Ecosia Tree Planting: The Search Engine That Says It Has Planted 231 Million Trees

Ecosia tree planting is the idea behind a search engine from Berlin. The company says it has planted more than 231 million trees across more than 35 countries, funded by ad revenue.

How Ecosia tree planting works

Christian Kroll founded Ecosia in December 2009. It became Germany’s first certified B Corp in April 2014 and, in October 2018, became steward owned, with a legal contract barring a sale of the company or profit extraction. It built its first solar plant in April 2017 and says the plant produces twice the renewable energy needed for its searches. These are company statements.

Reporting and transparency

The company publishes monthly financial reports and yearly regeneration reports. It says its emissions are audited by ClimatePartner and that trees are not used to offset emissions. Its support pages say it relies on Google and Microsoft Bing for search results.

What critics note

The consumer group Ethical Consumer noted in 2021 that trees are paid for by ad clicks, not by searches themselves, so the claim that every search plants a tree is not accurate. It also marked Ecosia down for its reliance on Bing, which receives queries and IP addresses. The tree and carbon claims are self reported.

Why it matters

A steward owned company that shows its books and puts profit into tree planting is an unusual model in tech. Planting works best when the right trees go in the right places and survive, so the long term reports matter as much as the totals.

Sources: Ecosia our story; Ecosia reports and transparency, July 2025. Figures marked as company reported come from the company itself.