FAQs

Answers to common questions we are asked at Cooler

Can’t polluters just move?

This is a problem in many carbon markets and commonly referred to as “leakage.” The nature of the power plants we impact means they can’t relocate; if a power plant is going to effectively provide power for New York, it can’t simply move to Texas.

Why is carbon so cheap?

Research has shown carbon should cost around $60-$100/ton to incentivize behavior change, but that’s far off from current prices. The low price comes from a few issues: over-allocation of markets, which incentivized polluters to adopt a market in the first placel, and not enough demand.. Cooler helps to increase demand by purchasing and retiring permits on your behalf, which removes them from circulation, reducing the allocation and creating market scarcity. This approach works in tandem with the tightening of the market cap by regulators, so the price will slowly increase over time and fossil-fuel-based power plants will feel the squeeze and lower their emissions in compliance.

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 measure of the total amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other greenhouse gasses emitted directly or indirectly by an individual, organization, event, or product throughout its lifecycle, often expressed in equivalent tons of CO₂. We ultimately want to reduce carbon emissions, the primary driver global climate change.

What does it mean to neutralize?

Neutralization is our term for blocking carbon emissions for your footprint by buying carbon emissions permits from regulated markets that polluters need to continue to pollute. This reduces their allocations, which forces them to reduce their emissions and air pollution, and ultimately to switch to renewables.

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. We are not market speculators and do not buy and hold permits.

What methodology are you using to footprint?

Our methodology is based on the GHG Protocol. We have more information about in our white paper and in the Methodology section.

When are permits attached to neutralized transactions?

We purchase permits from 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 footprinted transactions, can I neutralize all?

You can neutralize footprinted transactions at any time.

What is the cost to neutralize?

This depends on the amount of your carbon footprint marked for neutralization and the cost of carbon, which is driven by the permits market and varies quarterly.

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?

Yes, you can access the de-neutralization endpoint .

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 uninterrupted service.