Since launching in 2009, this search engine has used its advertising dollars to finance the planting of more than 124 million trees. Time to switch from Google and make your online searches finance tree planting?
Almost everyone has heard of a Google search. But what about Ecosia, the search engine that uses its advertising revenue to plants trees? Can a click make a difference?
The ads on Ecosia are delivered by Bing, and Ecosia earns revenue when a user clicks on an ad. Some, more lucrative keyword advertisements are more valuable to Ecosia than others. Because not every user clicks an ad each time they search, Ecosia earns an average of 0.5 cents (Euro) per search, so it takes approximately 45 searches to finance the planting of one tree.
Ecosia finances tree-planting efforts in areas where biodiversity is at risk and where the local community can participate in and benefit from the projects. And while Ecosia brings the money, a network of more than 50 partner organizations do the on-the-ground work of growing seedlings, planting trees, and maintaining reforested plots.
“Ecosia is simple. They’re right to the point, friendly, and they believe in what you do. And if you keep doing your excellent work, I think you’ll just get more trees,” Laury Cullen, director of the Institute for Ecological Research, one of Ecosia’s partners in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, told Mongabay.
“They try to visit us every year… I think that’s the very best way to report to your donor that you are doing the right stuff. They can see your work on the ground and not just the paper reports.”
“Trees are very inspirational things. We shouldn’t kind of only see them as a way to store carbon.”
Check out Ecosia and give the planet extra lungs...