Is Digital Going Green?
It’s a digital world and there is no doubt about it, but when it comes to your digital marketing and everyday use of the internet is it possible that you can make your carbon footprint that little bit smaller?
To celebrate ‘Earth Day’, Google went into schools to share with them how they could be more economically friendly, but when the internet is something you can do from home, surely there has to be an alternative to doing your bit for the environment online instead of getting physical.
Sustainable search
That’s where Ecosia comes in. With Google owning the majority of the internet search market it can seem inescapable to use anybody but the digital giants whose algorithm usually provides you with the answers you need for your exact search term- but with an extremely environmentally friendly generation using the internet and an even more conscious generation of internet users growing up now the potential for this search engine to take off is massive.
What is Ecosia all about?
Ecosia was set up by a small group of people whose primary goal over anything is to plant trees to tackle the growing global problem of mass deforestation. The company’s mission statement is “We believe in everyone’s power to do good”, and that’s exactly what they’ve done by enabling the project.
On average it takes around 45 searches before you have ‘planted a tree and it works by using Bing to power search results (whose algorithm usually mimics that of Google anyway, so your searches will still be accurately answered!) and paid ads. When you click or are shown a paid add this revenue goes in a pot to plant the trees!
Who has Ecosia helped so far?
So far, the Tree Planting Projects have begun in 12 areas that have been affected by mass deforestation including:
- Nicaragua
- Peru
- Brazil
- Burkina Faso
- Morocco
- Spain
- Ethiopia
- Tanzania
- Madagascar
- Indonesia
By planting the trees Ecosia is giving back to local communities who need it most, they are rehabilitating farmers, animals and giving livelihoods and jobs back to the people who are most affected by deforestation.
How you can help
Give Ecosia a go! Start by replacing your searches once a day into Ecosia then makes the transition to set your default search engine to Ecosia. If enough people do this the other search engines to follow suit.
If you wanted to do, even more, you can download Vivaldi which is a customisable web browser-based in Norway that is committed to running on clean energy. Let us know how you get on with Ecosia and you may even see it in our SEO packages soon!