Privacy Policy | GHG Protocol

Greenhouse Gas Protocol Privacy Policy

Last Updated: February 2022

This Privacy Policy ("Policy") describes the collection, use, and disclosure of information related to the users of the Greeenhouse Gas Protocol website (ghgprotocol.or g) and the related Greenhouse Gas Protocol Learning homepage (lambdastore.net), collectively the “Websites.”

Greenhouse Gas Protocol, “GHG Protocol”, “we”, “our” or “us” is an initiative managed by World Resources Institute (“WRI”) and World Business Council for Sustainable Development (“WBCSD”). GHG Protocol is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy when you use the Websites.

You may interact with our initiative through the Websites and any other related and connected platforms and other online and offline interactions including emails and social media (collectively, the “Services”).

For each of these Services, this Policy tells you how GHG Protocol will use your Personal Information when you make contact with Us or use the Services. In particular, this Policy explains how:

we may use your Personal Information when you visit our Websites, communicate, or provide us with your Personal Information in other ways; and
we respect your Personal Information privacy rights.

Your use of the Services is subject to our Terms of Use, available at the Websites , which include applicable terms governing limitations on liability and the resolution of disputes. By using the Services, you accept and agree to the practices described in this Policy. If you do not agree with this Policy, please do not use the Services or provide us with any Personal Information (as defined below).

Personal Information We Collect

We collect different kinds of information from you, depending on how you interact with us. When we refer to Personal Information, we mean any information that (directly or indirectly) identifies, relates to, describes, or is reasonably capable of being associated, linked or linkable with a particular individual or household, including any information that is subject to applicable data protection laws.

Online Collection: We collect Personal Information from you when you register on the Website, sign up for updates from GHG Protocol, download materials, send email inquiries, register for events or courses, or participate in other parts of our Services.

Depending on the Services you interact with, the information collected may vary and may include, for example:

Identifiers and contact details you choose to provide, such as your name and email address, occupation, and industry of employment;
Payment information
Automatically Collected Information: GHG Protocol and our third-party service providers may collect information about your interaction with our Services using cookies and similar automatic data-collection technology. GHG Protocol uses this information to improve and maintain our Services, collect aggregate site usage reports that do not identify you individually, and to optimize site users’ experience on the Services. The information GHG Protocol collects includes:
Identifiers: IP address, device and browser information, time, date, and referrer site;
Location information: location information about a particular device (desktop or mobile), general location information, and geolocation data (for example, your IP address may indicate your more general geographic region)
Website and application activity information like clicks, content and page views, internet service provider, browser version, domain type.
Anonymous or Aggregated Information: GHG Protocol may use aggregated or de-identified data that doesn’t identify you for any lawful business purpose. De-identified data is not Personal Information.

Offline Collection: We also collect Personal Information from you when you provide us with it at conferences or similar events. Such Personal Information will typically consist of your organizational or personal contact details, or other information you choose to give us.

Our Use of Your Information

GHG Protocol uses the Personal Information we collect about you for any of the following purposes:

providing, developing, improving and maintaining the Services; 
registering you to use the resources available on the GHG Protocol Website;
providing you with updates, newsletters, data, and other research from GHG Protocol;
generating anonymous reports about the use of the Services and their features;
allowing you to take part in Service features; and
analyzing the use of the Services or technologies.

Outreach and Communications

GHG Protocol may use your Personal Information to provide you with communications about us including, but not limited to email communications or information about projects.

GHG Protocol may send such communications by:

email;
any other medium which becomes relevant from time-to-time.

You can opt-out of receiving communications from GHG Protocol at any time by writing to us at info_ghg@ghgprotocol.org or by following the unsubscribe instructions in our communications. We may, however, still need to contact you for important administrative reasons, such as in the event of a material change to our Services, related policies, or accounts you create with us.

Disclosure of Information

Personal Information is disclosed to the following parties:

to the system administrator of GHG Protocol, analytic vendors, third party agents and other service providers and suppliers if the disclosure will enable that party to perform a business, professional, or technical support function for us or to perform a service that you have requested;
where you give us permission to disclose your personal information to third parties;
if we are required to do so to comply with a legal requirement or request from a competent court, regulator or other authority; and/or
where we deem it necessary, in our sole discretion, to protect our legal rights or property.

We may also disclose non-private, aggregate or otherwise Non-Personal Information to third parties, including social media companies like Facebook and Twitter for outreach purposes.

We will take reasonable steps to ensure that any Personal Information about you that we pass to a service provider or other third-party will be held securely by that party and only be used for the purposes for which it was provided to them. Except as noted above, information we collect from Website visitors will not be shared with individuals or other companies unrelated to GHG Protocol, or that do not perform a business, professional or technical function for us.

Security and Quality

The security of your Personal Information is important to us. We have put in place safeguards to protect the Personal Information that we collect from unauthorized access, use and disclosure, and we will take steps to ensure that all of our employees, agents, contractors and other third parties have similar adequate measures in place. We also have procedures to deal with any suspected Personal Information breach, and we will notify you and any applicable regulator when we are legally required to do so. We cannot, however, guarantee that unauthorized access, hacking, data loss, or other breaches will never occur.

We do our best to maintain the accuracy of any Personal Information you supply to us. You can help GHG Protocol update and maintain the accuracy of any personal information you supply by notifying us of any change. You may do this by using the contact information provided below.

Transmission of information on the internet is not completely secure, and we cannot guarantee the security of information sent on our Services. Transmission of such information is at your own risk.

Cookies and Analytics

GHG Protocol uses cookies, pixels, tags, and other technologies, which may be provided by third parties, on its Services to enable certain functionality and for security and fraud detection and prevention, as well as to collect usage information about the Websites. We may combine the information we collect via these technologies with other information, including Personal Information.

Cookies. Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that are transferred to your computer through your web browser for record-keeping purposes. Some cookies enable you to log-in to the Services or save certain settings and preferences, while others allow GHG Protocol to track usage and activities on the Services or personalize content. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but if you prefer, you can edit your browser options to block them in the future. The "Help" tab on the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your computer from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. If you block cookies, however, certain features on the Website may not be available or function properly.

Pixel tags and embedded script (aka clear GIFs and web beacons). Pixel tags are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on your computer’s hard drive, pixel tags are embedded invisibly on web pages. We may use these, in connection with the Websites to, among other things, track the activities of the users of the Services, and gather usage information about the Website.

Third-Party Analytics Tools. We use automated devices and applications operated by third parties, such as Google Analytics, which uses cookies and similar technologies to collect and analyze information about use of the Websites and report on activities and trends. This service may also collect information regarding the use of other websites, apps and online resources. You can learn about Google’s practices by going to Google's Practices, and you can opt out of them by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at Google Opt-Out.

Transfers

Where necessary, we may need to transfer your Personal Information to another country. These transfers can take place within GHG Protocol but also may be made to selected third parties (as explained in the ‘Disclosure of information’ section of this Privacy Policy). Such transfers take place to enable us to provide you with services and/or to communicate with you. Countries that we transfer your Personal Information to may not have the same personal information protection standards as the country you live in.

Links to External Websites

GHG Protocol contains links to other websites belonging to third parties. These websites are not covered by this Policy, and we are not responsible for the privacy practices within any other website. You should be aware of this when you leave GHG Protocol, and we encourage you to read the privacy statements of other websites.

Personal Information Access and Deletion

You may request a copy of the Personal Information we hold about you and to have any inaccuracies corrected. You may also request that we delete the information we hold about you. Please address requests (with a return email address where possible) to:

info_ghg@ghgprotocol.org

Or by post to:

Greenhouse Gas Protocol

c/o World Resources Institute

10 G Street NE

Suite 800

Washington, DC 20002

If you are resident in the European Economic Area, please also read the ‘Information for Individuals Located in the European Economic Area’ section of this Privacy Policy. You may have additional rights in relation to your Personal Information.

Information for Individuals Located in the European Economic Area

European Economic Area (“EEA”) data protection laws offer additional rights and protections for individuals located in the EEA. Further to the information set out at the ‘Personal Information access and deletion’ section of this Privacy Policy, the following additional information applies to you if you are located in the EEA:

Basis of processing: Where you give us your Personal Information, we process your personal information for our legitimate business purposes to respond to your requests (for example, providing you with access to our websites or providing you with newsletter communications that you have requested);
Personal information rights: In addition to your right to access Personal Information we hold about you (as set out in the ‘Personal information access and deletion section of this Privacy Policy), you have the right to have your Personal Information rectified or erased, to object to its processing or to restrict access to it. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority if you are unhappy with how we process your Personal Information. In certain circumstances, you may also have the right to receive a copy of your Personal Information in a machine-readable format or to have your Personal Information sent to another company.

Changes, Oversight and Questions

We welcome comments and questions on this Privacy Policy. We are dedicated to protecting your privacy and will make every reasonable effort to keep your information secure. Due to the rapidly evolving changes on the Internet, this Policy is kept under regular review and may be updated from time to time. When we make changes to this Policy, we will change the "Last Updated" date above. If a material change is made to this Policy, we may choose to provide notice to you in advance of such change, such as by posting notice of that change on the first page of this Policy or on our homepage, or by emailing your email address of record with us.

Contact Information

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact GHG Protocol at: