Did you know that there is a way to make browsing the web more friendly to the environment? Specifically, did you know that there is a search engine that lets you browse the web and help plant trees at the same time?
If your answer is no to either or even both questions, let us tell you more about Ecosia.
What is Ecosia?
According to its official website, Ecosia is pretty much a search engine that plants trees. So how exactly does that work?
Per its Google Chrome listing, Ecosia uses its "ad revenue to plant trees where nature and people need them most." This means that all you have to do is use Ecosia to browse the web. The search ads then generate income for Ecosia, which they use to plant trees.
The official website states that their tree-planting work takes place in more than 30 countries, including Brazil, Burkina Faso, and Indonesia.
It was founded in December 2009 and 80% of Ecosia's revenue focuses on tree-planting projects. It should likewise be noted that it is not a for-profit business and that all of the profit goes to climate action.
In fact, Ecosia is "powered by 200% renewable energy" thanks to solar panels that "produce twice the amount of energy needed to power all searches with renewables."
As of press time, the search engine's efforts has allowed for more than 147 million trees to be planted around the world, according to the official website.
Ecosia's Tree-Planting Projects
Ecosia has more than 60 active tree-planting projects as of writing. A separate page on its website lists the following countries as the location for the projects:
- Australia
- Bolivia
- Brazil
- Burkina Faso
- Cameroon
- Canada
- Colombia
- Cote d'Ivoire
- Ethiopia
- Ghana
- Guatemala
- Haiti
- India
- Indonesia
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Mali
- Mexico
- Morocco
- Nicaragua
- Nigeria
- Peru
- Philippines
- Rwanda
- Senegal
- Spain
- Sudan
- Tanzania
- Thailand
- Uganda
- United Kingdom
- United States
For example, Ecosia's website states that 14,750 trees have already been planted specifically in the United States. In the U.K., 1,000 trees have been planted in the country since 2020, while 67,000 trees have been planted in Australia since the same year.
Ecosia focuses on planting native species instead of monocultures and works with local communities as well as organizations to carry out their efforts.
Privacy Protection for Users
Tree planting is great and all, but we all know that user privacy is a big concern and factor when it comes to choosing a search engine to browse on.
Ecosia guarantees that it is does not sell your data and searches to advertising companies. In fact, searches on the engine are encrypted as well to ensure that no third party entity can have accesses to them.
Ecosia likewise does not use external tracking tools, according to its website, and does not even store searches permanently. While it does collect some data for the sake of improving their services, users can actually choose to completely opt out of tracking altogether.
