Using Ecosia; 4 Months Later

Our Experience Using Ecosia

Using technology to better the environment is one of the core values of SignTech paperless solutions. Our company itself started with the same motive- to better the work environment and the planet by changing things in the workplace- taking one step towards a paperless future one organization at a time. By replacing paper processes with our innovative paperless solutions we have helped numerous organizations go paperless in one aspect of their operations or another.

Despite working with paperless forms. We still all have busy lives and some can’t be as dedicated as others but what we can all do is make an effort whenever we see the opportunity to because in this fight to save the planet every little action, ever little decision we make counts. SignTech Forms has been on the hunt for ways to make our paperless business even more eco-efficient and we recently stumbled across- or rather discovered (because we were searching) something quite extraordinary.

An eco-friendly alternative to the Google search engine. “Ecosia”: the best thing to happen to the internet since sliced bread and Netflix.

Ecosia is a search engine that uses their profits from your searches to plant trees.

As of this moment they’ve planted over 52 million trees and they’re showing no signs of slowing down.

You start by installing a small extension on your google chrome browser which will then replace your google search engine. The installation process was very simple, we didn’t need to sign up for anything, it was done in less than 2 minutes.

Planting trees is something that everyone can agree is quite important but not everyone has the time to do it and we understand. With Ecosia every 45 searches on average plants one tree, over the course of a few months I personally have 790 searches under my belt meaning that I have effectively made the planting of 17 trees possible. Although there is a lot more people can do with their time to help the environment, every little thing everyone does helps take us closer to a more sustainable future.

Using Ecosia- our greatest concern was “Is Ecosia really a functional replacement for Google?” In the few months I’ve used Ecosia, I have only missed having my google search engine a few times, in terms of functionality it searches are very reliable and I find myself coming across sometimes more relevant information to a search than I would find on google.

One great advantage for people who are security conscious in an ever increasingly invasive day and age is a good privacy policy; with Ecosia all your data is anonymized in a week and they claim that for every search you make you’re preventing 1kg of harmful carbon emissions from being released into the atmosphere.

So how do they plant trees with your searches? They work as every search engine does, they money from ads that come up on the top of your results page as well as a few other means,

They are quite transparent. Releasing their financial reports for anyone and everyone to see. They give 80% of their profits to the cause of planting trees, supporting organizations that go and plant trees where they are needed the most.

The best thing about Ecosia is that you’re actually playing an active role in helping the planet survive, making it a better place without having to make huge sacrifices. If you claim to care about the earth and you want to protect it but your reason for not doing much is that you don’t have time Ecosia leaves you with no excuses. You can visit their site to find out more about them.

SignTech Forms is an innovative paperless platform that converts existing forms and documents into paperless forms that can be completed on smart devices and electronically signed seamlessly (with full data integration). For more information visit www.signtechforms.com or email expert@signtechforms.com