It is fairly inevitable that you will at some point find yourself searching the web for answers to questions. Whether that be for finding solutions to bugs in your code or researching the latest in green tech, search engines have become very useful tools for many people. But, have you considered that those searches you’re making could be done in a way that benefits the planet?
The search engine that plants trees
Ecosia has been around for a long time. Started 10 years ago, it’s had a lot of time to grow as a major contender in the search engine marketplace. The big difference with Ecosia? They plant trees on your behalf just for you searching through their service.
How can just searching plant trees?
Planting and looking after trees to ensure they make it to ‘adulthood’ costs a lot of money. So how do Ecosia make that money? They pay for the planting of trees by using a revenue stream built on advertisements. While that doesn’t sound like a great user experience, other search engines have been doing this same tactic for many years too. We think being served adverts is a very small price to pay for such a big environmental benefit from all the trees they plant. Now at over 111,187,430 trees planted – that is a serious amount of reforestation and carbon sequestrated from the atmosphere.
How to switch your search engine
It’s a super simple switch, one that can be done in a couple of clicks.
- You can simply go to ecosia.org and use the service
- If you would like to track your tree planting total and you’re a Google Chrome user, you can simply add the Ecosia Chrome add-on and sign in when you first visit Ecosia
- If you’re a Firefox user, you can also install the Firefox Ecosia add-on and sign in to track your planting totals
- Use Ecosia just like you would any other search engine – but now, you plant a tree for approximately every 45 searches you make. Nice.
So go ahead. Start planting trees whilst searching the web.