What if we could plant tree saplings while working on our assignments? While this sounds too good to be true, the idea became possible through a search engine, Ecosia. Ecosia was founded in 2009 by Christian Kroll as a for-profit organization. Kroll intended to create a search engine that protects forests and plants trees. Ecosia is a B-Lab certified and privacy-focused company that creates a carbon-negative impact on the environment. It is available as a website, mobile app, and browser extension to your favorite browser.
Ecosia has more than 15 million users worldwide and receives around 10,000 search requests per minute. Ecosia’s revenue primarily originates from advertisements on the search result page. It earns approximately $0.0054 per search, which translates to 45 searches to plant a tree. According to its website, 80% of its profits (42% of Revenue) will go to non-profit organizations that it calls “local partners” like WeForest, Copaiba, and many more to help them plant trees. With the help of these local partners, Ecosia has planted more than 147 million trees so far. The company only partners with organizations trying to help biodiversity hotspots which are zones that “face extreme threats, hold at least 1,500 species of endemic plants and have diminished by at least 70%.” Currently, they have identified 35 biodiversity hotspots that cover almost 2.3% of landmass all around the world. The company also states that each search on Ecosia helps remove one kilogram of carbon dioxide from the environment.
Some of its projects include planting Acacia trees in Burkina Faso, restoring the biodiversity of the rainforests of Brazil and Indonesia, and many more. In the United States, Ecosia has partnered with Arbor Day, American Forest Foundation, and CTS Enterprise to help restore the watershed in Withlacoochee State Forest and restore plantation areas affected by forest fires in Oregon, California, and Florida. They also partnered with Griffith Park Commonwealth Nursery to help fight urban tree inequity in Los Angeles.
Ecosia on Campus is a global community of students campaigning to make Ecosia the default search engine at universities worldwide. As students we search a lot for information on Google, however, if we did the same thing on Ecosia we would be able to help plant many trees. As of now, there are 20 universities in Europe that are using Ecosia as their default browser. Ecosia also sells eco-friendly merchandise made from natural materials and arrives in plastic-free packaging.
In 2018, Kroll signed a legally binding and irreversible contract that will not allow anyone to sell their shares and no profits can be taken out of the company. This ensured that the company is staying true to its purpose of saving the world from climate change. All revenue reports are available on the company’s website to make it more transparent and trustworthy.
Personally, I’ve been using Ecosia for a while now and can confidently say that it is a safe and efficient alternative to Google or Bing, and still provides all the capabilities of a search engine while being beneficial to the environment. On this Earth Day, let us try to make a positive impact on the world by setting up Ecosia as our default search engine. P.S. All the research for this article was done on Ecosia which will, in turn, help plant a tree.
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