Testimonial: Searching on the web and planting trees
Our consultant Marie Coppée wants you to try Ecosia
What if by searching on the internet, you could, at the same time, do something good for the environment without even leaving your comfortable office? Well, that is what Ecosia, a Berlin-based enterprise founded in 2009, is all about. Ecosia is a search engine like Google but with a huge difference: every time you use the search bar, you help plant trees around the planet. Amazing, right? So, what if, with this little change, you could actually make a big difference?
I believe that there are a lot of people like me: we want to do more for the environment and the climate while still enjoying life so I am keen of little green actions like this, gestures that we can easily integrate in our daily life. People might think “But I am used to Google’s home page opening automatically to the search bar” or “I like Google’s configuration” or even more likely “I do not want to lose the quality of search”. Well, I was surprised to see that Ecosia is actually very similar to Google!
How does Ecosia work?
Ecosia uses the profit they make from our searches to plant trees where needed the most. Since we know that atmospheric carbon dioxide is the main driver of climate change, an effective way to tackle it is to plant trees. Beginning of October 2019, on its home page, Ecosia claims to have planted over 70.400.000 trees over the world. Seems huge but still shy when you know that about 1.5 trillion trees would be needed to offset the carbon we have been adding to the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution. Ecosia is indeed still small but by simply changing your search tool by default (see below how to do so!), by raising awareness and informing your friends, colleagues and family, a little drop of water can become a huge wave! I also truly appreciate the fact that the owners are being transparent: you can consult easily their monthly financial report. For example, in August 2019, Ecosia used 80% of their surplus revenue (which is nearly 50% of their incomes) to plant trees. We are talking about over 850 000 euros! Moreover, the company does not pay out dividends to their owners because it keeps investing to grow which is something I personally value.
If climate issues were something you found too big to deal with as an individual, planting trees is definitely a solution you can easily get involved in. We cannot go back to our great-grandparent’s planet with lots of resources and little industrial activities. Digitalization is already there and evolving fast, we cannot avoid it in this modern world. Nevertheless, the climate change is everyone’s problem and it is time to put in place solution fitting our actual environment. Ecosia is a way to start. Maybe it will trigger off your envy to get greener and undertake other actions? That is everything I wish for you and our irreplaceable Mother Earth. So, get involved and do something good!
So try it today via this link: https://www.ecosia.org/
