Built for fair participation.

Who we are and what these terms cover

These terms are an agreement between you and Balance Eco Ltd (“Balance”, “we”, “us”), a company registered in England and Wales under company number 09645120. Our registered office is 20 Chamberlain Street, Wells, Somerset BA5 2PF, United Kingdom.

They govern your use of the Chant by Balance app; Balance ID; balance.eco and related Balance websites; Chant and Forests workspaces and content-management tools; forest, calculator, certificate and impact services; and related support and communications (the “Services”).

If you use a workspace for an employer, client or other organisation, its contract with Balance and any workspace rules also apply. If there is a conflict, that contract controls the organisation’s business use; these terms continue to govern your personal responsibilities and any consumer use. Additional terms shown for a particular Chant, event, purchase or feature also apply to that activity.

The important points

• You must be at least 13 to create an account. If you are under 18, ask a parent or guardian to review these terms with you.
• You keep ownership of your voice recording and other original content, but give the permissions needed to operate the Services and create the Chant work you choose to join.
• A submitted recording may be mixed with other voices and the resulting work may be performed, streamed, broadcast, exhibited, delivered or released publicly.
• A tree or Balance Unit allocation records environmental impact; it is not ownership of land or a tree, a carbon credit, an investment or a promise of financial return unless we expressly say otherwise.
• We can moderate content, protect the platform and suspend serious misuse, but we will act reasonably and will not take away rights that consumer law gives you.

Accepting these terms and age rules

You accept these terms when you create an account, select an acceptance control, submit content or continue to use the Services after being given a reasonable opportunity to read them. If you do not agree, do not create an account or use the Services.

The Services are not directed to children under 13. If you are 13 to 17, you confirm that a parent or guardian has permitted your use and will help you understand any participation terms. A particular Chant, event or feature may set a higher age requirement. An adult accepting for a child confirms that they have authority to do so.

You may use the Services only where lawful. If you use them for an organisation, you confirm that you are authorised to act for it.

Your Balance ID and workspace access

Give accurate information, keep it current and protect your password, device and sign-in methods. Do not share an account or let another person use your workspace permissions. Tell us promptly at enquiries@balance.eco if you believe an account or credential has been compromised.

Workspace access, roles and features are set by Balance or the relevant organisation. An administrator may invite, change, suspend or remove workspace users. Your organisation may be able to see activity and content created in its workspace.

You remain responsible for activity you authorise. You are not responsible for activity caused by our security failure or another matter that is legally our responsibility.

Permission to use the Services

We give you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable permission to access and use the Services for their intended purpose while these terms apply. You may download and use the app on devices you own or control, subject to the applicable app-store rules and end user licence agreement.

Balance and its licensors own the Services, software, designs, brands, databases and content we provide, except for user content and third-party material. No other rights are transferred to you. Do not copy, sell, sublicense, reverse engineer, scrape or create a competing service from them except where the law expressly allows it.

Your Chant and other content

You keep ownership of your original voice recording, image, text and other content. When you submit content, you give Balance a worldwide, non-exclusive and royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, edit, adapt, synchronise, mix, combine, perform, communicate, broadcast, distribute, display, publish and otherwise use it to operate the Services and produce, deliver, promote and preserve the Chant or other project you chose to join.

We may sublicense those permissions only to service providers and to the artists, producers, rights owners, venues, broadcasters, distributors, project partners and workspace users who need them for those purposes. Project-specific participation terms presented for a Chant may add to or clarify this licence and will control for that Chant if they conflict with this section.

For content not incorporated into a finished work, the licence normally ends when you delete it, subject to a reasonable backup period and legal records. If your contribution has been incorporated into a mix or other fixed work, or we have already made commitments relying on it, the licence continues for as long as reasonably needed to use, distribute, archive and administer that work. We do not have to recall or remake a lawfully created work when an account or source recording is later deleted.

You permit reasonable technical and creative editing and, to the extent the law allows, agree not to assert moral rights in a way that prevents the uses you agreed to. Participation does not create employment, a partnership, co-ownership or an entitlement to royalties, payment or credit unless the applicable participation terms expressly say so.

Your promises about content

• The content is yours or you have all permissions needed to submit it and grant the licence above.
• Submitting and using it as contemplated will not infringe copyright, trade marks, privacy, publicity, confidentiality, data-protection or other rights.
• It is not unlawful, fraudulent, defamatory, threatening, discriminatory, obscene, abusive or deliberately misleading.
• It does not contain malicious code, undisclosed advertising, spam or material intended to compromise a person or system.
• You will comply with any recording prompt, age rule, event rule and participation terms shown for the relevant Chant.

Forests, trees, Balance Units and certificates

Forest pages, estimates, allocations, holdings, planting stages, updates and certificates are intended to provide an understandable record of environmental activity. Statuses such as reserved, scheduling, scheduled, planted or verified have their ordinary displayed meaning; a reservation is not a statement that planting has already happened.

Unless a specific offer expressly says otherwise, an allocation does not give you legal ownership of land, a particular living tree, timber, biodiversity rights or carbon credits. It is not a regulated investment and has no promised resale value or financial return. Do not use a certificate or impact figure to make a claim that goes beyond the wording and evidence provided.

Planting depends on seasons, land access, weather, ecology and delivery partners. We and our partners may change species, timing or location, or provide equivalent impact, where reasonably needed for safety, survival, legality or project delivery. We will keep the recorded status reasonably accurate and correct material errors brought to our attention.

Events, visits and planting invitations may have venue or partner rules. Follow safety instructions and tell the organiser about relevant accessibility needs. Nothing in these terms excludes responsibility that cannot lawfully be excluded.

Prices, purchases and cancellation rights

Some Services are free and others may be paid. Before a purchase, we will show the essential features, total price including unavoidable charges, billing basis and any applicable cancellation information. Your app store or payment provider may process the payment under its own terms. You are responsible for your provider’s data or connectivity charges.

If a subscription is offered, the checkout will explain its period, renewal and how to cancel. We will not add an optional charge without your express consent. Unless the checkout clearly says otherwise, creating a free account does not commit you to a paid service.

Consumers may have statutory cancellation, refund, repeat-performance, repair or price-reduction rights. We do not restrict them. Where you ask us to begin a service during a cancellation period, or expressly consent to immediate supply of digital content and acknowledge that the cancellation right will be lost, the consequences explained at checkout will apply. Contact enquiries@balance.eco for a purchase made directly from Balance; for an app-store purchase, use the store’s process where required.

Acceptable use

• Do not break the law, infringe rights, harass or exploit anyone, endanger a child, impersonate another person or misrepresent your authority.
• Do not probe or bypass security, access another account or workspace, upload malware, disrupt the Services, overload systems or interfere with another user.
• Do not scrape, harvest, automate access or train a model on non-public Service content without our written permission, except where the law gives you a right we cannot restrict.
• Do not use the Services for unsolicited marketing, spam, deceptive campaigns or unauthorised commercial exploitation.
• Do not remove notices, manipulate impact evidence, falsify certificates, misuse botanical information or present an estimate as an independently verified fact.

Moderation, suspension and account deletion

We may investigate reports, restrict content or access, preserve evidence, or suspend an account where reasonably necessary to protect users, rights, security, partners or the Services. Except in an urgent case, we will normally explain a material restriction and give you a reasonable opportunity to respond. We may permanently close an account for serious or repeated breach, illegality, fraud, security abuse or material harm.

You can stop using the Services at any time and can request account deletion through the app where available. Deletion is subject to the continuing rights for fixed Chant works described in section 6 and to records we must or reasonably need to keep for transactions, impact evidence, security, legal obligations or claims. Our Privacy Policy explains how personal data is handled.

Ending these terms does not affect accrued payment obligations, existing licences needed for fixed works, or provisions that by their nature need to continue.

Service changes and availability

We work to keep the Services secure and useful, but do not promise uninterrupted or error-free availability. Maintenance, connectivity, app stores, third-party systems, safety issues and events beyond reasonable control can affect access.

We may improve, replace or discontinue features. We will give reasonable notice where a change materially reduces a paid ongoing Service, unless an urgent legal, security or technical reason prevents advance notice. Where consumer law requires a remedy for a detrimental change, we will provide it.

Back up content where the Service provides an export. Do not rely on the Services as the only record of information you must retain.

Third-party services and information

The Services may link to or interoperate with app stores, Apple or Google sign-in, maps, notification providers, booking services, media platforms, botanical databases, forest partners and other third parties. Their own terms apply to their service. A link does not mean that Balance controls or endorses everything on that service.

Maps, routes, species information, calculators and environmental estimates are provided for general information and may contain delays, approximations or third-party data. Check safety-critical, professional, tax, legal, investment or scientific decisions with an appropriate qualified source.

Intellectual-property complaints

If you believe material in the Services infringes your rights, email enquiries@balance.eco with your contact details, the work or right concerned, the material and its location, why you believe the use is unauthorised, and a statement that the information you provide is accurate. We may ask for evidence of authority and may share the substance of a complaint with the person who submitted the material where appropriate.

We may remove or restrict material while we investigate. Do not knowingly make a false or abusive complaint.

Our responsibility to you

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits responsibility for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, breach of your statutory rights, defective digital content where liability cannot be restricted, or anything else the law does not allow us to exclude or limit.

If you are a consumer, we are responsible for loss or damage that is a foreseeable result of our breach of these terms or failure to use reasonable care and skill. Loss is foreseeable if it was obvious or both you and Balance knew it might happen when the contract was made. We are not responsible for loss that is not foreseeable, for loss caused by your breach, or for business losses arising from consumer use.

We do not exclude responsibility merely because we use a supplier or subcontractor. However, we are not responsible for a separate third-party service that you choose to use and that is not acting on our behalf. Your organisation’s written agreement with Balance governs liability for business and workspace use.

Nothing here affects remedies or protections available under applicable consumer law.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms to reflect law, security, technology or reasonable changes to the Services. We will publish the new date and give proportionate advance notice of a material change where practicable. A change will not retrospectively take away rights already granted to you or reduce a paid consumer entitlement without an appropriate remedy.

If you do not accept a material change, you may stop using the affected Service and close your account. Continuing to use it after the notified effective date means the updated terms apply.

General legal terms

If a court finds part of these terms unlawful, the rest continues to apply. A delay in enforcing a right is not a waiver. You may not transfer your account or these terms to another person. We may transfer our rights and obligations as part of a genuine reorganisation, financing or sale, provided this does not reduce your consumer rights.

These terms, the Privacy Policy, applicable end user licence, participation terms and any checkout or organisation agreement form the relevant agreement between us. They do not create rights for anyone else except where the law or an applicable app-store term says otherwise.

English law governs these terms. Courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction, but if you are a consumer living elsewhere you keep any mandatory protections and may bring a claim in the courts available under the law that applies to you. We encourage you to contact us first so we can try to resolve a concern.

Contact