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Green Search Engines

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Objectives

• Support organisations (behind online services) in their ecologically beneficial endeavours, e.g. to plant trees and thus create natural CO2 sinks

Green Value indicator

CO2 savings and planted trees

Explanation

Any quantity of data sent through the internet requires energy and produces CO2. Consequently, every internet search requires electric energy and releases CO2. So, how much CO2 does the famous search-engine Google produce? According to Jens Gröger, researcher from Oeko-Institut, one Google-search is estimated to emit between 1 to 10g of CO2. Using the search engine 50 times a day for one year this results in 18 to 1825kg per annum. Nevertheless, it is also important to take into account if the electric energy comes from renewable or fossil fuel sources and whether the waste heat of the server farms and data centres is re-used for purposes such as heating houses.

Yet, the profits online searches make, can be used in an environmentally friendly way. One good practice example is the search mask Ecosia, which plants 1 tree for every 45 searches. It is a search mask which uses Microsoft’s search engine Bing to conduct online searches. Forests are valuable CO2 sinks, thus planting trees is a contribution to stabilizing the world climate. However, not every planted tree is automatically good and afforestation or reforestation have to be conducted prudently in respect of the local habitat.

Yet, Ecosia is not the only search engine with an environmental or social purpose. Others are:

ekoru (ekoru.org ): donates 60% of monthly revenues to charities and projects from climate action to reforestation

Givero (info.givero.com ): supports environmental and social charities with 50% of revenues and have focus on data protection

Lilo (www.lilo.org ): supports various charities and has focus on data protection

Everyclick (www.everyclick.com ): supports charities

GiveWater (www.givewater.com ): supports projects improving access to clean water

Elliot for Water (elliotforwater.com ): like GiveWater supports projects improving access to clean water

PROS/CONS of the action

Pros:

• uncomplicated way to fund the planting of trees through a task (online search) you would have anyways completed
• better protection of privacy than other search engines

Cons:

• Ecosia’s algorithms are developed by Bing, searches are redirected to Bing -> high dependence on Microsoft
• earns money by clicks on the adverts appearing in the search (like Google)
• reforestation takes a long time and planting trees alone does not solve the climate issue: feel-good strategies might mask the necessity to cut (further fossil) energy consumption

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Link to useful sources

The carbon footprint of our digital lifestyles blog.oeko.de

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Our Digital Carbon Footprint: What's the Environmental Impact of the Online World? en.reset.org

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Further resources Discussion on Ecosia: my-green-choice.de

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Planting trees alone is not the solution: ww.spektrum.de

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Review of alternative search engines: www.searchenginejournal.com

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