Privacy
Policy

Climate Lead (“Climate Lead” or “We”) respects the privacy of all third parties that interact with us, including visitors to our website, climatelead.org (our “Website”), funders, contractors, and other partners and collaborators. This Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) outlines how we handle information shared with or collected by us and explains your rights with respect to any such information relating to you.

It is important that you read this Policy, together with any other guidance we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing your personal information, so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using information that you share with us or which we collect. If you are sharing information with us, or we are collecting information from you, pursuant to a transaction or arrangement governed by a separate agreement or memorandum of understanding, the terms of such agreement or memorandum of understanding will control where this Policy is sailent or in the event that they conflict with the terms of this Policy.

This Policy describes the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit the Website or otherwise interact with us, and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that information.

Information We May Collect About You

We may collect two kinds of information about you:

“Personal Information,” which is information that would allow someone to identify or contact you, including, for example, your name, address, phone number, fax number, email address, job title, financial account information, and organizational affiliation.
“Non-Identifiable Information,” which is information that does not reveal your specific identity, including browser and device information, access and usage data, Internet Protocol (IP) address, and Website usage information collected through cookies, pixel tags and other technologies – see further in the “Automatic Data Collection” section below. Non-Identifiable Information also includes information that has been anonymized or aggregated in a manner that no longer reveals your specific identity.

How We Collect Your Personal Information

We collect your personal information directly from you when you provide it to us. This will include personal information you provide:

When filling in forms on our Website. This includes when you sign up for information or for our newsletters, for events, to interact with various tools, or to be part of specific communities; and request material, further information, or services.
When you report a problem with our Website or contact us for any other purpose.
When you respond to surveys that we might ask you to complete for research purposes through our Website.
When you input queries using the “Search” function on the Website.

We may also collect or receive Personal Information about you from various third parties and public sources, including but not limited to:

Technical Data from the following parties:

Analytics providers, such as Google and search information providers.
Contact, financial, and transaction data from providers of payment and delivery services.
Identity and contact data from publicly available sources.

Automatic Data Collection

As you navigate through and interact with our Website, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain Non-Identifiable Information from and about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, including:

Details of your visits to our Website, including traffic data, location data, logs, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Website.
Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.

The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:

Cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Website. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Website.
Flash Cookies. Certain features of our Website may use local stored objects (or Flash cookies) to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from, and on our Website. Flash cookies are not managed by the same browser settings as are used for browser cookies. For information about managing your privacy and security settings for Flash cookies, see the “Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information” section below.
Web Beacons. Pages of our Website and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit Climate Lead, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).

“Do Not Track” – Certain laws, including those of California, require that we inform you on our response to Do Not Track signals. As there is not an industry or legal standard for recognizing or honoring these signals at this time, we don’t respond to them.

How We Use Your Personal Information

We have set out below the purposes for which we use information shared with us or collected by us. Climate Lead uses Personal Information collected about you to provide you with information, resources, and services; enable you to participate in features on the Website; customize our content or communications to you based on your previous interactions with us; provide user support; communicate with you and respond to your inquiries; receive and track donations; register and manage participation in events and services; improve the content and features of the Website; and advance Climate Lead’s mission. Climate Lead uses Non-Identifiable Information for internal purposes, for example, to manage and improve the Website, analyze usage patterns, customize and improve the user experience, and diagnose technical problems. We may combine Personal Information or Non-Identifiable Information we collect with information we obtain about you from third parties, and use such combined information in accordance with this Policy. Disclosure for Website Users in the European Union Climate Lead is required under EU data protection law to identify a legal basis for using your personal information – we have highlighted these below:

To present our Website and its contents to you (to achieve our legitimate interest in making this content available to you in an effective way).
To provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us (with your consent).
To carry out any other of our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including for billing and collection (to perform our contract with you).
To notify you about changes to our Website or any products or services we offer or provide though it (to achieve our legitimate interest in ensuring we provide our services to you effectively).
To allow you to participate in interactive features on our Website (to achieve our legitimate interest in ensuring we provide our services to you effectively).
To contact you about events, convenings, and information that may be of interest to you (with your consent).

If you do not provide Climate Lead with the Personal Information required to perform our contract with you or comply with our legal or statutory obligations (highlighted as such in the list above), we may not be able to provide those relevant services to you. If you consent to Climate Lead’s use of your personal information and this consent forms the legal basis of our processing of that personal information, you are entitled to withdraw it at any time – see the “Your Rights With Respect To Your Personal Information” section below for more detail.

Disclosure of Your Personal Information

We may disclose Personal Information and/or Non-Identifiable Information that we collect or that you provide as described in this Policy:

To our affiliates to provide you with requested services.
To contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business.
To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Climate Lead’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding.
To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request.
To enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes.
If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of Climate Lead, or others.

We do not rent, sell, lend, or otherwise exchange Personal Information and/or Non-Identifiable Information for any other purposes.

Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information

We strive to provide you with choices regarding the Personal Information you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your personal information:

Tracking Technologies and Advertising. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. To learn how you can manage your Flash cookie settings, visit the Flash player settings page on Adobe’s website. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this site may then be inaccessible or not function properly.
Offers from Climate Lead. If you do not wish to have your email address/contact information used by Climate Lead to notify you of upcoming events or other services, you can opt-out by checking the relevant box located on the form on which we collect your data or by sending us an email stating your request to [email protected]. If we have sent you a promotional email, you may send us a return email asking to be omitted from future email distributions. This opt out does not apply to information provided to Climate Lead as a result of a service engagement or other transactions.
Review and Correction. You may request a copy of the Personal Information we hold about you by contacting us as described below. You may ask us to correct any Personal Information or delete all information we hold about you by contacting us at the address below. We may be entitled, however, to decline the request or retain information under certain circumstances, under applicable laws. Under certain data protection laws, you may have the right to appeal our decision. You may limit the collection and use of different elements of your Personal Information by not participating in those activities for which we collect Personal Information, as listed above. You may discontinue the collection, use and disclosure of your Personal Information and of Non-Identifiable Information by limiting or discontinuing your use of the Website altogether.

Disclosure for Website Users in the European Union

If our processing of your Personal Information is subject to EU data protection law, you have a number of rights. These include, in certain circumstances:

To ask us not to process your Personal Information, including where Climate Lead is using it for direct marketing purposes.
To receive a copy of all your Personal Information held by Climate Lead, in order to check we are processing it lawfully.
To ask us to correct any errors in your Personal Information.
To ask us to delete your Personal Information, including when exercising your right to object to processing (see above).
To ask us to restrict the processing of your Personal Information.
To ask us to transfer your Personal Information to another party.
To withdraw your consent where you have provided it for Climate Lead’s collection or use of your Personal Information for a specific purpose.

You may exercise these rights at any time by contacting Climate Lead using the details in the “Contact Information” section of this Policy. We may not be able to accommodate a request relating to your Personal Information in certain circumstances prescribed by law. Please contact us using the details in the “Contact Information” section of this Policy if you would like more information.

Data Retention

We will only retain information shared with us for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we use it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain information shared with us for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

To determine the appropriate retention period for information shared with us, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the information; the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of the information; the purposes for which we process the information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means; and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, or other requirements.

Data Security

We have implemented measures intended to secure your Personal Information and Non-Identifiable Information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. In addition, we have policies and procedures intended to limit access to your Personal Information to those employees, agents, contractors, and other third parties who have a business need to know. When we make any such disclosure, it is pursuant to an agreement featuring a requirement that the party to whom information is being disclosed keep such information confidential.

The transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee the security of your Personal Information or Non-Identifiable Information transmitted to our Website, as well as any Personal Information transmitted to us in the course of a transaction with Climate Lead. Any transmission of Personal Information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Website, in our operations, or on websites, servers, or physical locations maintained by third parties

Disclosure for Website Users in the European Union

How We Use Information Collected Through Our Website.

Climate Lead is required under EU data protection law to identify a legal basis for using your personal information – we have highlighted these in brackets below:

To present our Website and its contents to you (to achieve our legitimate interest in making this content available to you in an effective way).
To provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us (with your consent).
To carry out any other of our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including for billing and collection (to perform our contract with you).
To notify you about changes to our Website or any products or services we offer or provide though it (to achieve our legitimate interest in ensuring we provide our services to you effectively).
To allow you to participate in interactive features on our Website (to achieve our legitimate interest in ensuring we provide our services to you effectively).
To contact you about events, convenings, and information that may be of interest to you (with your consent).
In the manner set out in the “Disclosure of Your Personal Information” section below.

Your Rights With Respect To Your Personal Information

[If our processing of your Personal Information is subject to EU data protection law, you have a number of rights. These include, in certain circumstances:

To ask us not to process your Personal Information, including where Climate Lead is using it for direct marketing purposes.
To receive a copy of all your Personal Information held by Climate Lead, in order to check we are processing it lawfully.
To ask us to correct any errors in your Personal Information.
To ask us to delete your Personal Information, including when exercising your right to object to processing (see above).
To ask us to restrict the processing of your Personal Information.
To ask us to transfer your Personal Information to another party.
To withdraw your consent where you have provided it for Climate Lead’s collection or use of your Personal Information for a specific purpose.
You may exercise these rights at any time by contacting Climate Lead using the details in the “Contact Information” section of this Policy.]

We may not be able to accommodate a request relating to your Personal Information in certain circumstances prescribed by law. Please contact us using the details in the “Contact Information” section of this Policy if you would like more information.

International Transfers of Personal Information

We share your Personal Information within Climate Lead. For our clients in Europe, this may involve transferring your personal information outside of the European Economic Area (“EEA”). We ensure your personal information is protected by requiring all of our group companies to follow the same rules when processing your personal information. We may also share your personal information with contractors, service providers, and other third parties supporting our business when needed. Many of these third parties are based outside of the EEA, so their processing of your personal information will involve a transfer of data outside of the EEA.

Whenever we transfer your personal information out of the EEA, we ensure proper protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

We will only transfer your personal information to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal information by the European Commission.
Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved by the European Commission which give personal information an appropriate level of protection when being processed outside Europe.
Where we use providers based in the US, we may transfer data to them if they are part of the Privacy Shield which requires them to provide similar protection to personal information shared between Europe and the U.S.

Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal information out of the EEA.

Minors

If you are under the age of 16, please do not use the Website. Climate Lead will not knowingly permit persons under the age of 16 to provide information or sign up for updates or receive information, through the Website or otherwise. If Climate Lead later learns that a user is under the age of 16, Climate Lead will take appropriate steps to remove that user’s Personal Information from the database and restrict that user’s access to the Website.

Changes to Our Policy

We may revise and update this Policy from time to time in our sole discretion. All changes are effective immediately when we post them, and apply to all access to and use of the Website and handling of your personal information thereafter. It is our policy to post any changes we make to our Policy on this page. If we make material changes to how we treat our users’ personal information, we will notify you through a notice on the Website home page. The date the Policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page.

Contact Information

For more information about the Climate Lead website, or if you have any questions, please contact us. Climate Lead’s office hours are Monday-Friday, 9am-6pm PT. We will try to respond to inquiries within a timely manner.

Updated June 10, 2024