A search engine with a difference: Ecosia

After watching ABC’s War On Waste (if you haven't already watched it, do it now!) I wanted to become more environmentally conscious and more sustainable but I didn’t know where to start. That’s when I found Ecosia, a search engine that plants trees while you surf the web for what Kimmy K wore last night.

The project first started in 2009, when Founder, Christian Kroll, realised the impact of globalisation and the importance of trees. Ecosia aims to plant one billion trees, and to date, has planted over 10 million.

How it works:

Ecosia aims to contribute 80 per cent of its revenue towards planting trees (the rest goes towards wages, and advertising). In a statement by Ecosia, Mr. Kroll said, “Like Google, we show you search results as well as some small text advertisements. When you click on one of those advertisements, we get paid by the advertiser and use that money to plant trees…”

Ecosia has planted trees all around the world, including restoring the coastal forests in Madagascar, and helping find alternatives to palm oil plantations in Indonesia.

How effective is Ecosia?

Ecosia uses a search algorithm from Bing (along side it's own), so its search results are not as specific as Google’s. However, Katie Beverly, account manager at Browse Media wrote that while Ecosia provides search results that are relevant, Google was able to provide results that were specific to her location (you can read more about her test here).

Personally, I'm happier to take a few more seconds to find the particular website I want, and plant some trees whilst I wait.

Get searching using Ecosia now.