A Message From Our Partner

St Andrews on Ecosia: The University That Plants Trees 

2019 saw the launch of the St Andrews on Ecosia campaign, and 2020 is the year we aim to make it happen! So what is Ecosia, what does St Andrews have to do with it, and how can we plant trees as a university? 

Ecosia is an alternative search engine company, first founded in 2011 as the green and clean alternative to tech giant Google. Put simply, they use revenue from generated from search ads to fund tree planting projects across the globe. They also have several projects beyond this, such as securing land rights for threatened communities and building enough renewable power plants to not only run their server off of 100% green electricity, but to crowd out dirty electricity from the grid. 

Ecosia delegates tree-planting funds across specialist partners such as Hommes et Terre and Wangari Maathai's The Green Belt Movement in order to ensure trees are sustainable, native and bio-diverse trees are planted, and that trees are targeted in areas where they will have the most benefit. Past projects include reforesting and protecting the Amazon, reforesting some of the driest regions of Burkina Faso, as well as donating trees to NHS centres here in the UK throughout the peak months of Covid. 

So, what does St Andrews have to do with it? 

Our goal is to switch our University servers to have Ecosia as the default search engine, thereby becoming a University that plants trees as we learn and teach. Our friends at the University of Glasgow made the switch earlier this year, and we're excited to make St Andrews that little bit greener too! 

Ecosia estimates that every 45 searches will fund the planting of one tree. Early in July, Ecosia planted their 100 millionth tree with the help of individual users, campuses and workspaces across the world, and the movement is only picking up steam: what contribution could St Andrews have, with its 9000 strong constantly-searching student body and staff? It's an exciting prospect! 

How can I get involved? 

If you'd like to get onboard with the campaign, follow St Andrews on Ecosia (Facebook or Instagram) and send us a DM, or email Ellie/Bhavya at ek203@st-andrews.ac.uk and bp52@st-andrews.ac.uk! We're always looking for society partnerships, encouraging more people to make the switch as we make the case to make our university greener! Most importantly download the browser at ecosia.org/standrews.