Plant Trees While You Search the Web
by Ashling Landers
Like most people, the five seconds waiting for the ‘skip ad’ button to pop up before I can watch a YouTube video seem to feel like minutes. My eyes glaze over the rest of the screen and focus on the little rectangle that is counting down the time until I can watch whatever enticing video popped up in my recommendations (it’s been a lot of Tik Tok compilations lately.) One unexpected day however, an ad successfully captured my attention as it explained how you could combat climate change by just surfing the web.
Ecosia, as mentioned in the advertisement, is a web browser like Google or Bing. Unlike the other browsers, Ecosia takes the revenue generated from online ads to plant trees around the world. It takes about 45 online searches to plant one tree. Since 2009, they’ve been working to revive deforested areas in Brazil, Haiti, Madagascar, Senegal, and many more. Planting trees helps to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, restore biodiversity, and promote community development.
Another great feature of the browser is they’re completely transparent; they frequently publish their financial reports so users can know exactly where the money is going. Their own servers are run on 100% renewable energy. They also respect your privacy and will not try to sell your data to third parties.
If that all wasn’t enough, Ecosia includes a green leaf next to certain websites to highlight they are Certified B Corporations like themselves. According to their website, these are companies that “meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.” A few Certified B brands you may recognize are Patagonia, Ben and Jerry’s, and S’well.
I’ve been using the browser for a little over four months now and while it does not hold the same reputation or scope of Google, it is innovative and easy to use- that’s all you can really ask for in the fight against climate change.
This July, Ecosia also celebrated planting one hundred million trees since its foundation! This number only grows by the second as well. If you’d like to learn more or download Ecosia for your computer or cellphone use this link.
While you’re here, check out these other online resources:
Etsy: Support small business They offset 100% of carbon emissions from shipping
ThredUp: Online thrift store
Depop: Buy and sell second hand clothes in good condition
Thriftbooks: Buy second hand books (super affordable)
Libby: Borrow free ebooks and audiobooks (make sure you have an account with your local library)
References:
Certified B Corporation: https://bcorporation.net/ Ecosia: https://www.ecosia.org/