(The carbon-footprint of video streaming, on the other hand, is much larger – and a topic for a future post.) However, if that user uses Ecosia for search, they will have funded planting of 35 trees per year, which would capture over 1500 kg CO 2 as they grow. The carbon footprint of internet search is not that high at any rate – going by Google’s number, the search footprint of an average user (~ 130 searches per month) is only around 0.3 kg CO 2 per year.
So the carbon captured from Ecosia-funded tree-planting is 5000-times greater than the footprint of a search. Carbon saved by tree-planting funded by Ecosia: 1 kg CO 2 per search. The carbon cost of a single web search: around 0.2 grams CO 2, according to Google. However, even though Ecosia’s search does partly rely on Microsoft’s servers (as well as Ecosia’s own solar-powered servers), the fact that Google is a little closer to carbon-neutrality than Microsoft pales into insignificance compared to the impact of tree-planting. It’s based on an argument that Ecosia’s search algorithm is adopted from Microsoft Bing and therefore has a larger carbon footprint than Google’s. There has been some confusion generated by a few people online (e.g., on Quora) suggesting that Ecosia is less green than Google. Ecosia publishes monthly financial reports detailing their income and contributions towards tree planting projects which vary over time – they started out in the Amazon with the WWF and currently fund projects based in Ghana and Burkina Faso. They have received a good score from B-Corporation, which is always a good certification to look out for when investigating company ethics. They are serious about what they do and everything that I’ve read about them online has been positive (including this Snopes investigation into their tree-planting activities). That’s more than 15% of the 36 gigatons of annual global CO 2 emissions. The final number is based on this: Google’s (Alphabet’s) 2016 operating profit was $23 billion – this could fund planting of 115 billion trees per year, which would remove 5.7 gigatons of CO 2 from the atmosphere each year. Overview of the numbers behind Ecosia’s carbon capture by tree-planting. Founder Christian Kroll has made legally binding agreements to make sure that their mission doesn’t change and that he can never sell Ecosia. If Ecosia were to become as big as Google, the projected impact would be staggering: enough trees to capture 15% of global CO 2 emissions (that’s roughly equivalent to capturing emissions from all road vehicles). Even with their small share of the internet search market, Ecosia has funded the planting of over 70 million trees. Ecosia – social and environmental impactĮcosia is a social business that uses most of their revenue to plants trees – just think about that for a moment and compare to Google, which has become one of the largest corporations on the planet in large part due to revenue from advertising. 
For the purposes of this post, I’ll provide a little more detail on the points above. That’s how the Green Stars Project works – raising awareness about ethical consumerism via online reviews that include ethical ratings. I think that’s sufficient detail for a Green Stars review, which, like my other reviews, I will post online (in this case, on Ecosia’s pages on Google Play, Apple Apps, Google maps, Facebook, etc.). Ecosia has better privacy terms and supplies fewer ads than major search engines like Google.They do not use tax-avoidance strategies, unlike most other tech companies.These solar panels produce twice the solar energy required for search excess electricity is supplied to the grid.Ecosia’s servers are powered by company-owned solar plant.It’s certified by B-Corporation for social and environmental impact, with a good score of 113.Advertising revenue from around 45 searches is sufficient to fund planting of one tree.Ecosia uses 80% of revenue (after operational costs) to fund tree-planting operations.I’m awarding Ecosia a score of 5/5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact based on the following: The Green Stars rating looks at various social and environmental factorsto award an ethical score. I’ll answer the first question in the form of a Green Stars review.
Is Ecosia good-enough for most internet search purposes?.Faced with the suggestion of switching to Ecosia for web search, most people have the following two questions: So, let’s take a look at the ethics and utility of Ecosia in more detail.
Switching to Ecosia appears to be one of the easiest ways to immediately start supporting reforestation projects. In the last post I looked at deforestation in the Amazon and some simple actions that we can take to help ensure their safety. Ecosia is a green internet search engine that uses revenue from advertising to fund tree-planting projects.
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