Environmentally conscious search-engine Ecosia has recently announced that it has planted over 13 million trees all over the world, in places like Indonesia, Madagascar, Nicaragua, Peru and Burkina Faso. The browser uses revenue collected from advertising to plant trees and fund their projects, with their website stating that it takes 1.7 seconds of use to fund another tree.

Last year, as reported in this newspaper, UCC added Ecosia to all the computers on campus as a Google Chrome plug-in. This came as a result of a campaign spearheaded by MPlan Planning & Sustainable Development student Justin Fleming. Mr.Fleming, who is also a local area representative for the Green Party in Cork City South Central, was determined to make UCC the first University in the United Kingdom and Ireland to install Ecosia on all its computers, a goal that was reached last February. Speaking about the success of the project to date, Mr.Fleming stated:

“The new academic year is due to start next week and a new generation of students will start using Ecosia. When we started the campaign in UCC last February, Ecosia had planted six million trees worldwide. Since then they have more than doubled that. Thanks to people using the search engine, they have planted thirteen million trees in all. This is good news for climate action, water security and reversing desertification in the global south. The students and staff of UCC can be proud of the part they have played in that achievement.”

Ecosia is a German non-profit founded in 2009, which donates 80% of its surplus income to environmental conservation. The company plans to plant one billion trees by 2020 based on the revenue from its search engine. For more information about Ecosia, or to install it on your own computer, go to www.ecosia.org.