2015 marks milestone year for Germany's first B Corp
There was much to celebrate at Ecosia HQ this year as the search engine company announced it has financed the planting of three million trees since it was founded in 2009.
Like any other search engine Ecosia earns money from advertisements placed next to search results. Unlike other search engines it donates 80% of its profits to tree planting programmes. Since 2009 it has given a rainforest project run by the WWF over $1.6m and has helped fund The Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees programme.
On January 1st 2015 Ecosia started working with the Belgium-based WeForest and Entrepreneurs Without Borders (OZG) to plant trees in Burkino Faso. It’s total financial contribution to environmental causes has been more than $5.2m, which equates to the planting of three million trees.
Cattle grazing beneath trees a few years after reforestation work by OZG. Photo credit: Heet Van De Naald
The search engine was set up by Christian Kroll, who came up with the idea for the business whilst traveling around the world after leaving university. It is based in Berlin, Germany and became the country’s first B Corp in April 2014.
Looking ahead, the aim for Knoll and his team is to “plant one billion trees by 2020”.
The Ecosia team in 2015 (founder Christian Kroll is on the far right)
Click here to find out how you can help them reach this goal by switching search engines.
Header photo credit: OZG and Heet Van De Naald
