FAQs

Common questions and answers we are asked about at Cooler

Can’t polluters just move to other parts of the country with more emissions permits?

This is a problem in many carbon markets and commonly referred to as “leakage.” Cooler avoids this problem by working with regulating bodies like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which regulates fossil fuel power plants in the northeastern US that provide power to the grid. The nature of their business means they can’t relocate. If a power plant is going to effectively provide power for New York, it can’t move to Texas.

Why is it so cheap?

Research has shown carbon should cost around $60-$100/ton to incentivize behavior change, but that’s far off from current prices. Right now, depending on the market, carbon averages about $15/ton. The low price comes from a few issues: Over allocation of markets, which incentivized polluters to buy-in and adopt a market at all, and not enough demand, so low competition at auctions. The former is something Cooler will help address. We are purchasing and retiring credits so we are removing them from circulation, lowering the allocation and creating market scarcity– this works in tandem with a tightening of a market cap, so the price will slowly increase over time -OR- coal fired plants will feel the squeeze and lower their emissions, or even close and renewables will take over.

Can I tell up front what the cost of neutralization will be?

Check your dashboard for running totals, and a good way to estimate your neutralization costs up front is that they average 0.5% of the cost of any product or service. Our actual estimates are far more precise than that however and are displayed on your dashboard in real-time.

What does it mean to footprint?

A carbon footprint is a calculation of the amount of carbon used to produce a good or service. We ultimately want to reduce carbon as it is a key proponent of global climate change.

What does it mean to neutralize?

Neutralization is our term for marking transactions that we will purchase carbon permits for, on behalf of our customers. Our goal is to purchase as many carbon permits as possible off the open market

What do you do with the carbon permits?

Once we purchase the permits, we retire them so they are no longer available on the market.

What methodology are you using to footprint?

Our methodology is based off the GHG Protocol. We have more information about in the previous page which includes our white paper.

When are permits attached to neutralized transactions?

We purchase permits off the open market quarterly.

Will I be notified when my neutralized transactions are complete

Once we have confirmed receipt of the permits in hand, we update our internal systems and notify all customers that their neutralized transactions have been completed. An email will be send to customers quarterly with summarized data.

Do I have to neutralize my transactions?

Neutralization is an optional next step to consuming API clients. We recommend it as this is the action step that enables us to purchase permits and reduce availability on the open market. Please note that we do not tie any permits to transactions unless they are marked for neutralization.

I have a bunch of foot printed transactions, can I neutralize all?

You can neutralize foot printed transactions at any time.

What is the cost to neutralize?

This depends on the aggregate KG carbon marked for neutralization and the cost of carbon which is driven by the market.

What happens if I don't have enough credit to neutralize?

The neutralized transactions will remain pending until sufficient credit is available for us at Cooler to take to the open market and purchase permits on your behalf.

What does N/F Ratio mean in the dashboard?

This is the neutralization to footprint ratio and is just a barometer for how many of your total transactions are neutralized.

Is there a way to un mark transactions for neutralization?

At this time there is not

Do I have to use the web hook to receive data?

At this time no, but we are planning on deprecating the data payload coming in immediately on the initial response as we want to unify architectural changes we made to our systems. There is no clear timeline when deprecation will happen but we recommend making the change now for un-interuppted service.