# Claims playbook

This page is for the person who will write the blog post, the ESG slide,
or the footer badge. The short version: **say what was done, never what it
cancels.** Every approved statement is an activity claim, and the platform
is built so the approved language is the same language the software
enforces; the schedules in the [Terms](/terms) render from the same
configuration file the code runs.

## The three approved statement families

Filled examples of the templates (your certificate carries your period's
exact versions):

- **Water**: "Retired 25 Water Restoration Certificates, representing
  25,000 gallons of water restoration as documented by Bonneville
  Environmental Foundation." Always accompanied by the geography
  disclosure: restoration occurs in the project watershed identified on
  the certificate, which may differ from the watersheds where AI
  infrastructure consumes water.
- **Carbon**: "Retired 12 carbon credits (12 tCO2e), Jordan River
  Restoration Project, Utah (ACR212) Vintage 2024." Project identity is
  mandatory; a carbon quantity with no project behind it is outside the
  license.
- **Renewable energy**: "Purchased and retired 31 Renewable Energy
  Certificates (31 MWh) from wind generation, vintage July 2026." Resource
  type and the supplier's certification disclosure ride along, and REC
  figures never sit in the same block as carbon figures.

Estimates may be quoted only as estimates, with the range: "Our AI usage
this quarter is estimated at 41,000 gallons of water (90 percent plausible
range 9,000 to 210,000), per R3CKON methodology 1.0.0."

## Why the banned list exists

The software scans every buyer-facing surface for banned phrases, and the
claim license excludes them for customers. The categories, and the reason
each fails:

- **Status and neutrality vocabulary**: any phrasing that assigns your
  footprint a settled status (neutral-style, net-style, zero-style, or
  positivity claims about water). They assert an equation the evidence
  cannot support: the footprint is an estimate with a range that can span
  an order of magnitude, while the retirements are exact. Equating them is
  exactly the claim regulators and courts have been dismantling.
- **Verbs of cancellation and compensation**: any verb that says the
  retirement undoes, erases, or balances away the footprint. Same equation,
  verb form. Also, "offset" applied to water or RECs is categorically
  wrong: WRCs restore water somewhere, they do not un-consume yours, and a
  REC is a renewable generation attribute, not a carbon instrument.
- **Unqualified evaluatives**: broad feel-good labels attached to AI
  (green-, clean-, eco-styled adjectives). Unfalsifiable, and the FTC
  Green Guides treat unqualified general environmental benefit claims as
  deceptive.
- **Precision overclaims**: any language presenting the figures as
  measured, actual, or exact. Nobody outside the providers can measure
  this; claiming precision the methodology does not have would poison the
  honest parts of the record too.

## Required adjacencies

Some statements are licensed only with a companion, and the renderer
throws rather than emit one without the other:

| Figure | Must appear with |
|---|---|
| Any estimate | Its 90 percent range and the modeled-estimate disclaimer with methodology version |
| Water retirement | The watershed geography disclosure |
| REC retirement | Resource type and supplier certification status; never in a carbon block |
| Carbon retirement | Project identity (registry, project, vintage) |
| Reduction two or more years out | The FTC timing disclosure |

## The regulatory backdrop, in one paragraph

The FTC Green Guides (16 CFR Part 260) treat unqualified environmental
benefit claims and unsubstantiated offset claims as deceptive. California
AB 1305 requires public disclosures from sellers of voluntary carbon
offsets and from companies making certain climate claims; R3CKON publishes
its seller [disclosures](/disclosures) and generates the records customers
need. The EU's Directive 2024/825 restricts generic environmental claims
and claims that a product has neutral, reduced, or positive environmental
impact based on offsetting. Activity claims with named projects,
quantities, vintages, and stated uncertainty are the form designed to
survive all three.

## Quick dos and don'ts

- Do: "This month we funded the retirement of 40 carbon credits
  (Project X, Vintage 2024) against our estimated AI footprint."
- Do: publish the certificate itself; it is written to be quoted.
- Don't: put any statement about your AI being neutral, matched, or
  compensated anywhere near these records.
- Don't: total water, carbon, and energy into one number, or describe RECs
  as reducing emissions.
- Don't: drop the range when quoting an estimate.