We’ve just reached the milestone of 250 million trees!
This kind of news doesn’t splash across the front page, but it’s changing the world. People across the globe have been coming together to restore our planet, just by switching their search engine, for free. Here’s what 17 years of real change looks like.
A truly planetary scale
Ecosia’s story began in 2009. Christian Kroll founded it as a social business with a tech-for-good mission, and for years we invested 100% of profits into tree planting. Over time our climate action has expanded beyond trees, to renewable energy, green investments, regenerative agriculture and more, but our trees have always been the constant.
We’ve built the world’s largest network of local reforestation organizations, 125 organizations and over 200,000 tree planters — supporting livelihoods, local knowledge, and long-term forest stewardship.
Behind this is our incredible in-house Tree Team: forestry and nature conservation experts, economists and social scientists focused on finding the right partners, the right species and the right planting sites. They work with communities to ensure our trees thrive for generations. Ecosia is also a technical partner of The Global Biodiversity Standard — a seal to distinguish good tree planting from greenwashing.
By planting 1,600 native tree species, including 144 endangered or vulnerable species, the Ecosia community is one of the world’s biggest contributors to threatened-tree conservation – helping endangered trees make a comeback and supporting forest recovery where biodiversity needs it most.
Many of our projects have a positive impact on wildlife habitats, with thousands of hectares giving new homes to chimpanzees, orangutans and lemurs, just to name a few.
Forests, not just trees
We’ve grown forests, agroforestry systems, and local livelihoods. We invest in firefighting, farmer-managed natural regeneration, and other innovative approaches – because sometimes the most powerful climate action is protecting and supporting what is already there, not just planting.
Our 250 million trees only includes those that have grown beyond three years, when they begin delivering real benefits for climate, biodiversity, water and communities. We never just plant and leave – our Tree Team and local partners monitor trees for decades using satellite tech, biomass monitoring, and regular field visits. These trees and forests last because local communities want them, own them, and protect them.
Three years of growth: Our forest corridor planted with IPÊ to connect remnant patches of the Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil — December 2019 → December 2022.
Our impact beyond trees
Over the course of 17 years, our mission has expanded. From over €100 million invested into climate action, €18 million has gone to renewable energy. We built our first solar power plant in 2018, and now produce more clean energy than we need from solar and wind. Using Ecosia helps push dirty energy off the grid.
We’re standing up for better tech. We launched the European Search Index and we’re pushing for digital sovereignty so Europe is less reliant on big tech. We’ve published our media licensing deal to support fair payment for news publishers. We’re building better tech too. We’ve launched the world’s greenest browser and the world’s greenest AI.
And we’re championing broader change – from BaumEntscheid, the citizen movement making cities more heat resilient, to our €1M offer to create a Climate Nobel Prize, to shining a light on broken food systems by saving 4000 tonnes of potatoes from going to waste.
This is all underpinned by our belief that there is a better way of doing business. In 2018 Christian signed a legally binding commitment: Ecosia can never be sold, and 100% of our profits will always go to the planet.
The road to one billion trees starts here
Reaching 250 million trees is both a milestone and a starting point. It’s proof that change can happen when everyday technology is built for people and the planet, and that reforestation works at scale when it’s designed for the long term, with local communities at its heart.
Now it needs to scale further. Imagine if everyone switched to Ecosia... we could plant billions of trees together.
The best part? Every single person counts. Every person who chooses Ecosia brings us closer to that reality. Thank you for being part of this. Now let’s spread the word!
