Ecosia
Ecosia is a search engine that uses its revenue to fund environmental initiatives, primarily the planting of trees. Founded in 2009 by Christian Kroll in Berlin, Germany, Ecosia markets itself as a sustainable and eco-friendly alternative to traditional search engines.
Features
- Environmental Impact: Ecosia donates at least 80% of its surplus revenue to tree-planting projects worldwide.
- Privacy: Ecosia does not sell user data to advertisers and anonymizes searches after one week.
- Transparency: The company publishes monthly financial reports to show how its revenue is used.
- Renewable Energy: Ecosia runs its servers on renewable energy to minimize its carbon footprint.
Tree Planting
As of 2025, Ecosia has helped plant over 200 million trees in various countries, including Brazil, Indonesia, and Kenya. Each search contributes to funding tree-planting efforts.
Criticisms
Some critics argue that Ecosia's impact is limited compared to global deforestation rates, and questions have been raised about the long-term survival of planted trees.