In 2021 I wrote to South Gloucestershire council asking them to change their search engine to Ecosia on computers, phones and tablets owned and operated by the council. In January 2022 they did exactly that and have been quietly using Ecosia as their search engine ever since!

Yesterday, May 1st, a source at the council contacted me to thank me for my “nice idea” and shared with me some statistics about the council’s progress over the last 2 years. In that time, users of council-owned devices have searched using Ecosia over 170,000 times, funding the planting of an estimated 3,600 trees.

Ecosia is a search engine launched in 2009. The company behind it uses advertising revenue to fund tree-planting projects around the world and hit a total of 200,000,000 trees planted back in February this year. Over the last 2 years searches on devices owned by South Gloucestershire Council have contributed an impressive 3,600 trees to that tally.

But why stop at one council? There are 317 councils across England alone, whose internet searches could be planting over 500,000 trees per year if they all follow the lead of South Gloucestershire. Why not write to our local councillor today and ask them to switch their devices to Ecosia?

On a personal note, as a member of the Green Party for over 10 years, this news represents a win for Green politics and proof that the Greens work hard to protect the environment even from the side-lines. With zero members of South Glos Council, one Green Party member managed to instigate a massively positive change in the way the council operates. I look forward to campaigning for more change on similar lines in future, and hope that one day some Greens will get elected to South Glos Council to have a bigger and more direct impact!