Imagine if you could do something great for this challenged planet by simply engaging in the tasks you do every day? Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
Well, by using Ecosia’s search engine, you can! This search engine Ecosia plants at least 1 tree for every 45 searches initiated by users on their platform, & they plant this tree in a climate degraded area, so your search helps someone & an environment in dire need.
Ecosia is a not-for-profit company founded by Christian Kroll in 2009. He was inspired by reforestation projects that he saw in the Atlantic Rainforest while traveling through Argentina & Brazil. He wanted to do something to restore the planet’s atmosphere; in other words to remove the deadly overload of CO2 in our atmosphere. He realized that planting trees was the path to achieving his aims & Ecosia.org was born-a search engine that plants trees to save the world.
Microsoft’s Bing search engine is the basis for Ecosia, but they add their own elements to the algorithm, which improves the result set for users’ searches. They publish a running tally of the number of trees they’ve planted around the world on their homepage, so as users search they can see the benefit they’re producing. Also, each user can view the number of trees they have, personally, seeded if they install the Ecosia search app. However, that’s not all, Ecosia also contributes to a better environment by running their servers, entirely, on solar power, thereby producing a zero carbon footprint.
As of writing, Ecosia has planted 116 583 070 trees around the world; they plant a tree every 1.3 seconds (9000 different locations) . Projects that benefit from Ecosia’s tree-search include:-
- In partnership with the Jane Goodall Institute, Ecosia is planting trees in the south of Uganda to reforest a home for the chimpanzees whose environment has been eroded by man. This initiative plants what they refer to as ‘forest corridors’, which connect small forested areas, giving the chimps a better chance at survival.
- In Indonesia together with Sumatran Orangutan Society & the Gunung Saran Lester Foundation, Ecosia is planting trees to provide an alternate source of income for locals who generally rely on palm oil plantations for their living. Palm oil plantations threaten over 193 endangered wildlife, species including the orangutan. Ecosia has planted trees, such as rubber trees here, to alleviate the problem.
- In Ethiopia, Senegal & other African countries, Ecosia develops ‘Tree Gardens’, which are food production gardens that are protected from the rough climate by trees. The project has seen much success & provides income for thousands of families who would otherwise have absolutely nothing.
Ecosia publishes all their financial data on the Web. They earn via advertising links published in their search results & from sales from the Online store. All searches are encrypted so they offer a safe-data policy as well. So, install Ecosia today, & save the world with every search:- iOS, Web or Android.
Image credit: Ecosia
