Data sources & attributions

Last updated: 11 August 2026

Saison's numbers trace to published sources. This page lists every external dataset, font, and directory the platform relies on, together with its licence, the attribution it requires, and whether we hold permission to use it. It is generated from a single provenance registry in our codebase, so it cannot drift from what the product actually uses. For how each number is computed, see our methodology.

Carbon and energy factors

Poore & Nemecek (2018) food LCA meta-analysis

Used for: Per-food-category baseline carbon factors (kg CO2e/kg) behind dish and restaurant sustainability scores and the Go Neutral footprint.
Source: Poore, J. & Nemecek, T. (2018). Reducing food's environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science 360 (6392): 987-992.
Licence: Published academic dataset (Science) - used with citation.
Status: Cited academic source
Verified: 2026-08-11
Attribution: Carbon factors derived from Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360(6392):987-992.

Our World in Data - environmental impacts of food (2024)

Used for: Refined per-category carbon factors where OWID has published updates to the Poore & Nemecek baseline.
Source: Our World in Data (2024), Environmental impacts of food production. ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food
Licence: CC-BY 4.0.
Status: Open licence
Verified: 2026-08-11
Attribution: Contains data from Our World in Data, licensed under CC-BY 4.0.

UK Government GHG Conversion Factors (DEFRA / DESNZ)

Used for: Country-level carbon and grid-electricity factors for UK restaurants (deferred market).
Source: DEFRA / DESNZ UK Government GHG Conversion Factors for Company Reporting (2023-2025).
Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0 (OGL).
Status: Open licence
Verified: 2026-08-11
Attribution: Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Australian National Greenhouse Accounts Factors (2025)

Used for: AU state and national grid electricity factors, the natural-gas factor, and landfill waste-decomposition (methane) factors in the Go Neutral footprint.
Source: Australian Government DCCEEW, National Greenhouse Accounts Factors 2025.
Licence: CC-BY 4.0 (Commonwealth of Australia).
Status: Open licence
Verified: 2026-08-11
Attribution: Contains data (c) Commonwealth of Australia (DCCEEW), National Greenhouse Accounts Factors, licensed under CC-BY 4.0.

National LCA studies for country carbon multipliers

Used for: Country-specific carbon adjustment multipliers, each researched against a published national LCA for that product.
Source: AU: Meat & Livestock Australia LCA 2019, Dairy Australia 2023, CSIRO 2017, ABARES. UK: DEFRA 2024, AHDB 2023, Carbon Trust, Arla Foods LCA. CA: Environment & Climate Change Canada NIR 2024, Dairy Farmers of Canada, Verge et al. 2008.
Licence: Mixed published government and industry LCA sources - used with citation.
Status: Cited academic source
Verified: 2026-08-11
Attribution: Country carbon multipliers derived from the national LCA studies listed in METHODOLOGY.md section 7.

OpenNEM / Clean Energy Regulator national grid average

Used for: Fallback AU national grid-average electricity factor when a venue's state is not set.
Source: Clean Energy Regulator / OpenNEM 2024 national grid average.
Licence: CC-BY 4.0.
Status: Open licence
Verified: 2026-08-11
Attribution: Grid-average data from OpenNEM / Clean Energy Regulator, licensed under CC-BY 4.0.

Water footprints

Mekonnen & Hoekstra (2012) water footprints

Used for: Per-food virtual-water footprints behind the water side of the Go Neutral footprint.
Source: Mekonnen, M.M. & Hoekstra, A.Y. (2012). A global assessment of the water footprint of farm animal products. Water Resources Research.
Licence: Published academic dataset - used with citation.
Status: Cited academic source
Verified: 2026-08-11
Attribution: Water footprints derived from Mekonnen & Hoekstra (2012), Water Resources Research.

Seafood sustainability ratings

Seafood stock-status and certification sources

Used for: Species-level seafood sustainability scoring. Saison synthesises an independent, conservative score (it underclaims where sources disagree) rather than redistributing any single rating.
Source: IUCN Red List 2024; MSC and ASC certified registers; Marine Conservation Society Good Fish Guide (UK); Seafood Watch (Monterey Bay Aquarium, US); CSIRO Status of Australian Fish Stocks 2024 (fish.gov.au); GoodFish Australia / AMCS.
Licence: Mixed - some sources (IUCN Red List, Seafood Watch, MCS Good Fish Guide) restrict reuse of their ratings.
Status: Independent synthesis
Verified: 2026-08-11
Notes: Reuse permission for the restricted rating sources is not held; Saison publishes only its own synthesis, not any provider's rating. Direct redistribution of a provider's rating is gated on permission (tracked here).

Nutrition

USDA FoodData Central

Used for: Ingredient nutrition values (per-100g macro and micronutrients), cached via the FDC API with a static table fallback.
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, FoodData Central. fdc.nal.usda.gov
Licence: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. 105).
Status: No permission required
Verified: 2026-08-11
Notes: No attribution or permission required; credited here as a courtesy. A future Open Food Facts complement (ODbL) would require attribution and share-alike review before import.

Industry benchmarks

ATO Small Business Benchmarks

Used for: Corroborates the AU food-cost benchmark band (cost of sales to turnover for restaurants, cafes and takeaway food services).
Source: Australian Taxation Office, Small Business Benchmarks (restaurants / cafes / takeaway food services).
Licence: CC-BY 4.0 - free and redistribution-safe.
Status: Open licence
Verified: 2026-08-11
Attribution: Australian food-cost band corroborated by the ATO Small Business Benchmarks (CC-BY 4.0). The ATO cost-of-sales figure includes beverages, so it runs above a food-only figure.

Australian Bureau of Statistics - food services

Used for: Cross-check for industry-level income and expense ratios.
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, food and accommodation services and Economic Activity Survey.
Licence: CC-BY 4.0.
Status: Open licence
Verified: 2026-08-11
Attribution: Contains data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, licensed under CC-BY 4.0.

WRAP UK hospitality waste study (2023)

Used for: Informs the hospitality waste benchmark bands.
Source: WRAP (2023), UK hospitality and food service waste study.
Licence: Open government data.
Status: Open licence
Verified: 2026-08-11
Attribution: Waste bands informed by WRAP UK (2023) hospitality and food service waste data.

Menu-engineering method

Menu-engineering academic method

Used for: The classifier that sorts menu items into performance quadrants. The academic terms are never shown to users.
Source: Kasavana, M.L. & Smith, D.J. (1982). Menu Engineering. Hospitality Publications. Pavesic, D.V. (1985). Prime numbers: Finding your menu's strengths. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly 26(3).
Licence: Published method - used with citation.
Status: Cited academic source
Verified: 2026-08-11
Notes: Method reference only; no dataset is redistributed.

Fonts

Inter, DM Sans, DM Serif Display

Used for: Application UI (Inter) and public static pages (DM Sans / DM Serif Display).
Source: Inter by Rasmus Andersson; DM Sans and DM Serif Display by Colophon Foundry / Google Fonts.
Licence: SIL Open Font License 1.1.
Status: Open licence
Verified: 2026-08-11
Attribution: Inter, DM Sans and DM Serif Display are licensed under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.

Software libraries

Open-source software libraries

Used for: The frontend and backend are built on open-source components (React, Django and their dependency trees).
Source: Full inventory in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md and the shipped /third-party-notices.txt.
Licence: Permissive (MIT / ISC / BSD / Apache-2.0 / PSF / Unlicense / CC0); documented server-side exceptions psycopg2-binary (LGPL) and certifi (MPL-2.0).
Status: Open licence
Verified: 2026-08-06
Attribution: See the full third-party software notices at /third-party-notices.txt.
Notes: Inventoried and licence-gated in CI by the FEAT-AUD185 pipeline; not re-listed here.

Directories compiled by Saison

Carbon offset project directory

Used for: The Go Neutral project list. Saison does not yet purchase or retire credits on a user's behalf; the directory is informational.
Source: Compiled by Saison from public project registries and provider pages.
Licence: Public identity information, compiled by Saison.
Status: Compiled by Saison
Verified: 2026-08-11
Notes: Instruments referenced include Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) and reef water quality credits.

Local supplier directory

Used for: Local supplier suggestions. Reduced to verifiable identity fields (name, location, category) so the directory is honest rather than speculative.
Source: Compiled by Saison from publicly listed supplier identity information.
Licence: Public identity information, compiled by Saison.
Status: Compiled by Saison
Verified: 2026-08-11

Food rescue organisation directory

Used for: Food-rescue org suggestions in the waste-diversion flow.
Source: Compiled by Saison from publicly listed food-rescue organisation information.
Licence: Public identity information, compiled by Saison.
Status: Compiled by Saison
Verified: 2026-08-11

Required attributions

The open-licence sources above require us to attribute them. In one place:

Carbon factors derived from Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360(6392):987-992.
Contains data from Our World in Data, licensed under CC-BY 4.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains data (c) Commonwealth of Australia (DCCEEW), National Greenhouse Accounts Factors, licensed under CC-BY 4.0.
Country carbon multipliers derived from the national LCA studies listed in METHODOLOGY.md section 7.
Grid-average data from OpenNEM / Clean Energy Regulator, licensed under CC-BY 4.0.
Water footprints derived from Mekonnen & Hoekstra (2012), Water Resources Research.
Australian food-cost band corroborated by the ATO Small Business Benchmarks (CC-BY 4.0). The ATO cost-of-sales figure includes beverages, so it runs above a food-only figure.
Contains data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, licensed under CC-BY 4.0.
Waste bands informed by WRAP UK (2023) hospitality and food service waste data.
Inter, DM Sans and DM Serif Display are licensed under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.
See the full third-party software notices at /third-party-notices.txt.

Corrections

If a licence, attribution, or permission state on this page is wrong, write to hello@saisonapp.com with the source and what you think is wrong. We fix provenance errors faster than we hide them.