How many times do you search the internet every day?
Odds are you used a search engine to get here in the first place… Google? Bing? How about Ecosia?
Ecosia is a reasonably new search engine that can be added to any web browser, and replaces Google search. It works just as well, bringing up all the same results you would expect, in just the same amount of time.
There is one key difference between Ecosia and other search engines: Ecosia helps save the planet.
In 2009, founder and CEO Christian Kroll finished university disheartened by the realisation that a lot of companies and individuals prize profit making above all else. The number of people, like us here at Aspire Training Team, that place an important emphasis on creating a sustainable environment, is growing- largely thanks to our efforts within the childcare sector at Tops Day Nurseries. It’s not yet enough. Christian decided to travel the world. During this trip, he learnt about the shocking effects of deforestation.
Every year, areas of forest half the size of England are lost every single year to deforestation. In less than 100 years, we could have wiped out the entire world’s rain forests.
One of the biggest impacts of deforestation is the loss of wildlife habitats. 80% of Earth’s animals and plants live in the forest, and the majority of them cannot survive outside their natural homes.
Cutting down large quantities of trees also contributes to climate change. The leafy trees protect soil from the heat of the sun, but without that shade, the forest soil quickly dries out, leaving a barren desert land. Trees not only block heat in the day, but help to hold it in during the night, and removing this protection is often catastrophic to forest wildlife.
Everyone is aware of the rising danger of greenhouse gases- compounds in the air that destroy our ozone layer and lead to global warming. Did you know that trees not only produce the oxygen that we breath, but also absorb dangerous greenhouse gases from the air? Fewer trees means more CO2 in the atmosphere, and a quicker rise of global warming.
Armed with this knowledge, Christian realised he had the power to intervene. He founded Ecosia; a search engine that helps to plant trees.
How does it work?
As all the best things are, Ecosia is simple.
You add the extension from their website onto your search browser and it replaces Google. So let’s say you use Internet Explorer to access the internet, you open it up, and your search engine would be Ecosia instead of Google. They also have a mobile app version, available here.
Search as usual, and the results are returned as you’d expect.
Every search engine makes money when you click on a link that has been paid for. The difference here is that Ecosia use this money to then plant trees. They work with charities and organisations around the world and have made huge strides in Senegal, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Morocco, Madagascar and more.
If you really want to check up on where your money is going, Ecosia publish their monthly financial reports along with their tree planting receipts, so you can make sure they’re spending the money where you’d want them to.
So next time you’re searching the internet for a new module, conducting some market research, ordering office supplies or even ordering pizza… plant some trees at the same time.
