Last updated March 2024

1.       Introduction

1.1    We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our website visitors, service users, individual customers and customer personnel.

1.2    This policy applies where we are acting as a data controller with respect to the personal data of such persons; in other words, where we determine the purposes and means of the processing of that personal data.

1.3    Our website incorporates privacy controls which affect how we will process your personal data. By using the privacy controls, you can limit the sharing and publication of your personal data. You can access the privacy controls via https://seedling.earth/.

1.4    We use cookies on our website. Insofar as those cookies are not strictly necessary for the provision of our website and services, we will ask you to consent to our use of cookies when you first visit our website.

1.5    In this policy, "we", "us" and "our" refer to Seedling, a trading name of Beyond Carbon Neutral Ltd. For more information about us, see Section 20.

2.       The personal data that we collect

2.1    In this Section 2 we have set out the general categories of personal data that we process and, in the case of personal data that we did not obtain directly from you, information about the source and specific categories of that data.

2.2    We may process data enabling us to get in touch with you ("contact data").The contact data may include your name, email address, telephone number, postal address and/or social media account identifiers. The source of the contact data is you and/or your employer. If you log into our website using a social media account, we will obtain elements of the contact data from the relevant social media account provider.

2.3    We may process your website user account data ("account data"). The account data may include your account identifier, name, email address, business name, account creation and modification dates, website settings and marketing preferences. The primary source of the account data is you and/or your employer, although some elements of the account data may be generated by our website. If you log into our website using a social media account, we will obtain elements of the account data from the relevant social media account provider.

2.4    We may process your information included in your personal profile on our website ("profile data"). The profile data may include your name,address, telephone number, email address, profile pictures, gender, date of birth, employment details. The source of the profile data is you and/or your employer. If you log into our website using a social media account, we will obtain elements of the profile data from the relevant social media account provider.

2.5    We may process information relating to our customer relationships ("customer relationship data"). The customer relationship data may include your name, the name of your business or employer, your job title or role, your contact details, your classification / categorisation within our customer relationship management system and information contained in or relating to communications between us and you, or between us and your employer. The source of the customer relationship data is you and/or your employer.

2.6    We may process your personal data that are provided in the course of the use of our services and generated by our services in the course of such use ("service data"). The service data may include name, location, commuting habits,and energy use habits. The source of the service data is you and/or your employer and/or our services.

2.7    We may process information relating to transactions, including purchases of goods and/or services, that you enter into with us and/or through our website ("transaction data"). The transaction data may include your name, your contact details, your payment card details (or other payment details) and the transaction details. The source of the transaction data is you and/or our payment services provider.

2.8    We may process information contained in or relating to any communication that you send to us or that we send to you ("communication data"). The communication data may include the communication content and metadata associated with the communication. Our website will generate the metadata associated with communications made using the website contact forms.

2.9    We may process data about your use of our website and services ("usage data"). The usage data may include your IP address, geographic allocation, browser type and version, operating system, referral source, length of visit, page views and website navigation paths, as well as information about the timing, frequency and pattern of your service use. The source of the usage data is our analytics tracking system.

2.10  Please do not supply any other person's personal data to us, unless we prompt you to do so.

3.       Purposes of processing and legal bases

3.1    In this Section 3, we have set out the purposes for which we may process personal data and the legal bases of the processing.

3.2    Operations - We may process your personal data for the purposes of operating our website, the processing and fulfillment of orders, providing our services,supplying our goods, generating invoices, bills and other payment-related documentation, and credit control. The legal basis for this processing is the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract.

3.3    Publications - We may process account data, profile data and/or service data for the purposes of publishing such data on our website and elsewhere through our services in accordance with your express instructions. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the publication of content in the ordinary course of our operations.

3.4    Relationships and communications - We may process contact data, account data, customer relationship data, transaction data and/or communication data for the purposes of managing our relationships, communicating with you (excluding communicating for the purposes of direct marketing) by email, SMS, post, fax and/or telephone, providing support services and complaint handling. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely communications with our website visitors, service users, individual customers and customer personnel,the maintenance of our relationships, enabling the use of our services, and the proper administration of our website, services and business.

3.5    Personalisation - We may process account data, service data and/or usage data for the purposes of personalising the content and advertisements that you see on our website and through our services to ensure that you only see material that is relevant to you. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract.

3.6    Direct marketing - We may process contact data, account data, profile data,customer relationship data and/or transaction data for the purposes of creating, targeting and sending direct marketing communications by email, SMS, post and/or fax and making contact by telephone for marketing-related purposes.The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely promoting our business and communicating marketing messages and offers to our website visitors and service users.

3.7    Research and analysis - We may process usage data, service data and/or transaction data for the purposes of researching and analysing the use of our website and services, as well as researching and analysing other interactions with our business. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests,namely monitoring, supporting, improving and securing our website, services and business generally.

3.8    Recordkeeping - We may process your personal data for the purposes of creating and maintaining our databases, back-up copies of our databases and our business records generally. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely ensuring that we have access to all the information we need to properly and efficiently run our business in accordance with this policy.

3.9    Security - We may process your personal data for the purposes of security and the prevention of fraud and other criminal activity. The legal basis of this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the protection of our website,services and business, and the protection of others.

3.10  Insurance and risk management - We may process your personal data where necessary for the purposes of obtaining or maintaining insurance coverage, managing risks and/or obtaining professional advice. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the proper protection of our business against risks.

3.11  Legal claims - We may process your personal data where necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the protection and assertion of our legal rights, your legal rights and the legal rights of others.

3.12  Legal compliance and vital interests - We may also process your personal data where such processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.

3.13 Marketing communications and consent - Where required by law, we will obtain your explicit consent before sending you marketing communications. You can give this consent when filling in a form on our website or platform by ticking a box to opt in. You can withdraw your consent at any time by clicking the “unsubscribe” link in our emails or by contacting us directly at hello@seedling.earth. We may also rely on legitimate interests to contact you if you are an existing customer or have shown a clear interest in our products or services, and where such communications are relevant and expected. We will never sell your personal data or share it with third parties for their own marketing purposes.

4.       Automated decision-making

4.1    We may use your personal data for the purposes of automated decision-making in relation to carbon accounting calculations.

4.2    This automated decision-making will involve the assessment of personal data (inputs) with a view to estimating associated greenhouse gas emissions (outputs).

4.3    The significance and possible consequences of this automated decision-making are limited to information displayed to users within the website about their company’sand/or their employer’s greenhouse gas emissions.

5.       Providing your personal data to others

5.1    We may disclose your personal data to any member of our group of companies (this means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and all its subsidiaries)insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes, and on the legal bases, set out in this policy.

5.2    We may disclose your personal data to our insurers and/or professional advisers insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes of obtaining or maintaining insurance coverage, managing risks, obtaining professional advice.

5.3    Your personal data held in our website database will be stored on the servers of our hosting services providers, identified at https://bubble.io/ (for the app) and https://webflow.com/ (for the landing pages).

5.4    We may disclose to our suppliers or subcontractors insofar as reasonably necessary for the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract

5.5    Financial transactions relating to our website and services may be handled by our payment services provider, Stripe. We will share transaction data with our payment services provider only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing your payments, refunding such payments and dealing with complaints and queries relating to such payments and refunds. You can find information about the payment services provider’s privacy policies at https://stripe.com/gb.

5.6    We may disclose contact data along with any other personal data contained in enquiries made through our website or services to one or more of those selected third party suppliers of goods and/or services identified on our website for the purpose of enabling them to contact you so that they can offer, market and sell to you relevant goods and/or services. Each such third party will act as a data controller in relation to the personal data that we supply to it; and upon contacting you, each such third party will supply to you a copy of its own privacy policy, which will govern that third party's use of your personal data.

5.7    In addition to the specific disclosures of personal data set out in this Section 5, we may disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.We may also disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure.

6.       International transfers of your personal data

6.1    In this Section 6, we provide information about the circumstances in which your personal data may be transferred to a third country under UK data protection law.

6.2    We may transfer your personal data from the European Economic Area (EEA) to the UK and process that personal data in the UK for the purposes set out in this policy, and may permit our suppliers and subcontractors to do so, during any period with respect to which the UK is not treated as a third country under EU data protection law or benefits from an adequacy decision under EU data protection law; and we may transfer your personal data from the UK to the EEA and process that personal data in the EEA for the purposes set out in this policy, and may permit our suppliers and subcontractors to do so, during any period with respect to which EEA states are not treated as third countries under UK data protection law or benefit from adequacy regulations under UK data protection law.

6.3    We and our other group companies do not have offices and facilities in other countries.

‍6.4    The hosting facilities for our website are situated in the United States. The competent data protection authorities have made an adequacy determination with respect to the data protection laws of each of these countries. Transfers to each of these countries will be protected by appropriate safeguards, namely the use of standard data protection clauses adopted or approved by the competent data protection authorities.

6.5    You acknowledge that personal data that you submit for publication through our website or services may be available, via the internet, around the world. We cannot prevent the use (or misuse) of such personal data by others.

7.       Retaining and deleting personal data

7.1    This Section 7 sets out our data retention policies and procedures, which are designed to help ensure that we comply with our legal obligations in relation to the retention and deletion of personal data.

7.2    Personal data that we process for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.

7.3    We will retain your personal data as follows:
(a)    contact data will be retained for a minimum period of 30 days following the date of the most recent contact between you and us, and for a maximum period of 5 years following that date;
(b)    account data will be retained for a minimum period of 30 days following the date of closure of the relevant account, and for a maximum period of 5 years following that date;
(c)    profile data will be retained for a minimum period of 30 days following the date of deletion of the profile by you, and for a maximum period of 5 years following that date;
(d)    customer relationship data will be retained for a minimum period of 30 days following the date of termination of the relevant customer relationship and for a maximum period of 5 years following that date;
(e)    service data will be retained for a minimum period of 30 days following the date of termination of the relevant contract, and for a maximum period of 5 years following that date;
(f)    transaction data will be retained for a minimum period of 30 days following the date of the transaction, and for a maximum period of 5 years following that date;
(g)    communication data will be retained for a minimum period of 30 days following the date of the communication in question, and for a maximum period of 5 years following that date;(h)    usage data will be retained for up to 5 years following the date of collection.

7.4    In some cases it is not possible for us to specify in advance the periods for which your personal data will be retained. In such cases, we will determine the period of retention based on its necessity for the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract.

7.5    If you grant to us a licence to publish any of your personal data, we may continue to retain and publish that personal data after the end of the relevant retention period specified in this Section 7 in accordance with the applicable licence terms, subject to your data subject rights. If we cease to publish such personal data after the end of the relevant retention period specified in this Section 7, that personal data will be retained for a minimum period of 30 days and a maximum period of 5 years following the date that publication ceases.

7.6    Notwithstanding the other provisions of this Section 7, we may retain your personal data where such retention is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.

8.       Security of personal data

8.1    We will take appropriate technical and organisational precautions to secure your personal data and to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your personal data.

8.2    We will store your personal data on secure servers, personal computers and mobile devices.

8.3    We implement appropriate technical and organisational security measures to protect personal data collected through our website and services. These measures may include access controls, secure hosting infrastructure, and encryption where appropriate. Additional safeguards apply to personal data processed through our platform, as described in Clause 13.

8.4    Data relating to your enquiries and financial transactions that is sent from your web browser to our web server, or from our web server to your web browser, will be protected using encryption technology.

8.5    You acknowledge that the transmission of unencrypted (or inadequately encrypted) data over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.

8.6    You should ensure that your password is not susceptible to being guessed, whether by a person or a computer program. You are responsible for keeping the password you use for accessing our website confidential and we will not ask you for your password (except when you log in to our website).

9.       Your rights

9.1    In this Section 9, we have listed the rights that you have under data protection law.

9.2    Your principal rights under data protection law are:
(a)    the right to access - you can ask for copies of your personal data;
(b)    the right to rectification - you can ask us to rectify inaccurate personal data and to complete incomplete personal data;
(c)    the right to erasure - you can ask us to erase your personal data;
(d)    the right to restrict processing - you can ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data;
(e)    the right to object to processing - you can object to the processing of your personal data;(f)    the right to data portability - you can ask that we transfer your personal data to another organisation or to you;
(g)    the right to complain to a supervisory authority - you can complain about our processing of your personal data; and
(h)    the right to withdraw consent - to the extent that the legal basis of our processing of your personal data is consent, you can withdraw that consent.

9.3    These rights are subject to certain limitations and exceptions. You can learn more about the rights of data subjects by visiting https://edpb.europa.eu/our-work-tools/general-guidance/gdpr-guidelines-recommendations-best-practices_enand https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/.

9.4    You may exercise any of your rights in relation to your personal data by written notice to us, using the contact details set out below.

10.    Third party websites

10.1  Our website includes hyperlinks to, and details of, third party websites.

10.2  In general we have no control over, and are not responsible for, the privacy policies and practices of third parties.

11.    Personal data of children

11.1  Our website and services are targeted at persons over the age of 18.

11.2  If we have reason to believe that we hold personal data of a person under that age in our databases, we will delete that personal data.

12.    Updating information

12.1  Please let us know if the personal information that we hold about you needs to be corrected or updated.

13. Additional Terms for Business Customers – Data Processing Agreement (UK GDPR)

13.1 This section applies when we process personal data on behalf of a business Customer via our Platform (as defined in our Terms and Conditions). In that case, the Customer is the Controller and we are the Processor under UK GDPR.

13.2 We process personal data solely on the Customer’s documented instructions and only as necessary to deliver our services.This processing continues for the duration of our agreement with the Customer, as set out in our Terms and Conditions.

13.3 Data subjects may include the Customer’s employees, contractors, customers, and other end-users. Data types may include, but are not limited to, contact details, login credentials, payment information, communications data, usage and transaction data.

13.4 We will:
a) Only process personal data under the Customer’s documented instructions.
b) Ensure personnel processing data are under confidentiality obligations.
c) Implement and maintain the technical and organisational measures in Section 2.8 below.
d) Assist the Customer in responding to data subject rights requests and GDPR obligations.
e) Notify the Customer without undue delay after becoming aware of any personal data breach.
f) At the Customer’s choice, delete or return all personal data after services end, and delete residual copies within 30 days, unless otherwise required by law.
g) Provide information needed to demonstrate compliance and support audits or inspections, upon reasonable notice.

13.5 The Customer authorises us to use the following sub-processors in connection with delivering our services:
a) Bubble.io (hosting/application platform, USA)
b) Stripe (payment processing, USA)

We will notify the Customer of any changes to this list and allow reasonable opportunity to object.

13.6 All data processing by us and our sub-processors occurs in the United States. We rely on the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, along with the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, to ensure lawful transfers under UK GDPR.

13.7 The Customer must ensure they have all necessary rights and legal bases to provide personal data to us for processing.

13.8 We have implemented the following measures to safeguard personal data:
a) Encryption in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest where supported.
b) Role-based access controls and least-privilege access principles.
c) Multi-factor authentication for administrative accounts.
d) Logging and monitoring access to systems that process personal data.
e) Ongoing security patching and vulnerability management.
f) Backup and disaster recovery procedures.
g) Regular staff training on data protection.
‍
14.    About cookies

14.1  A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers)that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.

14.2  Cookies may be either "persistent" cookies or "session" cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.

14.3  Cookies may not contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal data that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.

15.    Cookies that we use

15.1  We use cookies for the following purposes:
(a)    authentication and status - we use cookies to identify you when you visit our website and as you navigate our website, and to help us determine if you are logged into our website.(b)    shopping cart - we use cookies to maintain the state of your shopping cart as you navigate our website.
(c)    personalisation - we use cookies to store information about your preferences and to personalise our website for you.
(d)    security - we use cookies as an element of the security measures used to protect user accounts, including preventing fraudulent use of login credentials, and to protect our website and services generally.
(e)    analysis - we use cookies to help us to analyse the use and performance of our website and services.
(f)    cookie consent - we use cookies to store your preferences in relation to the use of cookies more generally.

16.    Cookies used by our service providers

16.1  Our service providers use cookies and those cookies may be stored on your computer when you visit our website.

16.2  We use Google Analytics. Google Analytics gathers information about the use of our website by means of cookies. The information gathered is used to create reports about the use of our website. You can find out more about Google's use of information by visiting https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/and you can review Google's privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy.

17.    Managing cookies

17.1  Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies and to delete cookies. The methods for doing so vary from browser to browser, and from version to version.You can however obtain up-to-date information about blocking and deleting cookies via these links:
(a)    https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647(Chrome);
(b)    https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enhanced-tracking-protection-firefox-desktop(Firefox);
(c)    https://help.opera.com/en/latest/security-and-privacy/(Opera);
(d)    https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies(Internet Explorer);
(e)    https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/safari/manage-cookies-and-website-data-sfri11471/mac(Safari); and
(f)    https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4468242/microsoft-edge-browsing-data-and-privacy(Edge).

17.2  Blocking all cookies will have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites.

17.3  If you block cookies, you will not be able to use all the features on our website.

18.    Cookie preferences

18.1  You can manage your preferences relating to the use of cookies on our website by visiting: https://seedling.earth/

19.    Amendments

19.1  We may update this policy from time to time by publishing a new version on our website.

19.2  You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes to this policy.

19.3  We may notify you of significant changes to this policy by email.

20.    Our details

20.1  This website is owned and operated by Beyond Carbon Neutral Ltd.

20.2  We are registered in England and Wales under registration 14035491 and our registered office is at 6a St Stephen’s Road, Bath, BA1 5HB, United Kingdom.

20.3  Our principal place of business is at 6a St Stephen’s Road, Bath, United Kingdom, BA1 5HB.

20.4  You can contact us:
(a)    by post, to the postal address given above;
(b)    using our website contact form;
(c)    by telephone, on the contact number published on our website; or
(d)    by email, using the email address published on our website.

21.    Data protection registration

21.1  We are registered as a data controller with the UK Information Commissioner's Office.

21.2  Our data protection registration number is ZB377754.

22.    Representatives

22.1  Our representative within the EU with respect to our obligations under data protection law is Blair Spowart and you can contact our representative using the methods listed above.

22.2  Our representative within the UK with respect to our obligations under data protection law is Blair Spowart and you can contact our representative using the methods listed above.

23.    Data protection officer

23.1   Our data protection officer's contact details are: Blair Spowart, 6a St Stephen’s Road, Bath, United Kingdom, BA1 5HB.