A year or two ago I got an ad, I don’t remember where, about Ecosia. From my memory, it’s a search engine “just like Google,” that uses ad revenue to plant trees and combat deforestation. I don’t know if it took multiple ads or just the one, but I decided to switch my browser to Ecosia (from Google). It was a simple switch hence why I don’t really remember when I did it.
From Ecosia
The browser itself definitely doesn’t work nearly as well as Google. I actually have Google as the very first website in my bookmarks because I end up having to search on Google 95% of the time. Ecosia works well when looking up websites for stores, which normally pop up as ads. For research purposes, it really doesn’t come close to Google, but I still think everyone should use it when possible if they really are planting trees.
From Ecosia
I originally downloaded Ecosia because why not. It requires minimal effort to hopefully help make a difference. For the possible years that I’ve been using the browser, I never really looked into how they’re planting the trees and if they are. They definitely aren’t trying to hide anything from users. All images in this post are screenshots from the home browsing page. All information is extremely easy to find.
Because I don’t really have time to or the desire (I’m literally an Accounting major, this is sad) to look through their financial reports, I went to their YouTube channel to find out more.
From Ecosia
While I only watched one video, it looks like they have close to 125 others with around 8 million views in total. The video I watched emphasized that there is much more that goes into reforestation than just planting a tree. It talked about how common monocultures are, where only one tree is planted on plots of land and how they cause more harm than good. They don’t provide food, shelter, or nutrients and can tend to emit carbon instead of holding it in. They’re usually planted for cheap timber, rubber, or palm oil.
According to their website, “whenever Ecosia plants a forest we make sure to plant a range of different species that help one another store carbon, regulate the water cycle, restore nutrients to the soil, and promote biodiversity.” They track their trees for at least three years using satellite technology, a monitoring app, and more. Trees that die are subtracted from the tree counter.
I’m not an auditor so there’s always the possibility that this is too good to be true, but as far as I can tell, Ecosia is doing as much as they can to help reforestation. It’s not just a marketing ploy.
I don’t use Ecosia a lot, simply because the browser quality isn’t great, but I think it’s still worth the download if you care about the environment.
From Giphy