Search Sustainably with Ecosia!

On average, an individual with access to the internet conducts anywhere from one to eight internet searches every day. The largest search engine, Google, receives a staggering 40,000 search queries every second which amounts to 3.5 billion searches every day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide, according to Internet Live Stats. That’s a lot of searches, and whether you’re searching from your computer or phone, imagine being able to use those searches for good! Well, imagine no more, because that is exactly what Ecosia offers.

For those of you wondering just what Ecosia is, it’s simple: it’s a search engine that uses its profits to plant trees. When I first heard about this, I thought it sounded too good to be true. However, after some additional research and experience using the search engine, I am officially an Ecosia convert. An exemplar of what a responsible business model should look like, Ecosia is transparent, sustainable, and thoughtful in their operations.

Ecosia is a free search engine that uses its profits, or surplus income, generated from advertisements to plant trees. The act of planting a tree may seem insignificant, but as Ecosia explains on their website, “the forests Ecosia users have planted mitigate climate change, save endangered animals, regenerate depleted soil, and improve the livelihoods of local communities.” That’s wildly significant considering it takes no extra effort on our parts aside from installing the Ecosia extension and/or app and continuing to search the web as usual.

Ecosia is not only environmentally-focused in how they use their advertising revenue, but they are also responsible in their day to day operations with their servers running on 100% renewable energy generated from a solar energy plant constructed in 2017.  Similarly, Google, the world’s largest search engine, has been carbon neutral since 2017. However, Ecosia takes carbon neutrality a step further because with every tree planted they are actively removing CO2 from our atmosphere!

At the time of this blog post, over 60 million trees have been planted using the revenue generated by the Ecosia search engine. More specifically, Ecosia supports over 20 tree-planting projects in 15 different countries including Peru, Brazil, Madagascar, Nicaragua, Haiti, Colombia, Spain, Morocco, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Indonesia, utilizing local partners to plant and monitor the trees on the ground.

In addition to running on 100% renewable energy and actively removing CO2 from our atmosphere through their mission of planting trees, Ecosia is a Certified B Corporation, meaning  they, “balance purpose and profit and are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on their workers, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment.” B Corporations drive a global movement of people using business as a force for good. There are over 2,780 companies that are Certified B Corporations, with Ecosia included among the list of well-known socially responsible and progressive companies such as Ben & Jerry’s and Patagonia.

Unlike some companies that falsely claim to be acting as a force of good, Ecosia provides transparent evidence and access to their monthly financial reports and tree planting receipts so that you can know exactly how the income from your searches is being used. You can even stay up to date with Ecosia’s reforestation projects by listening to The Ecosia Podcast, subscribing to the Ecosia newsletter, or checking out their blog.

To use Ecosia on a mobile device or tablet, simply download the free Ecosia app. You can also add Ecosia as an extension to Chrome browsers or set Ecosia as your homepage in Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, or Edge browsers. For instructions on how to do this, visit Ecosia’s technical support page. Then, simply continue to search away, watching your personal search count tally up (on average it takes about 45 searches to plant a tree) while knowing you are contributing to reforestation and sustainable conservation efforts.

The most important thing you can do on your path toward greener living this week is to not only start using the Ecosia search engine yourself, but to spread the word and encourage others to use it as well. This week’s blog, while not necessarily highlighting a source of waste in our everyday lives, instead encourages a practice of thoughtfulness, intentionality, and consciousness that can inform not only our internet searches, but every aspect of our lives. Whether you start searching with Ecosia or choose more generally to support Certified B Corporations going forward, let me know how it goes in the comments section below.

~Sam