With certain internet search companies seemingly hell-bent on taking over the world, it makes a refreshing change to see a search engine that’s trying to save it instead. The world’s first-ever green search engine, ecocho.com is an Australian initiative that combats climate change by sponsoring the planting of two trees for every 1,000 searches made. Powered by Yahoo (and completely free), it works by using money from advertising to buy carbon-offset credits which are then invested in tree-growing initiatives in Australia, with expert bean-counter KPMG on hand all the while to monitor the process. Available in 14 countries worldwide, including a UK version, ecocho.com aims to pump 70 per cent of its revenue back into carbon-offsetting, with plans to support similar schemes in other territories. Says founder Tim McDonald: “In the UK alone, people conduct over 1.5 billion internet searches a month. If we can capture just one per cent of that traffic, we will make a significant contribution towards lowering the impact of harmful emissions.” And plant a lot of trees at that. Jamie Millar
Friday, April 25, 2008
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