Ecosia, the ecological search engine

Have you ever stopped to count how many times you "went" to Google in a day? Or how many searches you did in a year? Probably not, but search engines are currently one of the main tools of our daily life. But did you know that, when you do a search on Google, are you contributing to air pollution? 

Although we have an idea of an intangible internet, the truth is that, for everything to work, it is necessary that there exist servers that are always in operation. A CarbonFootPrint estimates that each Google search emits from 1g to 10g of CO2 into the atmosphere and, with 5.6 billion searches per day (according to estimate of Statista), Google is responsible for 40% of internet-related carbon dioxide emissions. This is why Ecosia was created.

THE Ecosia is a search engine created in 2009, in Germany, whose main objective is help combat deforestation and climate change, while providing all the information you seek. The company generates revenue through search ads, just like Google, and invests 80% of its profit in reforestation projects around the world - up to the time of publication of this article, Ecosia has already planted more than 169 million trees in more than 30 countries.

Beyond the environmental aspect, Ecosia is also known for emphasis on transparency and by concern for user privacy. Regarding transparency, the company makes a point of publishing monthly reports where it discloses all its financial data, in detail, including how much was invested in tree planting. Regarding the privacy, the search engine adopts various practices that protect the user, such as not permanently storing searches, not selling information to advertisers, encrypting all searches, etc.