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Privacy Statement

The Climate Trust (“We,” “Us,” or “Our,”) is committed to respecting the privacy rights of our customers, and all users of the content, features, and services available through https://www.climatetrust.org (collectively, the “Website”). This Privacy Statement (the “Statement”) explains how we collect, store, use, and disclose information which personally identifies you when you use the Website.

1. Users under the age of 16

The Climate Trust was created for use by individuals over 16 with an interest in reducing global carbon emissions by purchasing carbon offsets. However, occasionally unintended users such as children under the age of 16 may visit our Website. We do not knowingly collect or use personal information from children under 16 years old.

2. Personal information we collect and process

The Climate Trust collects information about you in a number of ways. We collect information directly from you, such as when you 1) inquire about carbon project development, 2) sign up for our Newsletter, 3) purchase carbon offsets, or 4) contact us through our Website.

This personal information may include, but is not limited to, your name, postal address or state located, email address, and phone number. We collect this information for the purpose of providing the services offered through our Website, communicating with you about those services, responding to your requests/inquiries, servicing your purchase orders, and improving our Website.

We also may collect information passively, as you use our Website. As a user navigates through our Website, certain information can be passively collected using various technologies, such as cookies, web tags or web beacons, and navigational data collection.

  • A “cookie” is a bit of information that a website sends to your web browser that helps the site remember information about you and your preferences.
  • Web beacons are small tags placed in digital content, for example on a website or email, to track how the user interacts with the content. Such interaction will trigger a transfer of information that can be used to gain insight, such as how many people have viewed the content.
  • Web tags are encoded in digital content to enable functionality and/or to track engagement with digital content across contexts.

We may also collect financial information, such as credit card information you provide for billing purposes, and may share this information with our payment processor. Although we reserve the right to select different or additional payment processors at our discretion, our payment processor as of the date of this Statement is Stripe, Inc. We encourage you to review their privacy policy and to contact them directly if you have questions relating to your data, including personal information, as it relates to such payments.

3. How personally identifiable information may be used

We collect your information in order to provide our services, to market our services, and to conduct business generally. For example, we use your information to:

  • Respond to your information requests, such as if you are inquiring about carbon project development or to complete your sign-up for our Newsletter;
  • Respond to your support requests to resolve problems with the Website or services;
  • Contact in connection with matters related to any account you have on the Website;
  • Notify you about changes to The Climate Trust and our services, or to provide required notices;
  • Market our services, including via email and social media platforms;
  • Facilitate billing and process payments;
  • Ensure that our Website functions appropriately, diagnose and repair problems with the Website, and improve our Website and the services we offer;
  • Keep the Website secure and investigate and issues with the website; and
  • To aggregate and de-identify your information to analyze use patterns of our services and Website or gain other insights about our business.

4. When we share your personal information

We may share your information with others for legitimate business purposes. For example, we may share your information with:

  • Others, with your consent or at your direction, such as when you wish to complete a payment transaction;  
  • Our service providers who perform services on our behalf;
  • Our affiliated entities or subsidiaries; and ‎
  • ‎Another organization in the event of a ‎merger, acquisition, sale, or transfer of assets. 

5. User choices

You can make choices about The Climate Trust’s collection and use of your information. For example, you can:

  • Use browser controls. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can disable the acceptance of certain cookies at any time by changing the preferences in your browser. Please refer to your browser for information on how to disable and control cookies. If you choose to disable cookies on your browser, you may not be able to use some features of the Website.
  • Choose not to provide information. You may also choose not to provide The Climate Trust with any contact information at all. This choice may limit you from having full access to the services that are offered through our Website.
  • Unsubscribe. With each marketing communication, you will be given the opportunity to opt-out of receiving future marketing notices. You may also opt-out of receiving future marketing notices by contacting info@climatetrust.org. If you request that we not contact you for marketing purposes (either by using the unsubscribe mechanism or by sending us an email), we reserve the right to contact you for non-marketing purposes relating to your use of the Website or our ongoing business relationship.
  • Request deletion. You may reach out to us at any time and request that we delete any personal information of yours. Before complying with your request we may ask to verify your identity. We may not be able to provide you with certain services if you ask us to delete your information, and you assume all risk in that regard.

If you would like to change or modify information you have previously provided us, please send a detailed email to info@climatetrust.org.

In addition, certain privacy laws provide individuals with specific rights regarding their personal information, such as the right to know or access your information, the right to correct or delete your information, the right to port your information, and certain rights to opt-out or limit certain processing of your information. To inquire about your rights or exercise your rights, please contact us at info@climatetrust.org, and we will respond to you promptly.

6. Required by law

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Statement, we may disclose your information to any third party, without your consent and without notice to you, if we believe we are legally or ethically obligated to do so; if we believe disclosure is necessary to protect, establish, or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims; or if we believe disclosure is necessary to otherwise protect our rights, property, and/or safety and/or that of others.

7. Changes to this statement

We reserve the right to update or change this Statement at any time, and you should check this Statement periodically to stay up to date on any changes.

8. Security

The Climate Trust believes it has taken reasonable and prudent steps to ensure that information transmitted and stored on the Website server is secure, and that the server is safe from environmental hazards, intrusion and electronic failure. ‎Unfortunately, no data storage system, or system of transmitting data over the Internet, can be ‎guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, we cannot guarantee the security of our network, the ‎means by which personally information is ‎transmitted between your computer and our network, or any personally information provided to us or to any third party through or in ‎connection with the Website.‎

9. Retention and storage

We consider the following factors when determining how long we will retain and store your information:

  • Our legal and contractual obligations;
  • Our professional and ethical responsibilities;
  • The purpose for which your information was collected or processed;
  • Your requests to delete the information;
  • Retention periods in applicable laws and regulations; and
  • Our legitimate business purposes. We may retain your data to the extent it is necessary to prevent fraudulent activity, to protect ourselves against liability, and to allow us to enforce our contractual or other rights and to pursue available remedies and limit any damages we might sustain.

10. Links to third-party websites, products, and services

This Statement applies only to the information we collect and process. The Website, our content, or our communications could contain links to other websites and services that are not owned or controlled by us. We are not responsible for and have not reviewed the privacy practices of such sites or services, or the owners or operators of such sites or services. We shall not be responsible or liable in any way as a result of your use of any other sites or services.

11. Contact

If you have any questions about this Privacy Statement or the practices and services of The Climate Trust, please contact info@climatetrust.org, or at 80 SE Madison St, Suite 216, Portland, Oregon 97214.