Ecosia

Project title

Internet search engine funds reforestation worlwide

Project Teaser

Ecosia is a social business based in Berlin, Germany, which generates revenues from internet searches and donates at least 80% of its profits to finance forestation projects around the world.

Currently, they are supporting projects in 4 countries: Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Indonesia and Peru.

Active countries

Key Figures

Project Results

Close to 7 million trees financed (end of 2016), mixed species

Vegetation type

Mixed, depending on project location

Climate conditions

Variable, depending on country and project.

Funding Sources

Funding Government
75%
Funding Inhabitants
90%

Contacts

Organisation
Ecosia
Contact E-mail
info@ecosia.org
Address
Schinkestraße 9
Postal code
12047
Place
Berlin
Country
Germany

Description

Ecosia is a social business based in Berlin, Germany, which generates revenues from internet searches and uses them to finance forestation projects around the world. Currently, they are supporting projects in 4 countries: Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Indonesia and Peru.

In short, Ecosia provides a search engine to look for things in the Internet. As happens with Google, Bing and others search engines, some of the results provided by Ecosia are actually advertisement links paid by companies so that they appear in the search engine. The difference with Ecosia is that - in line with its social business model - it uses this revenue source to fund selected partners organisations that execute forestation projects around the world. In addition,, Ecosia also gives greater visibility to the overall topic and importance of reforestation.

Part of the money collected by Ecosia is used to run the online search business. Once the operating costs are deducted, the remainder (the full profit) is used either for monthly payments to the partner organisations or to build up a "Forestation Fund" that is disbursed when the partner organisations can absorb the extra amounts. Ecosia provides a very high level of transparency regarding its activities and results, with simple but complete reports that are updated every month on its website.

Partnerships & Collaborations

sustinova logo

Sustinova is a non-profit organisation based in Zurich, Switzerland, and devoted to promoting Sustainability in the NGO area.

As a partner, Sustinova provides operational support to Reforestation World in its public activities.

ETH Zurich - Chair of Ecosystem Management

The Chair of Ecosystem management at the ETH Zürich organised the Latsis Symposium ETH 2018 “Scaling-up forest Restoration”, on June 6-7 & 9, 2018.

Reforestation World collaborated with the link to NGOs, practitioners and others stakeholders in the field of forest restoration.