Let’s start by clarifying something: the Ecosia search engine is not something new, and surely you have heard about it for some time now, to be exact since 2014. However, after the huge fires that are unfortunately occurring in the Amazon, there has been renewed enthusiasm among Internet users who are undoubtedly looking for all kinds of solutions to save the lungs of the world.
So, you should know that Ecosia offers Internet users the following pact: for each query they make on its search engine, the profits generated by advertising will be dedicated to planting trees. Not only in the Amazon, although for obvious reasons, for now, this is the priority.
One million more trees for the Amazon, this is the goal
The automated counter on the search engine’s home page indicated that as of August 23, 2019, they have contributed to the planting of more than 65 million trees worldwide. But, following the unfortunate events in the Amazon, Christian Kroll, founder of Ecosia, has pledged to collaborate with his environmental partners in Brazil to plant an additional one million trees to those already planned.
To help, you have to do it with clicks, not only with searches
It is possible that, until today, you may have had the wrong idea about how Ecosia works, did you think that it was just a matter of looking for information and you were helping? The answer is no, and we are going to explain how to do it the right way:
Ecosia is associated with the search engine Bing (from Microsoft), when you search for information on any topic, it usually displays advertisements, something very similar to what Google does.
So, the money that goes to reforestation and the additional money that is planned for the Amazon depends on the clicks that each user makes on the advertisements that are highlighted in the search engine results list. And 80% of these profits are used to finance reforestation projects.
This is why, if an advertisement is very lucrative, it could help to plant several trees. However, if it is not so much, it only finances a fraction.
“Taking into account that not all Ecosia users click on an ad every time they perform a search, we earn an average of 0.5 cents (euro) per search, about US$0.56.”
If you wish to see Ecosia’s monthly reports and analyze in detail how they use their earnings, just go to their search engine where they are published. But in more precise words, as of July 2019, the firm earned €1.56 million (US$1.74 million). Money from which salaries, taxes, advertising and environmental investments must be subtracted.
Thus, the total allocated to reforestation in July was €815,378, or US$908,000. In other words, 408,056 trees were planted, thanks to funds received by organizations in Peru, Indonesia, Malawi and Kenya.
You can also read: With artificial trees, this is Mexico’s plan to fight against pollution
