Cookies

When we provide services, we want to make them easy, useful and reliable. Where services are delivered on the internet, this sometimes involves placing small amounts of information on your device, for example, computer or mobile phone. These include small files known as cookies. They cannot be used to identify you personally.

These pieces of information are used to improve services for you through, for example:

enabling a service to recognise your device so you don't have to give the same information several times during one task
recognising that you may already have given a username and password so you don't need to do it for every web page requested
measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and there's enough capacity to ensure they are fast

You can manage these small files yourself and learn more about them through Internet browser cookies - what they are and how to manage them

Our use of cookies

When we provide services, we want to make them easy, useful and reliable. Where services are delivered on the internet, this sometimes involves placing small amounts of information on your device, for example, your computer or mobile phone. These include small files known as cookies. They cannot be used to identify you personally.

These pieces of information are used to improve services for you through, for example:

recognising that you may already have given a username and password so you don't need to do it for every web page requested
measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and there's enough capacity to ensure they are fast
analysing anonymised data to help us understand how people interact with our website so we can make it better

You can manage these small files and learn more about them from the article, Internet Browser cookies- what they are and how to manage them.

Learn how to remove cookies set on your device.

There are two types of cookie you may encounter when using the Sustainability Exchange:

First party cookies - These are our own cookies, controlled by us and used to provide information about usage of our site.

Third party cookies - These are cookies found in other companies' internet tools which we are using to enhance our site, for example Facebook or Twitter have their own cookies, which are controlled by them.

First party cookies

The Sustainability Exchange uses cookies in several places - we've listed each of them below with more details about why we use them and how long they will last.

We will endeavour to let you know before we store a cookie on your computer.

Cookies set by the Sustainability Exchange

Name	Purpose	Typical content	Expires
PHPSESSID	Website's own method of identifying a user visiting the website. Often used for saving data such as the contents of a shopping basket, data submitted via a form or whether a user is logged into their online account. This cookie is not used to store any data on the Sustainability Exchange.	ju79du0d420oetdb3eo8i7rf47	When the user's browser is closed.

Third party cookies

We use a number of suppliers who may also set cookies on their websites' on its behalf. The Sustainability Exchange does not control the dissemination of these cookies. You should check the third party websites for more information about these.

Provider	Name	Purpose	More info
Google Analytics	__utma	Used to distinguish users and sessions. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and no existing __utma cookies exists. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. Expires 2 years from set/update.	See https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/cookie-usage for more information.
	__utmt	Used to throttle request rate. Expires 10 minutes.
	__utmb	Used to determine new sessions/visits. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and no existing __utmb cookies exists. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. Expires 30 mins from set/update.
	__utmc	Not used in ga.js. Set for interoperability with urchin.js. Historically, this cookie operated in conjunction with the __utmb cookie to determine whether the user was in a new session/visit. Expires End of browser session.
	__utmz	Stores the traffic source or campaign that explains how the user reached your site. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. Expires 6 months from set/update.
	__utmv	Used to store visitor-level custom variable data. This cookie is created when a developer uses the _setCustomVar method with a visitor level custom variable. This cookie was also used for the deprecated _setVar method. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. Expires 2 years from set/update.
Google Maps	SID, APISID, SSID, HSID, NID, PREF	Google set a number of cookies on any page that includes a Google Map. While we have no control over the cookies set by Google, they appear to include a mixture of pieces of information to measure the number and behaviour of Google Maps users.	Most of the cookies expire 10 years after your last visit to a page containing a Google Map.

How to control and delete cookies

We will not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you.

However, if you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by our website, or indeed any other website, you can do this through your browser settings. The ‘Help' function within your browser should tell you how.

Alternatively, you may wish to visit www.aboutcookies.org which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of browsers. You will also find details on how to delete cookies from your machine as well as more general information about cookies.

Please be aware that restricting cookies may impact on the functionality of our website.

If you wish to view your cookie code, just click on a cookie to open it. You'll see a short string of text and numbers. The numbers are your identification card, which can only be seen by the server that gave you the cookie. For information on how to do this on the browser of your mobile phone you will need to refer to your handset manual.

To opt-out of third-parties collecting any data regarding your interaction on our website, please refer to their websites for further information.