Innovation

Christian Kross was involved with the innovation. He first tried to start Ecosia as a search engine in Nepal. The original idea was to create money and invest in non-profit organizations, not necessarily tree planting, which did not work. There, the second innovation of business clicked in his mind when he thought of connecting a search engine model with a business model to generate huge money just like Google. But the difference was that he wanted to use this profit to plant trees to make an environmental impact.

Inspiration

The idea for Ecosia came about when Christian Kroll was traveling the world post graduation. During his travels, Kroll made a backpacking trip to Argentina. There, he saw a plethora of examples of climate destruction, especially deforestation. This trip got him to research more about trees in his free time. He was trying to think of ways to finance tree planting. This led to Kroll creating what we now know as Ecosia.

The purpose for doing the innovation at Ecosia was about actually making a change. The founder, Christian Kroll, took a different approach to creating his company. He did not take any VC funding and grew the company off revenue and sometimes his own savings. This approach is very different from other entrepreneurs, which really is a good description of why Kroll created Ecosia. Kroll just wanted to make a way for people to help the planet during the climate crisis with an everyday activity. He believes that the fight for the planet is a movement, a movement that includes the masses. The way Ecosia operates reflects that purpose.

Overall impact

Ecosia is a leader amongst social impact companies in the way that it leaves a powerful impression on society, business, and the environment. As previously mentioned, Ecosia plants trees all over the world in an effort to fight deforestation and improve the health of global ecosystems. The company is strategic in deciding where to plant their trees, focusing on tree-planting initiatives that serve the communities that are most in-need. For example, a focus of Ecosia recently has been urban tree planting in the U.S., specifically urban tree planting in historically redlined neighborhoods that typically face extreme heat and drought more than the average area. Not only is the company focused on replenishing trees around the world, it is also considering the lives and communities that will be positively impacted through planting new trees.

Business benefit

Ecosia is a leader amongst social impact companies in the way that it leaves a powerful impression on society, business, and the environment. As previously mentioned, Ecosia plants trees all over the world in an effort to fight deforestation and improve the health of global ecosystems. The company is strategic in deciding where to plant their trees, focusing on tree-planting initiatives that serve the communities that are most in-need. For example, a focus of Ecosia recently has been urban tree planting in the U.S., specifically urban tree planting in historically redlined neighborhoods that typically face extreme heat and drought more than the average area. Not only is the company focused on replenishing trees around the world, it is also considering the lives and communities that will be positively impacted through planting new trees.

Furthermore, Ecosia emphasizes the importance of having a long-term impact on the climate crisis through providing a way for users to make more green conscious decisions every day when using Ecosia as a search engine. Users will constantly look up places to eat, flights to book, and online shopping. Ecosia highlights the search results that are more sustainable, encouraging users to think about their environmental impacts on a daily basis. This adds to the impact Ecosia is already making through planting trees by shifting responsibility to its users to think about how they can make better, more informed decisions.

Ecosia is also a trailblazer in the way that they reinvest 100% of their profits into social good. There are few other social impact companies that reinvest all of their profits into growing their positive impact. Through doing this, Ecosia is pioneering innovation in their business model, which is very unique. They are demonstrating that it is possible to run a successful business while still contributing 100% to their cause. The hope is that other social impact companies will be inspired by this and aim to put more of their profit into their initiatives.

Social and environmental benefit

The societal impact that Ecosia has is that the company enables individuals to be able to search the web in a fashion that contributes to restoring our planet rather than harming it. Ecosia allows users to help counteract the effects that consumerism has on the environment by reforesting areas in need.

Ecosia has planted a total of over 163 million trees in areas that are severely affected by deforestation such as Burkina Faso and Indonesia. This leads to an impact to help fight the climate crisis by replanting trees in areas that needed it most.

Short term: Enhanced Biodiversity in target areas.

Long term: Better environmental quality around the planet and a better use of Earth’s natural resources. Helps combat the climate crisis.

This allows for biodiversity to take place in affected areas to stop endangered species from going extinct and restoring our planet’s finite resources.

Interview

Ruby Au, Head of Ecosia North America