The archive · Climate & Energy · Strategic decision · 2009–2025
Ecosia, the tree-planting search engine, proves ads can fund climate action
Christian Kroll's Berlin search engine gives away 100% of its profits to planting trees — and grew past 20 million users and $4.5M in monthly income.
Ecosia
What the business is
Ecosia is an advertising-supported search engine that uses its profits to plant and protect trees; ads come through partnerships with Google AdSense and the Microsoft Advertising network.
How it started
German entrepreneur Christian Kroll created Ecosia in 2009 from his Berlin apartment after traveling and seeing both deforestation and the potential of tree planting. He reasoned that search engines generate reliable advertising revenue, so a search engine that pointed that revenue at reforestation could fund environmental work at a scale donations rarely reach. The service launched on 7 December 2009.
What happened
Ecosia grew through word of mouth and distribution deals: it passed 10 million trees planted by 2017, 160 million by 2022 and more than 230 million by August 2025, while monthly income climbed past $4 million. Kroll made the mission legally durable: under Ecosia's steward-ownership structure, profits cannot be taken out of the company, no outsider can own its shares, and no one can sell the company for a profit. The company also publishes a detailed financial report every month showing income, taxes, operating costs and exactly how much went to trees.
How it ended up
Ecosia remains independent, steward-owned and growing as of late 2025: 100% of its profits go to climate action, its October 2025 report showed $4.5M in monthly income with about $1.9M dedicated to climate work, and in January 2025 Firefox made Ecosia the default search engine in seven European countries.
Background
Ecosia is a Berlin-based search engine founded by Christian Kroll and launched on 7 December 2009. Its premise was simple: search engines earn reliable advertising income, so Ecosia would take that income and use 100% of its profits to plant and protect trees — making every search a small climate donation.
The model runs on ads from Google AdSense and the Microsoft Advertising network. Ecosia grew from 10 million trees planted by 2017 to more than 230 million by August 2025, across 35+ countries, while monthly income rose from roughly $3.3 million early in 2025 to $4.5 million in October 2025, according to the company's own monthly financial reports.
To make the promise credible, Ecosia adopted a steward-ownership structure: profits cannot be extracted from the company, no one outside it can own shares, and it cannot be sold for personal gain. It also publishes monthly financial reports detailing income, taxes, operating costs and the exact sums spent on trees and other climate projects.
The bet was that impact could be a distribution channel: more than 20 million people use Ecosia, and in January 2025 Firefox made it the default search engine in seven European countries. Ecosia's share of global searches remains small — about 0.11% — but the model shows a mission-driven search business can be self-sustaining while giving away all its profit.
What has to be true
- Ecosia's differentiator is not a search feature but where the money goes: 100% of profits to tree planting gives users a concrete, repeatable reason to switch engines.
- Monthly public financial reports turn 'trust us' into verifiable accounting — users can see exactly what was earned, spent on trees, paid in tax and spent on operations.
- The steward-ownership structure legally prevents a future sale or dividend from cashing out the mission, which separates Ecosia from ad-revenue companies that merely fund-raise for green projects.
- Ad revenue scales with users, so impact and growth are the same curve: 20 million users yield $3.3–4.6M monthly, enough to fund millions of trees while covering operations and taxes.
What can be applied
Giving away the profits can be the moat: Ecosia made 'the money goes to trees, and here is the receipt' a reason to switch engines, then let ad revenue compound with users instead of paying dividends.
Aftermath
As of late 2025 Ecosia continues to expand beyond search: it launched its own Chromium-based browser in April 2024, partnered with Mozilla in December 2024, and joined Qwant in a European Search Perspective project to build an independent search index. The company says it has invested more than €92 million in climate solutions since 2009 and runs on 200% renewable energy. Its long-running constraints remain scale — a roughly 0.11% share of global searches — and dependence on advertising partnerships with Google and Microsoft.
Sources
- Ecosia: Who Owns The Non-Profit Search Engine & How Do They Make Money
- Ecosia Statistics By Market Share, Demographic and Facts (2025)
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