Brighton & Hove City Council Introduces Web Browser That Helps To Plant Trees

Friday, 1 April 2022 13:28

Council staff in Brighton and Hove can now use a sustainable search engine — planting trees while they search the internet.

Brighton & Hove City Council has joined other organisations in the city, including the University of Sussex, in offering the Ecosia browser to its IT users.

Ecosia donates 80% of its search revenues to non-profit organisations that focus on reforestation.

Being able to use Ecosia will add another simple way for council employees to take action to help address the climate and biodiversity crisis.

Roughly every 45 searches done through Ecosia will fund the planting of a tree in parts of the world that really benefit from them. It’s a secure and protected website which encrypts searches and doesn’t sell data to advertisers.

As part of the council’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint, councillors at the Policy & Resources Committee decided to make the Ecosia search engine available on the council’s IT network.

Deputy council leader Hannah Clare, who proposed the move in a Notice of Motion, said:

“This will provide our staff with another, simple way of playing their part to help restore nature, just by using Ecosia rather than another search engine.

“We’re committed to supporting diverse habitats around the world and reforestation is a big part of helping the planet to heal and restore natural balance.

"We’re planting trees in Brighton & Hove, with a £1 million investment in tree planting announced last year and supporting reforestation elsewhere by supporting organisations such as Ecosia doing great work.”

The council has also developed an e-learning course on climate change for staff to learn about how to reduce the carbon footprint of work.

Covering different sectors, from transport and energy to nature and climate adaptation, the course is designed to help equip staff with the knowledge to design actions for themselves and their teams.

Brighton & Hove City Council declared a climate and biodiversity emergency in 2018.