Terms of Use
Effective as of: May 4, 2020
Welcome to Ecompensate! The following Terms Of Use outline the rules and regulations for the use of Our Website and Services provided to our Users. By accessing the Ecompensate Website and/or proceeding to the use of the Ecompensate Services you approve that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms of Use. DO NOT CONTINUE TO USE THE ECOMPENSATE WEBSITE OR SERVICES IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THESE TERMS OF USE. BY ACCEPTING THESE TERMS OF USE, YOU REPRESENT THAT YOU ARE AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD OR AT THE AGE OF MAJORITY IN YOUR JURISTINCTION. OTHERWISE, YOUR PARENT OR LEGAL GUARDIAN MUST READ AND ACCEPT THESE TERMS OF USE ON YOUR BEHALF.
1. Definitions
"Ecompensate" is the trading name of Ecompensate OÜ (company registration: 14941841, registered address: Männimäe/1, Pudisoo küla, 74626, Estonia)
"Company" , "we", "us", or "our" refers to Ecompensate OÜ.
"Customer", "you", or "User" refer to the users of the Ecompensate Website and/or Services.
"Website" refers to the website owned by Ecompensate accessible from https://www.ecompensate.org.
"Services" refer to the services provided by Ecompensate as described in the Website.
"Calculator" refers to the Carbon Footprint Calculator which is a free-to-use tool provided in our Website for our customers and all visitors to approximately estimate their CO2 and other GHG emissions.
"Carbon Offsetting" refers to the voluntary action of compensating for (or cancelling out) ones CO2 emissions by purchasing an equivalent amount of carbon credits generated by climate projects elsewhere.
"Carbon Credits" (also referred to as carbon units, emission reductions, or carbon offsets) refer to the equivalent of tonnes of CO2 avoided, reduced, or removed from the atmosphere. Ecompensate provides its customers with high-quality carbon credits verified by the United Nations' Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) or third-party internationally recognised accreditors such as the Gold Standard (GS) and Verra (VCS).
"Carbon Offsetting Service" refers to the online service offered in the Ecompensate Website (located at https://www.ecompensate.org/carbon-offsetting-for-individuals) for individual users to compensate their emissions by purchasing an equivalent amount of carbon credits generated by climate projects elsewhere, thus balancing out their carbon footprint. We then remove these carbon credits from the market (i.e. by retiring them through the relevant registry) so that they cannot be resold and double-counted, and provide our users with a so-called "cancellation certificate" (a proof of cancellation of carbon credits).
"Projects", "Climate Projects" or "Project Portfolio" refer to the carbon offsetting projects presented in our Website that users can support by purchasing carbon credits. These can be Nature-based, Renewable Energy or Community-based projects all aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and verified against strict, international standards.
2. Use of Our Website and Services
All of the content, information and functionalities (such as the Carbon Footprint Calculator) provided in our Website are available to all visitors free of charge. Our Carbon Offsetting service provided in the Ecompensate Website is intended but not limited to, consumer use (see Section 7 for purchase terms). Unless otherwise stated, you are entitled to use our Services exactly as offered and for the purposes stated in these Terms of Use.
3. License
Ecompensate grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable, and limited license to use the Ecompensate Website and Services in accordance with these Terms of Use.
4. Restrictions
In addition to other prohibitions as set forth in these Terms of Use, you are prohibited from using Our Website or Services: (a) for any unlawful purpose; (b) to solicit others to perform or participate in any unlawful acts; (c) to violate any international, federal, provincial or state regulations, rules, laws, or local ordinances; (d) to infringe upon or violate our intellectual property rights or the intellectual property rights of others; (e) to harass, abuse, insult, harm, defame, slander, disparage, intimidate, or discriminate based on gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, race, age, national origin, or disability; (f) to submit false or misleading information; (g) to upload or transmit viruses or any other type of malicious code that will or may be used in any way that will affect the functionality or operation of the Website or Services, other websites, or the Internet; (h) to collect or track the personal information of others; (i) to spam, phish, pharm, pretext, spider, crawl, or scrape; (j) for any obscene or immoral purpose; or (k) to interfere with or circumvent the security features of the Website or Services , other websites, or the Internet.
We reserve the right to terminate or restrict your use of our Website and/or Services for violating any of the foregoing or for any other reason.
5. Copyrights and Intellectual Property
Unless otherwise stated, the Services and all materials therein or transferred thereby, including, without limitation, images, text, graphics, logos, patents, trademarks, service marks, copyrights, and all Intellectual Property Rights related thereto, are the exclusive property of Ecompensate and/or its licensors. Except as explicitly provided herein, nothing in these Terms shall be deemed to create a license in or under any such Intellectual Property Rights, and you agree not to sell, license, rent, modify, distribute, copy, reproduce, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, publish, adapt, edit or create derivative works thereof, unless approved by Ecompensate.
6. Submissions
Any suggestions, feedback, ideas, improvements or comments (collectively, "Submissions") provided by you to us shall remain our exclusive property. We shall be free to use your Submissions in any way or for any purpose without being subject to any credit or compensation to you.
7. Payment and Purchase Terms
We provide a Carbon Offsetting service through the Ecompensate Website where all our customers and visitors can offset their emissions by purchasing the corresponding volume of carbon credits that our projects generate. When online payment is completed, a confirmation email will be sent to you (the Purchaser). As soon as we have retired the purchased quantity of carbon credits, we will send you a cancellation certificate via email (typically within 3-5 working days). According to the payment methods, payments can be made either via credit/debit card or PayPal. For credit/debit card payments, our online payment gateway provider is Stripe.
When purchasing Carbon Offsets through the Ecompensate Website, you agree that: (a) you are responsible for reading the full project listing before making a commitment to pay by confirming an order; (b) you enter into a legally binding contract with Ecompensate and you have an obligation to pay Ecompensate for the carbon offsets you have selected and confirmed; (c) Ecompensate will retire the corresponding volume of carbon units purchased via the relevant registry on your behalf; (d) in the event that the selected project fails to deliver the requested quantity, Ecompensate reserves the right to fulfill its obligations by retiring the same quantity of reasonably comparable carbon units from a similar type of project that meets the same quality and Standard criteria; (e) no rights on or legal ownership of the retired carbon units will be transferred to you; (f) all confirmed orders are non-refundable; (g) we reserve the right to update our project portfolio and prices at any time without prior notice.
8. Third-Party Services
You may encounter third party services (including, without limitation, websites, widgets, or applications) that interact with the Ecompensate Website and Services. Your use of these services may be subject to third-party terms of use and is your responsibility to have read, understood, and accepted these terms.
9. Liability and Disclaimer
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall Ecompensate, be liable for any indirect, punitive, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary damages, including without limitation, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data or other intangible losses, arising out of or relating to the use of, or inability to use, the Ecompensate Website and/or Services.
We do not warrant that your use of our Website and Services will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free. You expressly agree that your use of, or inability to use, the Website and Services is at your sole risk. The Services delivered to you through our Website are (except as expressly stated by us) provided 'as is' and 'as available' for your use, without any representation, warranties or conditions of any kind, either express or implied, including all implied warranties or conditions of fitness for a particular purpose, title, accuracy and non-infringement.
10. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify and hold Ecompensate harmless from any claims, demands, loss, liability or expenses (including legal fees) claimed by any third parties arising out of, or in connection with: (a) your use of the Website or any of the Services offered on the Website; and (b) your breach of these Terms of Use.
11. Severability
In the event that any provision of these Terms of Use is determined to be unlawful, void or unenforceable, such provision shall nonetheless be enforceable to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, and the unenforceable portion shall be deemed to be severed from these Terms of Use, such determination shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any other remaining provisions.
12. Entire Agreement
The failure of us to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms of Use shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. These Terms of Use and any policies or operating rules posted by us on the Ecompensate Website or in respect to the Ecompensate Services constitutes the entire agreement and understanding between you and us and govern your use of the Website and Services, superseding any prior or contemporaneous agreements, communications and proposals, whether oral or written, between you and us (including, but not limited to, any prior versions of the Terms of Use). Any ambiguities in the interpretation of these Terms of Use shall not be construed against the drafting party.
13. Updates to Our Services
We may from time to time change or update our Services and the way those are provided through our Website. Updates may change or even delete certain features or functionalities of the Services. We reserve the right to update, discontinue or suspend any of the Services (partially or fully) without prior notice or any obligation.
14. Changes to the Terms of Use
We reserve the right to modify these Terms of Use from time to time at our sole discretion. Therefore, you should review this page periodically. When we change the Terms of Use in a material manner, we will notify you that material changes have been made to the Terms of Use. Your continued use of the Website or our Services after any such change constitutes your acceptance of the new Terms. If you do not agree to any of these Terms or any future version of the Terms, do not use or access (or continue to access) the Website or Services.
15. Privacy Policy and Cookies
When using the Ecompensate Website and/or Services your personal information will be collected and processed according to our Privacy Policy statement. For more information about your Privacy and the use of Cookies, please read our Privacy Policy.
16. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution
These Terms of Use and any separate agreement whereby we provide you Services or any claims related to Ecompensate shall be governed by the laws of Estonia without regards to its conflict of law provisions.
In the event of any disputes arising out of or in connection with these Terms of Use, at Ecompensate we prefer resolving these primarily by negotiating in good faith with the other party. If we and the other party are unable to reach a mutual settlement, the dispute may be resolved via mediation proceedings. If no settlement can be reached via mediation either, the dispute shall be then referred to the Harju County Court. For disputes subject to the European Union law, there is an online dispute resolution service offered by the European Commission (https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr).
Last updated: January 10, 2021