Terms of Service
Claim provisions · R3CKON · R3CKON LLC
1. What the service does
Estimates the usage-phase environmental footprint of AI inference and, separately, retires a fixed monthly basket of third-party-issued environmental certificates for each paid account. The basket is not sized from the estimate.
In plain language: you send us metadata about your organization's AI API usage (model names, token counts, regions, timestamps; never prompts or completions). We estimate the water, carbon, and energy footprint of that usage. Separately, each paid plan purchases and retires a fixed monthly basket of environmental certificates for your benefit: BEF Water Restoration Certificates®, carbon credits, and Renewable Energy Certificates. The basket is set by your plan, not by your estimate. Each month you receive a certificate documenting exactly what was retired.
R3CKON LLC is a reseller and merchant of record. We are not a project developer, not a registry, and we never proxy, gate, or touch your actual AI traffic. If service lapses, your AI tools are unaffected.
1a. Free accounts: what they include, and what they do not
A free account estimates the usage-phase footprint of the AI usage you send, from token metadata alone, and shows every figure with its 90 percent range. Estimation is limited to 10 million billable tokens per calendar month. Usage beyond that limit is still recorded and shown, but it is not estimated until the account moves to a tier that estimates it, at which point the recorded usage is estimated retroactively.
A free account retires nothing. No environmental certificate is acquired, retired, or held for a free account, and no certificate record is issued. Nothing about a free account supports any statement that anything was funded, restored, reduced, or generated.
The claim license in section 4 does not apply to free accounts, because that license attaches to retirement records that free accounts do not have. A free account holder may state an estimate as an estimate, with its 90 percent range and the methodology version, exactly as the console presents it, and may say that the estimate was produced by R3CKON. That is the whole of it. Where the monthly limit has been reached, any statement of that month's figure must say that it covers part of the month, because it does.
Free accounts are provided as they are, with no service level, and may be changed or discontinued with notice to the account's email address. We may suspend a free account that is used to attack or overload the service.
Deletion. You may delete a free account from the console at any time. Deletion is immediate and irreversible and removes your account, usage records, estimates, stored credentials, and user record. A signup that is never completed is removed after 30 days. See the Privacy Policy.
2. How it works
- Metering. Usage arrives as metadata-only events. Content-shaped payloads are rejected at the API boundary; this is an architectural invariant, not a policy.
- Estimation. A versioned, public methodology (currently 1.3.0, published at /methodology) converts usage into footprint estimates. Every figure carries a stated 90 percent plausible range, and every estimate records the exact coefficient values used, so historical numbers remain reproducible. Covers the usage-phase (inference) footprint only. Excludes model training, hardware manufacturing beyond the amortized embodied-carbon adder described in the methodology, network transport, and end-user devices.
- Retirement basket. Each paid plan retires a fixed monthly basket of certificates, published on the pricing page. The basket is the same whatever your usage, and it is not derived from your estimate. Estimates show their 90th percentile (P90) as one point on the modeled range; P90 is a quantile of parameter uncertainty, never guaranteed coverage.
- Retirement. Each monthly close orders the basket: company-owned inventory first, then supplier orders. Team and Business baskets retire in whole units. Personal plans pool (section 6). Certificates report confirmed retirements only; a funded order awaiting supplier confirmation is not available to support any public statement until confirmed. Retirements typically confirm three to six weeks after the month closes.
- Documentation. The monthly certificate states the confirmed retirements with project identities; the plan's basket; the period's footprint estimate with its range, labelled as information that did not determine the retirements; required disclosures; and the claim language the record supports.
3. The nature of estimates
Footprint figures are modeled estimates generated by the versioned methodology. They are not measurements, they carry a stated plausible range that often spans more than an order of magnitude, and they are not suitable for regulatory, statutory, or assurance-standard reporting without independent review. R3CKON LLC warrants that the methodology was applied as published; it does not warrant that any estimate corresponds to actual physical consumption or emissions. The retirements themselves are exact: whole registry instruments, documented per certificate.
4. What you may say: the claim license
Customers receive a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to reference their Certificates in their own communications, conditioned on using only the approved language in Schedule A and including the required disclosures in Schedule B. Statements outside Schedule A are outside the license. The approved claims are activity claims: they state what was funded and retired, identified by project and vintage. They are specific, verifiable, and documented, which is what survives regulatory and litigation scrutiny.
Schedule A: Approved claim language
| Surface | Approved template |
|---|---|
| Product description | Estimates the usage-phase environmental footprint of AI inference and, separately, retires a fixed monthly basket of third-party-issued environmental certificates for each paid account. The basket is not sized from the estimate. |
| Water retirement | Funded the retirement of {n} BEF Water Restoration Certificates®, representing {n x 1000} gallons of water restoration as documented by {supplier}. |
| Carbon retirement | Funded the retirement of {n} carbon credits ({n} tCO2e), issued under {registry} as project {projectCode}, vintage {vintage}. |
| REC retirement | Funded the purchase and retirement of {n} Renewable Energy Certificates ({n} MWh) from {resourceType} generation, vintage {vintage}. |
| Estimate disclaimer | Footprint figures are modeled estimates, not measurements. Central estimate {p50} {unit}; 90 percent plausible range {p05} to {p95}. Most providers do not disclose per-token energy, water, or emissions. Methodology {version}: {url} |
| Water contribution share (pooled tiers) | Funded a {gallons}-gallon share ({percent} percent) of the retirement of {n} BEF Water Restoration Certificates® ({reference}), as documented by {supplier}. |
| Carbon contribution share (pooled tiers) | Funded a {kg}-kg CO2e share ({percent} percent) of the retirement of {n} verified carbon credits ({n} tCO2e), {projectIdentity} ({reference}), as documented by {supplier}. |
| REC contribution share (pooled tiers) | Funded a {kWh}-kWh share ({percent} percent) of the purchase and retirement of {n} Renewable Energy Certificates ({n} MWh) ({reference}), as documented by {supplier}. |
| Holder of record | Holder of record: R3CKON LLC. Instruments are purchased and retired in R3CKON LLC's name for the benefit of the named account; the account's name does not appear on the supplier's or registry's record. |
| Water geography | Water restoration occurs in the project watershed identified above, which may differ from the watersheds where AI infrastructure consumes water. |
| Embed geography note | Restoration occurs in the project watersheds identified on the linked record, which may differ from where AI infrastructure consumes water. |
| Backfill dating | retired upon purchase, sized against estimated usage from 2025-09-01 to 2026-09-01 |
| Scope note | Covers the usage-phase (inference) footprint only. Excludes model training, hardware manufacturing beyond the amortized embodied-carbon adder described in the methodology, network transport, and end-user devices. |
| Enterprise sizing (enterprise agreements only) | Retirement sizing: under enterprise agreement {reference}, this period's quantities were set by the agreement's sizing rule, which takes the {quantile} percentile of this account's modeled footprint estimate for the period in each category and rounds up to whole certificates. [If a cap bound:] The agreement's monthly cap limited the {categories} quantities this period; amounts the rule produced above the cap were not retired and do not carry forward. Applying a sizing rule to a modeled estimate does not measure the footprint, and these retirements are not a representation that any footprint is covered or cancelled. |
Schedule B: Required disclosures
| Disclosure | Renders when |
|---|---|
| Estimate range and disclaimer | Whenever any estimate figure is shown, in the same visual block. |
| Estimate-is-informational note (the estimate did not size the retirement) | Whenever an estimate and a retirement or share appear on the same certificate or record. |
| Holder of record (R3CKON LLC retires in its own name for the account) | On every certificate and published record. |
| Water geography statement | Whenever a water retirement figure is shown. |
| Water quantities are not comparable (restored streamflow versus water used to serve requests) | Whenever a water retirement figure shares a document with a water footprint estimate. |
| REC is not a statement about the electricity that served the usage | Whenever a REC figure is shown. |
| Carbon project type (emission reduction, not removal) | Whenever a carbon retirement is shown. |
| Pooled-retirement share disclosure (whole certificates purchased, shares allocated) | Whenever a fractional contribution share is shown. |
| Published activity records carry the estimate range, the issuer material-connection statement, and a link to the verifiable record | Whenever a customer publishes the shareable activity record. |
| REC resource type and supplier Green-e® or CRS disclosure | Whenever a REC figure is shown; never in the same block as any carbon quantity, except the plan basket line, which lists each category's fixed quantity separately and never sums them. |
| Carbon project identity (registry, project, vintage) | Whenever a carbon retirement is shown. |
| FTC 260.5 timing disclosure | When any retired credit funds a reduction occurring two or more years after purchase. |
| Unclassified-model disclosure | When unclassified model traffic exceeds 15 percent of period tokens. |
| Hidden-reasoning methodology note | When the hidden-reasoning multiplier applied to any usage in the period. |
| Not-an-audit statement | On every certificate. |
| Enterprise sizing rule, any cap that bound, and the estimate-is-the-sizing-input note (in place of the estimate-is-informational note and the fixed-basket line) | On every certificate issued under an enterprise agreement. |
Prohibited claims
Customers will not state or imply that their AI usage, products, services, or organization is of neutral, reduced, or positive environmental impact on the basis of the service; will not describe any footprint as having been cancelled or neutralized; will not describe estimates as measurements; and will not describe the footprint estimate as verified or audited (verification attaches to the certificate record, never to the estimate). Prohibited phrasing includes, without limitation:
fully covered · carbon neutral · carbon-neutral · climate neutral · co2 neutral · net zero · net-zero · zero emission · water neutral · water positive · net water positive · water balanced · footprint-free · impact-free · climate compensated · reduced climate impact · limited co2 footprint · offsets your footprint · offsets your emissions · offset your · cancels out · neutralizes · compensates for · makes up for · zeroes out · nullifies · reduces your emissions · reduce your emissions · green ai · clean ai · sustainable ai · eco-friendly · environmentally friendly · climate friendly · guilt-free · 100 percent renewable ai · 100% renewable ai · we measure · measured footprint · actual footprint · exact footprint · verified footprint · we restored · we have restored · r3ckon restored · tahosa systems restored · restored by r3ckon
5. One claim per attribute, no double counting
Each retired attribute may be claimed once, by the customer it was retired for, and in no other program, registry, framework response, or public statement. Customers will not claim attributes already claimed on their behalf by a cloud or model provider, and will disclose on request any provider-level renewable-energy or carbon claims covering the same consumption. One overlap deserves candor: if your model provider already reports its market-based emissions as zero by matching annual RECs, a separate REC retirement here covering the same consumption arguably claims the same megawatt hour twice. Our methodology uses location-based accounting partly for this reason, and we disclose the overlap rather than paper over it.
6. Retirement mechanics, pending orders, and water geography
R3CKON LLC purchases and retires certificates in its own name for the customer's benefit; customers do not take title to or hold any certificate or registry instrument. Carbon credits, RECs, and BEF Water Restoration Certificates® are retired in R3CKON LLC's name, for platform users. Your name does not appear on the supplier's or registry's record; your certificate shows the reference and the share allocated to you.
Personal plans: pooled retirements. A single person's monthly basket is smaller than one registry unit, so personal-plan baskets are pooled in all three categories. Each month, R3CKON LLC sums the personal baskets in each category and purchases and retires enough whole units to cover every member's basket in full, rounding up. Each account is allocated its full basket as a share of the named retirement, and its certificate states the retirement reference, the share, and the pooling mechanics. Any part of a whole unit left over after every basket is met is company-owned and is drawn first in the next month; it is never allocated to anyone twice. Shares of any one retirement are never allocated beyond its whole. If you cancel, the basket for your final paid period is still retired and allocated to you.
A funded order awaiting supplier confirmation is exactly that: funded, with retirement pending supplier confirmation, and not yet available to support any public statement. If the supplier cannot deliver the stated project within 60 days of the month's close, R3CKON LLC will, at your choice, retire credits from a project listed on the disclosures page with the same or later vintage and the same verification standard, or refund that period's certificate cost. If a registry invalidates or cancels a credit retired for you, R3CKON LLC will replace it one for one at its own cost within 90 days and record the replacement on the disclosures page and the affected certificates. No substitute project is used until it is disclosed there.
Water restoration occurs in the project watershed identified above, which may differ from the watersheds where AI infrastructure consumes water. Customers will not claim local or watershed-specific benefit absent project-specific support; water benefits are not hydrologically fungible across basins.
No badge or seal use; EU notice. The R3CKON name, wordmark, three-bar mark, and certificate stamp may not be used as a badge, seal, trust mark, or label on customer products, packaging, or marketing. The certificate may be reproduced only in full and unaltered. In particular, customers marketing to consumers in the European Union must not display the certificate or any mark derived from it as a sustainability label: from 27 September 2026, Directive (EU) 2024/825 prohibits sustainability labels that are not based on a qualifying certification scheme, and this certificate is a service record from a paid provider, not an independent certification.
The one licensed publication: the activity record. As a narrow exception to the paragraph above, customers may publish the activity record R3CKON generates for their account, using the embed provided in the console and without alteration. That record is licensed because of what it is: it states what was funded and retired in the approved language, carries the estimate with its 90 percent range and disclaimer, and links to a page where the underlying retirement can be checked. It is a record of activity, not a label, seal, or mark of certification, and it must not be presented as one, including by cropping it, restyling it, extracting a figure from it, or placing it so as to imply certification of a product or of the customer. R3CKON may revoke a shared record at any time, and the customer may stop sharing at any time; either takes effect immediately wherever the embed appears.
Internal instrument overlap. The renewable energy and carbon categories on this record are separate instruments that both relate to electricity: a REC carries the generation attribute of one megawatt hour, and a carbon credit the verified reduction of one tonne CO2e from a named project. They are disclosed together so they cannot be mistaken for two independent remedies for one footprint. A Renewable Energy Certificate conveys the environmental attributes of renewable electricity generated elsewhere. It does not mean this account's AI usage ran on renewable electricity, and the model provider may separately claim renewable energy for the same consumption.
Wind-down. If the service is discontinued, every basket already paid for will be retired and allocated within ninety days, and each account's billing email will be told how. Company-owned inventory is not customer property and is never billed.
Retirement basket. Each paid plan retires a fixed monthly basket of environmental certificates, published on the pricing page. The basket may only grow or hold for a subscriber within a paid term. It is reviewed when the methodology version changes or supplier pricing moves; any reduction applies only at a renewal and only after the 7 to 30 day notice in section 6a. How basket sizes were chosen is published on the methodology page. The basket is a defined product allowance. It is not derived from your estimate, and it is not a representation that any footprint is covered, matched, or cancelled. Certificates issued under prior pricing models carry the disclosure line of the model they were issued under.
6a. Subscription renewal and cancellation
Automatic renewal. Paid plans are subscriptions billed through Stripe that renew automatically until you cancel. Monthly plans renew every month at the monthly price. Personal Light, and Team and Business on a yearly plan, renew every year at the yearly price and are charged in full at the start of each year. Prices exclude applicable sales tax. Before you pay, the renewal terms are shown beside a separate checkbox that you tick to agree to them, and the confirmation email repeats them.
Cancelling. You can cancel online at any time from the Cancel subscription button in your console, or from the cancel link in any billing email. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the period you have paid for, with no cancellation fee. The estimation service and your final paid period's basket continue to that period's end. Paid periods are not refunded except where the law requires. Deleting your account cancels the subscription first.
Changes to price or basket. We will not raise your price or reduce your plan's retirement basket without emailing you 7 to 30 days before the change takes effect, stating the new price or basket, the date it applies, and how to cancel. We also email you before each yearly renewal and before each anniversary of a monthly plan.
Records. We keep a record of the renewal terms you agreed to, when, and the notices we sent, for at least three years, including after an account is deleted.
7. Methodology changes; no restatement
The methodology may be revised prospectively, with notice and a public changelog. Retirements already executed are never reversed, and prior-period estimates are not recomputed, because credit retirement is irreversible. A revision that would have materially increased a prior obligation is disclosed, not back-billed.
8. California AB 1305
California law imposes independent website disclosure obligations on entities that purchase or use voluntary carbon offsets and make carbon-related environmental claims.R3CKON LLC publishes its own seller disclosures at /disclosures and makes project-level data available to customers, but does not assume customers' obligations. Staying within Schedule A is designed to avoid making the kinds of claims that trigger the buyer-side provision; that design intent is not a legal opinion, and customers should consult their own counsel.
9. Conformity, cure, and survival
R3CKON LLC will review customer public communications that reference Certificates for conformity with Schedule A on a recurring basis, and on notice and require correction or retraction within a stated period, and may suspend the claim license and service for uncured breach. Customers indemnify R3CKON LLC against third-party claims arising from statements outside Schedule A. Retirements survive termination, certificates remain accurate as to their periods, and the Schedule A restrictions and no-double-counting covenant survive.
Questions: info@r3ckon.com. This page renders its schedules from the same configuration that generates certificates and enforces the console's disclosures, and it updates with the methodology changelog.