Plant Trees and Clean the Oceans With the Click of a Button
Get an eco-friendly search engine — now!
Two things seem undeniable at this point:
- We are deep in the throes of a technological age that permeates all facets of our daily lives.
- Our planet continues to be destroyed.
Don’t worry. I’m not writing this article to rip on tech innovation (I’ve already done that: Healing Our Destructive Addiction to Innovation).
Instead, I’d like to highlight one outstanding way that people are using technology to contribute to positive change and offset environmental degradation. I’m sure there are many people using tech to better the world, but the absolute easiest way for you to get involved in it is to change your search engine.
Upgrading to an Eco-Friendly Search Engine
I first heard about these months ago when my partner reported how many plastic bottles he had saved from going into the ocean. It was during the middle of the pandemic, and I knew he hadn’t been around beaches in a while. It confused me. Until I realized he “saved” those water bottles simply through the click of a button.
He told me about a search engine named Ocean Hero whose tagline is “The search that saves the oceans.”
I will be honest. I was skeptical at first.
In fact, this is hard to admit, but I avoided this eco-friendly search engine thing for far too long. Possibly for the same reasons as you, if you haven’t made the switch either.
I thought it was a scam.
I was sure it would install malware on my devices.
Then I was convinced it wouldn’t be as good as Google or that it would steal my information. Until I realized Google already does that.
Finally, a bit of research eased my mind, and I realized my transgression.
I figured, let him save the ocean — I want to save the trees. So I installed Ecosia instead to help plant trees: my land-bound loves.
Now you can make this simple switch too! Below I’ve listed the top 4 eco-friendly search engines. Installation is a breeze. I suggest starting all of your web browsings using one of these. Use Google as your last resort if you can’t find what you’re looking for.
- Hot Tip: Make sure you go to your Settings and click the button that says “Search engine used in the address bar” and select your new search engine tool. I didn't do this for far too long… and missed out on tons of searches that I mistakenly thought were going through Ecosia. They weren’t.
1) Ocean Hero
“The search that saves the oceans”
We might as well start with the two I’ve already mentioned. Ocean Hero is on a mission to rid the ocean of plastic. That’s a monumental task when enormous plastic patches float around our oceans. I think the premise behind Ocean Hero is amazing because it is multi-layered: they’re addressing poverty and lack of financial resources in developing nations by giving money to those who can collect plastic in their communities to keep it from going into the ocean. So, it’s a win-win for the planet and for those who lack stable access to money.
2) Ecosia
“We plant trees where they’re needed most”
This is the search engine for you if you love trees as much as I do! Ecosia has planted over 120 million trees at the time of this writing. A bonus perk? They have more privacy control than other search engines. They claim your searches are all made anonymous within a week of searching. Plus searches are encrypted and they don’t use external tracking (outside of a small amount to improve their services). And they give you the ability to opt-out of that as well. Read the fine print for all the details since it gets tricky navigating around the web.
Also, they are concerned about building an environmentally friendly infrastructure. “We build our own solar plants so we can supply enough clean energy to power our searches.” So, not only do your web searches help fund tree plantings to remove carbon from the air, but your web searches with Ecosia are also not as dirty as they are with other search engines. So you produce less carbon than normal and may even be “carbon negative” as Ecosia explains:
“By planting trees and offsetting its energy use with renewables, each search with Ecosia actually removes 1 kg of CO2 from the air, which makes Ecosia a carbon-negative search engine.” (ecosia.com)
3) giveWater
“Give clean water every time you search the web.”
The engine giveWater operates differently than Ocean Hero and Ecosia. It is a for-profit LLC company that believes “for profit or ‘social enterprises’ companies can do more good by operating as a for profit company. We currently donate all profits to our partners. We do our best to minimize expenses and do not issue any salaries, currently running on a volunteer basis to maximize giving.” They make money the same way as the others. However, the money is distributed differently. They do not run their own programs. They directly donate to already existing charities like Living Water International and water.org instead.
4) ekoru
“Every Search Helps Remove Plastic and Reforests Our Oceans”
The ekoru search tool is like Ocean Hero, because it supports ocean preservation and restoration. But its model is like giveWater in that ekoru collects ad revenue and then gives it to organizations working to restore the environment. Their two organizations are Big Blue Ocean Cleanup and Operation Posidonia.
Not only is ekoru helping to clean up the oceans, but it’s also committed to keeping web browsing clean and green! All of their web servers are supposed to be powered by hydro. “Ekoru.org is powered by run-of-river hydro-electricity and housed in a datacenter that uses natural convection cooling instead of air-conditioning. This means that our servers don’t generate any CO2 emissions.” The claim is that every ekoru.org search is only around 0.27g of CO2 emissions while the average search produces 2.78g and a Google search may have a carbon emission output of around 4.67g each time you perform a search.
How Do They Make Money To Fund Eco-Projects?
They make money the same way Google and other search engines do — by advertising. It’s what they do with those profits that differ. The bulk of their ad revenue earned from users goes towards environmental restoration. But they ask users not to erroneously click ad searches if they’re not genuinely interested.
In other words, don’t try to give them more money by just clicking a bunch of ads. I read one article saying that these behaviors end up working against their goals in the end. I’m uncertain how — possibly through algorithms — but they can tell you’re “cheating” the system to give them more money. Duly noted — just browse the web as usual.
Conclusion
Switch your web browsing habits! Pick one of the following environmentally responsible search engines as your go-to browsing tool:
- Ocean Hero — remove plastics from the ocean
- Ecosia — plant trees in communities that really need them
- giveWater — fund clean water initiatives around the globe
- ekoru — remove plastic garbage from oceans and reforest oceans
All you have to do is install it on your computer and go about your day with the knowledge that your daily actions can contribute to big changes in the world.
Thanks for reading! Read on below for another simple way to help the planet.
