All 4,000 on-campus computers will switch to Ecosia as the default search engine for internet usage from the start of term.
The University of Glasgow will soon be making the switch to Ecosia on all on-campus computers thanks to campaigning by the student society University of Glasgow on Ecosia (UoG on Ecosia).
According to UoG on Ecosia, the move will take place in September, with all 4,000 on-campus computers switching to Ecosia as the default search engine for internet usage from the start of term.
Ecosia is a search engine based in Berlin that donates 80% of its profits to reforestation projects. It is already used in other universities across the UK, including the University of Essex and the University of Swansea. The University of Bristol is also planning to have all its computers use Ecosia from September.
Alvaro Perez Guardiola, a spokesperson for UoG on Ecosia told The Glasgow Guardian:
“I’m really happy that our campaign has been successful, and it’s all thanks to the students and staff who signed the petition and the societies and student bodies who expressed their support. The SRC President Scott Kirby and Peter Mitchell from IT have been very supportive and a lot of the success is owed to them.
“There is still a lot of work left to make our University ‘world-changing’ environmentally and socially. But this switch is a great first step and it’s certainly encouraging: we’re just getting started!”
UoG on Ecosia said that it takes approximately 45 searches on Ecosia to grow one tree. With a student population of 29,000 and 8,000 staff, one web search per person per day at the University could result in the plantation of over 300,000 trees a year.
As of August 2020, Ecosia has planted over 103,000 trees across the world. Ecosia has over 15 million active users and estimates it takes 0.75 seconds to plant a tree. Over €12 million has been invested in the plantation of trees by Ecosia and the company has over 9,000 planting sites worldwide.
For more information and how to download Ecosia you can click on the link here.
University of Glasgow on Ecosia’s Facebook page can be found here.
