Have you ever thought of helping the environment by simply doing research on the web? It has been possible since 2009, and the art director of this project is called Ecosia.
Sometimes we open the internet and find anything without thinking about what engine we are using.
But from today, reading this article, I invite you to reflect: you too, in your own small way, with your mobile phone or with your computer, can change the world.
Ecosia is a search engine, as can be the usual Google or Yahoo, but it combines utility with sustainability.
Indeed, anyone who seeks information or precisely a website, and does so through https://www.ecosia.org, helps the environment by planting trees and counteracting the effects of climate change.
If you have any doubts about privacy, I reassure you immediately: Ecosia does not use third-party tracking tools, anonymizes all searches within a week, does not create user profiles based on their clicks and above all does not sell data to advertising companies. .
It all began in 2009, when Christian Kroll decides to found Ecosia, having traveled the world and learned about the problem of deforestation.
Asia and South America inspired Kroll and led the then Economics student to make a concrete commitment to the environment.
The company is registered in Wittenberg in Germany, but in later years it will expand across Europe, even reaching the United States.
Only 5 years later, in 2014, Ecosia received the B-Corporation certification, which is issued by the US non-profit B Lab to companies with high standards of environmental and social sustainability. It was the first German company to receive this recognition, which testifies to the transparency and reliability of the company.
Witness the clarity and truthfulness of society is the evidence that every month is published on their website: photos, graphics, and events that make the user sure that he has earmarked the money for a real and good cause.
The way Ecosia operates is very simple: the engine generates turnover through advertising revenues and allocates 80% of it to the reforestation of areas of the world at risk.
In addition to advertising revenues, Ecosia has thought of the so-called “Ecolinks” – affiliate links that allow users to make donations through their online purchases.
Thus, the company was able to plant, in just 10 years, from 2009 to 2019, about 59 million of trees!
We think that, only in this past year, due to the emergency that the Amazon had to face due to the fires, the users who used Ecosia as a search engine have literally increased dramatically.
Ecosia’s true protagonists are you, to all intents and purposes, contributing to the growth of the project and choosing who to allocate the funds to.
Indeed, users vote to decide how revenues should be redistributed among the previously chosen humanitarian and environmental projects.
But you are wondering, what are the projects that Ecosia has implemented concretely and above all in which countries of the world?
The company’s mission is to move in a sustainable direction on several fronts: environmental, economic, and social.
And it does so in different places on the planet.
The projects financed by Ecosia are in all 20 and we find them scattered all over the globe: Indonesia, Malawi, Peru, Kenya, Ghana, Spain and many others.
Today I will talk to you about what is happening in Peru, advising you to always stay up to date on Ecosia’s projects on their blog, where everything that the company does is actually illustrated.
PUR Projet, together with Ecosia, has been operating in the South American state since 2016, more precisely in the San Martin region, to reforest the area and above all to establish new development models for the population.
The area suffered severe deforestation in the 1980s, making it one of the most famous places for cocaine production. The local inhabitants, thanks to the funded project of this company, were able to savor the beauty of the cultivation of the land, dedicating themselves to cocoa and coffee and regaining their dignity as farmers.
Trees, plantations, and crops are a natural remedy that brings many benefits to the environment and the population: cleaner air, more protected soils, greater biodiversity, lack of climate change and regulation of the water cycle.
But Ecosia does not intervene on the environment with this alone.
In fact, it is also socially committed to preserving and protecting the environment.
The company can be defined as 100% green, being a CO2 neutral search engine capable of neutralizing carbon dioxide emissions caused by computers, offices and infrastructures.
We also see Ecosia’s commitment to the construction of its solar plant in 2019 to energetically support all research, further demonstration that the company is not making a mistake.
Online that intersects with nature: a brilliant, innovative initiative that is accessible to all without difficulty.
We consider this proposal for every time we think of doing an internet search: we will find what we are looking for and without even realizing we will help our planet.
Let us stop for a second and think: without any effort, how many trees could we plant? How many jobs could we open? How many animals and peoples could we save?
Ecosia teaches us that our every little gesture counts.
A simple click on the keyboard and a random choice of a search engine can revolutionize the world in a thousand ways.
Now it is your turn, awareness and innovative solutions must unite us and must make us think that we can do it.
And the planet, every day, thanks us more.
