Terms of use

The Cold Standard is a free newsletter and website covering the cold economy, published as developments land — refrigeration, cold chain, HVAC&R and the businesses around them. It is informational only. It is not legal, engineering, safety or compliance advice, and it does not replace the standards, regulations or a qualified professional that apply to your work.

The newsletter and website are free to read and free to subscribe to — there is nothing to pay for the newsletter itself. Optional premium plans (Standard Pro, Standard Desk, Standard Intelligence) add early access, team seats, shared desk access and analyst calls. The archive and the French and Arabic editions stay free. Premium is billed by Stripe, our payment processor, on their own secure checkout; see the pricing page for what each plan includes and how to cancel.

If you buy a premium plan, it renews automatically — monthly or yearly — until you cancel. You can cancel at any time from the billing link in your receipt, or by emailing us; your access runs to the end of the period you have already paid for. We do not give part-period refunds except where consumer law requires it.

Subscribing means you asked us to email you the editions. You can stop at any time using the link in any edition or the unsubscribe page. Please subscribe with an address you are entitled to use.

• Do not use the site to break the law, or to attack or overload it.
• Do not scrape, resell or republish whole editions as your own work. Quoting with attribution and a link is welcome and encouraged.
• Do not subscribe other people without their permission.

The editions, the corrections record and the site design belong to us. Facts, figures and quotes from third parties remain theirs, and are attributed where we use them.

We verify before publishing, cite our sources, and correct mistakes in public rather than quietly — see the corrections policy. That said, the newsletter may still contain errors or become out of date, and you are responsible for checking anything you rely on.

We may change, pause or stop publishing at any time, and we may update these terms. If a change materially affects you, we will note it in an edition.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario, Canada, and the courts of Ontario have jurisdiction. Questions, corrections and takedown requests: reply to any Cold Standard email.

The Service is provided ‘as is’ and ‘as available’. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law we make no warranties, representations or conditions of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, or non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure or error-free, or that any output, calculation, estimate or analysis is accurate, complete or reliable.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event will The Cold Standard be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, revenue, goodwill or data, arising out of or in connection with the Service or these Terms, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), strict liability or otherwise, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

Our aggregate liability for all claims relating to the Service will not exceed the greater of (a) the amounts you paid to us in the 12 months before the claim arose, or (b) CAD $100.

Any calculation, simulation, estimate, ranking or other output provided through the Service is for informational purposes only and is not professional engineering, financial, legal, real-estate or other professional advice. You are responsible for verifying any output before relying on it.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any right or remedy that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law, including provincial consumer-protection legislation where it applies.