian and international law, including without limitation, intellectual property, copyright, trademark, unfair competition, trade secret and other laws. All trade and service names and marks displayed on the Website (including without limitation SUSTAINABLE CARBON) are the property of the respective Sustainable Carbon IP Owners. All present and future rights in and to trade secrets, trademarks, service marks, copyrights and other proprietary rights under the laws of any domestic or foreign governmental authority (the "Intellectual Property Rights") shall at all times be and remain the sole and exclusive property of the respective Sustainable Carbon IP Owners.

You may not copy, reproduce, recompile, decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, distribute, publish, display, perform, modify, upload, post, create derivative works from, transmit or exploit, in any way or in any medium, all or any part of the website or content without Sustainable Carbon’s prior written consent.  You may not use any of the Sustainable Carbon IP Owners’ trademarks, trade names or service marks in a manner that suggests that such names and marks belong to or are associated with you without the Sustainable Carbon IP owner's consent, and you acknowledge that you have no ownership rights in and to any of these names and marks. You are prohibited from data mining, scraping, crawling, or using any process or processes that send automated queries to the website. You may not use the Website to compile a collection of listings, including a competing listing product or service.

You agree to protect the proprietary rights of the Sustainable Carbon IP Owners and to comply with all reasonable written or electronic requests made by Sustainable Carbon, the Sustainable Carbon IP Owners or their suppliers of Content ("Suppliers") to protect their and others' contractual, statutory and legal rights in the Website. You agree to provide Sustainable Carbon with prompt written notice of any unauthorized use of the Website by any party or of any claim that the Website or Content infringes upon any third party intellectual property, copyright, trademark or other contractual, statutory or legal rights.

If you believe that your work has been used on the Website in any manner that constitutes copyright infringement, please notify Sustainable Carbon by written notice or by email. The notice should include the following information: a description of the copyrighted work you claim has been infringed, including a copy of the copyrighted work or the web page address where the copyrighted work may be found; identification of the location on our Website of the material you claim has been infringed, or the link or reference to another Website that contains the material you claim has been infringed; your name, address, telephone number and email address; a statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use of the material at issue is not authorized by the copyright owner, the agent of the copyright owner or the law; and a statement by you, under penalty of perjury, that the information in this notification is accurate and that you are the copyright owner of the material allegedly infringed or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf. Notice of claims of copyright infringement on this Website should be directed to Sustainable Carbon, Attn: Legal Dept.

Limitation of Liability

Sustainable Carbon, the Sustainable Carbon IP Owners, and their affiliates, representatives, suppliers, directors, officers, employees, agents and third party vendors (collectively the "Sustainable Carbon Entities") shall, to the extent permitted by law, have no liability of any kind, contingent or otherwise, to you or to third parties for the accuracy, timeliness, completeness, reliability, performance or continued availability of this Website or for delays or omissions therein whether caused by the negligence of the Sustainable Carbon Entities, their employees, subcontractors, agents, Suppliers, or otherwise. The Sustainable Carbon Entities shall have no responsibility to maintain the information made available on this Website or to supply any corrections or updates in connection with such information.

Third Party Websites

This Website may provide hyperlinks to certain websites sponsored and maintained by Sustainable Carbon as well as those sponsored or maintained by third parties ("Third Party Websites"). Such Third Party Websites are publicly available and Sustainable Carbon is providing links to such Third Party Websites through this Website solely as a convenience to you. The content of the Third Party Websites as well as the services, goods or advertisements on the Third Party Websites is not maintained or controlled by Sustainable Carbon, and Sustainable Carbon makes no representations or warranties concerning the content of the Third Party Websites and the fact that links to the Third Party Websites are provided does not constitute any endorsement, authorization or sponsorship of the Third Party Websites or their sponsors by Sustainable Carbon; nor is there any affiliation between Sustainable Carbon and such sponsors and such sponsors do not endorse, authorize or sponsor this Website. Moreover, Sustainable Carbon is in no way responsible for the availability, content or accuracy of the Third Party Websites or any services or goods that may be provided, linked to, or advertised on the Third Party Websites. Sustainable Carbon makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the use of the links provided on, or to, the Website or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, usefulness or adequacy of any Third Party Websites, or services, goods or advertisements provided, linked to or advertised on Third Party Websites. You understand and agree that you will use or rely on the Third Party Websites solely at your own risk and that Sustainable Carbon does not grant to you any rights in respect of such Third Party Websites.

Indemnification

You agree, at your own expense, to indemnify, defend and hold harmless the Sustainable Carbon Entities against any claim, suit, action or other proceeding against the Sustainable Carbon Entities by a third party, to the extent that such claim, suit, action or other proceeding is based on or arises in connection with: (i) your use or someone using your computer's use of the Website or any links on the Website; and/or (ii) a violation of these Terms of Use by you or anyone using your computer.  You agree to pay any and all costs, damages and expenses, including, but not limited to, reasonable attorneys' fees and costs awarded against or otherwise incurred by or in connection with or arising from any such claim, suit, action or proceeding attributable to any such claim.

Governing Law

These Terms of Use shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the Brazil without reference to principles of conflict of laws. By using this Website, you agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the courts of São Paulo – SP, Brazil for the enforcement of these Terms of Use, and any disputes related to same and the Website.

Miscellaneous

In the event that any provision of these Terms of Use shall, in whole or in part, be determined to be invalid, unenforceable or void for any reason, such determination shall affect only the portion of such provision determined to be invalid, unenforceable or void, and shall not affect in any way the remainder of such provision or any other provision of these Terms of Use. Sustainable Carbon’s failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others does not waive its right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches. These Terms of Use and any modifications hereto constitute the entire agreement between Sustainable Carbon and you and supersede all prior understandings and agreements, whether written or oral, as to such subject matter. Section titles and headings herein are inserted for convenience only and are not intended to be a part of or to affect the meaning or interpretation of these Terms of Use.

Sustainable Carbon GHG FOOTPRINT CALCULATOR
GHG EMISSIONS CACULATION METHODOLOGY

1. Automotive Emissions Calculations
   The calculation of automotive emissions is based on the average consumption of fuel for the most commonly used cars in each country or region. Data is derived from the environmental agencies/ministries, industrial associations and energy efficiency programs from these countries to determine the average fuel consumption of these vehicles. Based on the average fuel consumption and the distance traveled, we can estimate the total amount of fuel consumed. Finally, CO2 emission factors for every type of fuel (diesel, natural gas etc) are obtained from the International Panel on Climate Change (a United Nations panel) and the GHG Protocol in order to calculate the user's GHG footprint relating to his or her automotive use.
   This automotive emissions calculation does have some limitations because not every country has or publishes specific data regarding the average consumption for the most common vehicles within its territory. Due to this reality, our calculator may use data coming from surrounding countries or region. The fuel consumption of your vehicle might be different from the average produced in the calculator.
   
   
2. Flight Emissions Calculations
   Knowing the number of flights traveled, whether international or domestic, it's possible to determine the GHG footprint from air travel. It is sufficient to know the airport of origin/destination, the type of fare (economy vs business/first class) and whether a one-way or round-trip ticket was purchased. Data published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), a United Kingdom agency, was used to obtain the emission factors for each passgenger class depending on the distance traveled.
   
   The most considerable uncertainty regarding this calculation are the CO2 emission factors because they are based on average characteristics of commercial aviation in Europe. Emissions for your flight might vary depending on the specific characteristics of the aircraft and details of your itinerary. 
   
   
3. Emissions Calculations from Home and Office Use
   Emissions relating to the consumption of electricity are based on the average consumption of electricity per user and on the CO2 emission factor of the electricity grid of each country or region.
   The average electrical consumption is estimated based on the monthly cost of electricity the user pays and on the average costs of electricity. The CO2 emission factor from the electrical grid represents the quantity of CO2 emitted to produce the electricity.  These factors take into consideration the operation of everything from thermoelectric power plants to the burning of fossil fuels in a country or region. The factors used were obtained from sources like the Climate Analysis Tool, which was developed by the World Resources Institute and from the Brazilian Program of the GHG Protocol.
   
   A similar procedure was realized to estimate the emissions resulting from the consumption of fossil fuels for heating. The consumption is estimated based on the user's monthly heating cost and the average cost of the fossil fuel used for heating in each country or region. The estimated consumption is then multiplied by the CO2 emission factors of each type of fuel.
   
   Information about the price and use of heating fuels were obtained from sources lik the International Energy Agency (a agency of the United Nations). The CO2 emission factors relating to the fuels were obtained from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC - also part of the UN) and other internationally-recognized agencies/associations.
   
   It's important to note that these are not the only emissions relating to your home or office; rather, they are the most important and relevant. Other emissions exist, like the generation of waste, the consumption of water and food and other inputs. These were excluded from our Calculor for being of a much smaller impact in terms of GHG emissions, and also for being more difficult for the common user to calculate.
   
   We would like to remind our users that your actual use of fuel/electricity may be different from the what the calculator estimates. All measures were taken to provide our users with a robust, but user-friendly calculator. If you are interested in a more accurate measurement, simply contact us so we can provide you with an estimated cost to provide a detailed calculation.
   
   
4. Emissions Calculations from Events
   Emissions from events are calculated based on three parameters: one, the number of participants; two, the quantity of people taking air travel to attend the event; and three, the quantity and weight of equipment transported to the event location.
   The emissions resulting from the consumption of electricity and from flights follow the same procedures as explained in aforementioned sections. The emissions from the transport of freight take into consideration the emission factors relating to freight transportation obtained from methodologies approved by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).
   
   For ease-of-use purposes, only the emissions from the use of electricity, air travel and the transportation of freight are considered. Depending on the nature of the event, many other activities can result in the emission of GHGs; however, we cannot guarantee that your event will be completely carbon neutral by using this calculator.
    
   
5. Emissions Calculations from Presents
   The calculations of this section are based principally on the GHG emission values per capita published in the Climate Analysis Tool, developed by the World Resources Institute.
   
   In the birthday subsection, annual emissions are calculated on a per-capita basis on the country selected where the recipient lives.
   
   In the wedding anniversary subsection, per-capita emissions are calculated or two people based on the country in which the couple resides.
   
   The graduation subsection calculates the per-capita emissions of a person during his or her entire period of study in the country in which the student resides or resided.
   
   Finally, the wedding subsection uses procedures similar to the events calculations, computing the emissions relating to the consumption of electricity, freight transported and number of people who traveled by air to attend the wedding.  
   
   We would like to disclose that this section simplifies calculations and makes assumptions that permit rapid and easy calculations.