Sustainability Policy
This Sustainability Policy explains The Bias’s commitments and approach to environmental impact, estimating emissions, and offsetting carbon with high-quality carbon removal.
1) Purpose and values
The Bias was founded to do good. We care about the impact our product has on the world — including, but not limited to, the environment.
We believe technology products should be built responsibly and transparently, and that organisations should take ownership of the external impacts created by the systems they operate.
2) Recognising the environmental impact of modern software
The Bias depends on modern software and computational systems that can be energy-intensive. This includes the infrastructure and algorithms required to analyse sources and produce our articles.
We recognise that this creates a real environmental footprint. Our objective is to ensure The Bias is a positive force, not a negative one, by actively measuring, reducing, and responsibly offsetting our emissions.
3) Our commitment: 2× monthly offsets to be carbon positive
We commit to offsetting two times (2×) our estimated carbon emissions each month, so that we are not only carbon neutral but carbon positive.
What we include in our emissions estimate
Our monthly estimate includes emissions associated with operating The Bias for that month, including (for example):
- compute, storage, and infrastructure required to produce and deliver our articles
- internal operational activities needed to run the Service (where measurable)
What we do not include (for now)
At this stage, we do not include emissions driven by user activity outside our control (for example, the electricity used to power a user’s phone while reading articles). This is currently too difficult to estimate reliably. As measurement standards improve, we may expand our reporting scope.
4) Monthly reporting and transparency
We publish a monthly report covering:
- our estimated carbon emissions for the reporting period
- the methodology and assumptions used (including limitations)
- our offsetting activities, including the type of offsets/removals and evidence of retirement
- any improvements we are making to reduce emissions at the source
Most recent report: see our Sustainability Report page, where each monthly report is published.
5) How we estimate carbon emissions
We are committed to transparency, but we recognise that for much of the technology we use there is no perfect, direct measurement of emissions. Infrastructure providers and computational services may provide incomplete or non-standardised emissions reporting.
As a result, our emissions reporting is based on an informed estimation process that uses:
- available provider data where offered (for example, service usage and region)
- engineering estimates of compute and storage usage
- published emissions factors where appropriate
- conservative assumptions where uncertainty exists
Methodology details: we will publish the full details of our estimation method alongside our first monthly report.
We treat this process as iterative and will improve accuracy over time as measurement tools, standards, and provider reporting improve.
6) Reduction-first approach
Offsetting is not a substitute for reducing emissions. Our priority order is:
- Reduce emissions at the source (efficiency, architecture, and operational choices)
- Measure and transparently report emissions with the best available methods
- Offset unavoidable emissions using high-quality carbon removal (see Section 7)
Examples of reduction actions may include:
- optimising systems to reduce computational load (efficiency improvements, caching, batching)
- limiting unnecessary compute and storage
- choosing lower-carbon infrastructure options where feasible
- continuously reviewing the efficiency of models and processing pipelines
7) Offsetting policy: high-quality carbon removal, no greenwashing
We will only use high-quality carbon capture and removal methods. We will not rely on low-quality, low-cost schemes that lack measurable real-world impact or that are primarily marketing-driven.
Our offsetting principles include:
- Measurable impact: prioritising projects with robust measurement, reporting, and verification and clear retirement evidence
- Additionality: prioritising projects that would not happen without carbon finance and that avoid double-counting
- Durability: prioritising removals with durable storage rather than short-lived claims
- Transparency: disclosing what we buy and retire in our monthly reporting
- No greenwashing: avoiding vague claims and low-quality credits that cannot be substantiated
8) Continuous improvement
We will evolve this policy as The Bias grows and as better measurement standards emerge. We will continuously improve our estimation methods, reduction practices, and reporting transparency over time.
9) Updates to this policy
We may update this policy as The Bias evolves. The “Last updated” date reflects the latest revision.
For questions about this policy or our reporting, email support.