FAQs

Ecocho: "Eco", so you know it's something for the environment right away, and "cho" meaning "super", "ultra" or "extremely" in Japanese. Ecocho is a new -eco-friendly- model for searching the web, making it extremely easy to be environmentally active. Anyone and everyone can use ecocho to offset their carbon footprint - and it's free of charge.

Ecocho word is pronounced: ee - coh - choh.
In Italian, the "cho" part of the word is pronounced similar to the "c followed by a vowel" sound, such as "cesare", "citta" or "cento".
In German, the "cho" part of "ecocho" is more like the German "tsch", i.e. "ecotscho"!
See our blog post on the name's origins here:
http://ecocho.wordpress.com/2008/04/18/the-name-ecocho/

Carbon offsetting is the act of compensating for (or "counter balancing") pollution caused by our everyday lives. This is done by purchasing a reduction in greenhouse gases (GHG). The basic aim is to lower the level of damaging carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the earth's atmosphere.

Your searches generate funds for us to grow trees

In broad terms, carbon offsetting projects enable people and companies to invest in programs that positively impact the environment. If a company produces carbon that pollutes the planet's atmosphere, the theory is that they should purchase the same (or a greater) amount of carbon reduction credits to compensate. These credits (sold by carbon reduction credit providers - or "eco-brokers", if you will) are used to cover the cost of planting trees (which absorb carbon dioxide), and many other programs. Buying carbon credits is easy to do and incredibly effective. When your carbon offsets equal your carbon output, you can call yourself "carbon neutral".

A "carbon offset credit" is a unit (or "token") of greenhouse gas reduction. This acts as a contribution towards projects that reduce the amount of damaging carbon dioxide (CO₂, which is the main type of greenhouse gas) in the atmosphere.

You may be aware that trees absorb CO₂, which is why adopting, growing or protecting trees qualifies as a form of offsetting. Trees can also provide other environment benefits (see below for more).

A few critics have argued that carbon offsetting programs achieve little, or even that it's too late to slow climate change. Many more climate change activists fully support carbon offsetting programs.

Ask yourself: Is it better to make an attempt at a contribution, no matter how small, or make no attempt at all?

Even if carbon offsetting isn't the long term solution in the fight against global warming, it's undoubtedly kickstarting the cause and raising awareness in the meantime.

Ecocho uses your web searches to promote tree growing projects (and carbon offsetting generally). We generate funds through advertising, which we use to buy carbon offset credits. These credits allow us (and you of course!) to contribute cash towards carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission offset. We estimate that every 1000 searches on ecocho will help remove a ton of CO₂ from the atmosphere.

The crux: if people use Ecocho as their search engine we will donate money towards growing trees. Trees store CO₂ and give out oxygen, which helps the environment to reduce carbon pollution levels.

For example, a million monthly searches on Ecocho should allow us to regularly remove a whopping 1000 tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere (approximately equal to removing 200 cars from the roads for one whole year). As 1000 searches allow us to adopt five trees, a million searches would allow 5000 trees - collectively an entire bio-diverse green forest - to do their thing. With your help, Ecocho can regularly adopt and protect whole forests full of carbon-vacuuming trees.

Still not convinced, eh? A forest of trees doesn’t sound like it’d make a difference [see previous question]? Well, here’s some science to cut through the fluff: 450 stems in one hectare will give a minimum change of 1 ton in CO₂ emissions per year for 30 years (for mulga scrub or mallee in rainfall less than 350 mm year). In higher rainfall areas one mature broad leaf tree can absorb roughly 750Kgs (1650 Lbs) of carbon dioxide in its lifetime (about 100 years) and release enough oxygen in turn to support two humans. Short of seeing the carbon dioxide/oxygen exchange with your own eyes, that’s quite convincing! Put another way, if every family in America planted a single tree, CO₂ in the atmosphere would be reduced by one billion lbs, which is 5% of total annual human carbon output. This goes some way towards illustrating what we're trying to do. Furthermore, we are able to guarantee that the trees stay where they are for 100 years, as the New South Wales government enforces this time regulation for all participating land owners.

[Data generated using FullCAM running a simulation using the following data: Location – Cobar, NSW; low rainfall of about 350 mm; normal stocking of up to 466 stems per hectare.]

Well, if you haven't heard the argument for tree planting to counter carbon emissions, here it is in a nutshell (or a tree seed).

With trees able to pump out oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide (CO₂), our green friends can help absorb (and counter-effect) dangerous levels of harmful greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (which accelerate climate change through global warming).

Trees do other cool things. They make homes for birdies, and other animals. They provide shade (which reduces the surface temperature of the ground). They store water at the same time as creating bio-diverse landscapes and forests.

Trees stop erosion and increase water supply; they fight salinity and water quality decline; they provide adaptation pathways for species to migrate as climate change takes effect, and what's more they provide an income to our farmers. Trees create wildlife corridors for our native animals. However, trees can't jump tall buildings in a single bound. Well, not yet anyway.

We only purchase carbon credits that guarantee trees stay put for 100 years

Also - and yes, we know we're preaching now - trees are one of the few ways you can pull carbon pollution from the atmosphere. The way we see it, even when all of us are driving hybrid cars and have solar-powered homes, we still have to reduce CO₂ in the atmosphere just to get our planet back to normal.

If you are worried about someone cutting down Ecocho's trees and releasing all that carbon back into the atmosphere in a few years time, fear not! We only purchase government backed carbon credits that guarantee trees stay put for 100 years.

For phase one, Ecocho's starting point is to plant trees in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. We chose Australia because the NSW GGAS scheme was the first local government mandatory emissions scheme in the world. We're also based out of Australia - a good place to start!

As soon as possible, we intend to branch out (excuse the pun) the tree growing to Europe, America and other parts of the world, allowing Ecocho to benefit everyone's local environment. We will update this website each time we organise tree planting in new locations.

Another reason we chose to start with NSW carbon credits is that, after the European Union Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS), the NSW GGAS is the second largest greenhouse gas abatement market with about 20.2 million certificates exchanged through 2006 - for a value estimated at US$225.4 million (-173 million). The 2006 market represented a 3.3 times increase over the volumes transacted in 2005.

The NSW GGAS scheme is a strong and well-regulated market that has developed a global reputation in a very short space of time. The urgent need to reduce harmful greenhouse gases has echoed with people all over the world - and Ecocho offers a great first step for anyone wanting to contribute.

This is a tricky one. The reality is that it's very difficult to prove to every user that trees are being planted, short of visiting the site with a shovel ourselves (and your good self, if you fancy coming along?!). That said, we've taken every precaution to ensure that we're backing the good cause of carbon offsetting by associating with the most legitimate of companies and organisations in this relatively new field.

When we started planning ecocho, we wanted to show our users exactly where trees were grown, including how many and when they were planted. Unfortunately due to the way that Government tree-growing schemes work, this is far harder than we first thought (it's still our ultimate goal).

To ensure there are checks and balances - and to make our activities transparent and credible - we use Global Carbon Exchange (GCX) to buy credits on our behalf. GCX buys credits from an official government body, the New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme (NSW GGAS). This ensures that the highest possible Government accreditation is achieved; genuine credits bound for a positive environmental use.

Furthermore, anyone (yes, especially you!) can log in at any time as a guest to Ecocho's official GGAS carbon credit registry account to view the total number of forestry carbon credits owned by us. Simply visit www.gcx.com.au/category1/ecocho.html and scroll down to the section -How are these credits tracked?- to see the relevant URL and login details.

We doubt you'll find a more verified, audited offsetting process

For more information on the process and safeguards see www.gcx.com.au/category1/ecocho.html.

Overall, we think that this provides the highest level of assurance and enhances the credibility and transparency of this program. After all of our efforts above, if cynicism still stops users from switching to Ecocho, we can say we've tried our best.

Not a penny. That's the beauty of it. Ecocho costs you no money to reduce your personal carbon footprint. The only cost is a few seconds of your time to use ecocho.com for your internet searches. If you download the Ecocho toolbar or bookmark us, we're even easier to use.

No, the search results are the same (except we display the Ecocho logo above the results).

We encourage you to check by doing the same search on Yahoo and Ecocho - the results will be the same. Using Ecocho helps the environment without affecting your web searches in the slightest.

Blimey! It's easy to be cynical; the earth has gone through many changes over thousands of years. However the scientific consensus view appears that it is human activity that is increasing greenhouse gases emissions and global warming. Rather than accept the cynical view that it's too late to stop global warming, we'd rather do something to try and counter carbon pollution. Ultimately, with Ecocho so easy to use and costing no money and no significant time and effort, why not join us? Who knows where it could lead and the positive effect it may have on our future.

The truth is that we don't know how effective this project will be - that's up to you lot. If a large number of people switch to ecocho as their main search provider, then we expect ecocho to make a significant contribution to slowing global warming.

We basically see it like this - if us humans keep using fossil fuels like they're going out of fashion, we may not have a planet let alone a fence to sit on. The same goes if we don't try to find solutions for the problem.

Fossil fuels, when burned, are causing a great deal of the damage by releasing carbon dioxide emissions. Cars emit massive amounts of carbon dioxide annually (the average American car drives 11,000 miles and emits its own weight in CO₂ each year), as do planes and buses. We all use these transport means and we all could be helping to offset this damage.

As a first step towards doing something positive for climate change, using Ecocho is a cinch.

We’ll hand over to our carbon credits provider, Global Carbon Exchange (GCX), for this one.

Is it too late to slow or stop climate change? We hope not.

They say:

“The voluntary carbon offset market has encountered challenges due to projects and schemes that don't follow best practice. Specifically, the three key issues cited by critics are:

1. Lack of permanence of the credit being sold (i.e. that the tree still exists)

2. Double counting (where the same credits are sold more than once)

3. Additionality

By purchasing only NSW GGAS forestry credits any issues of permanence and additionality are considered well covered. By providing transparent access to the registry we have attempted to mitigate any consumer concerns regarding the issue of double counting.”

We don't know for sure that planting trees will make enough of a difference to save the planet, but when the alternative is to sit back and do nothing, we'd rather act.

A brief history recap: The Kyoto Protocol, an agreement set in place by the International Framework Convention on Climate Change, had the objective of reducing GHG emissions believed to cause climate change in December 1997, and in November 2007 36 developed countries and 137 developing countries ratified the protocol. The Kyoto protocol and its mechanism have done tremendous good, both raising the issue of climate change and providing powerful incentives to reduce environmental impacts (carbon credits being the primary one).

We're a business; we don't want to saturate you with marketing spin and truth hiding here. That's the first fact. We could have built a search engine and counted all revenue as profit. Instead, we thought Ecocho could be a genuine breakthrough because it gives everybody a free and easy way to counter-balance their own carbon pollution. Contributing trees via the everyday act of searching the internet just seemed like a great thing to try.

We'll let you know how it goes. If it doesn't work, we'll probably lose our money - but at least we'll have publicised something very important. We absolutely believe that climate change is something everyone should care about (or at least have a view about), even if they don't agree that this project will help. We figure that you can either sit back (and dismiss global warming and its likely impacts), or you can try to gear what you do towards making a difference. This is what we're trying to do with Ecocho. Hopefully we've made it as trouble-free as possible for you to take part in making a big change.

In a nutshell, you benefit by helping the environment without inconveniencing yourself or paying any money! It's that simple. By supporting Ecocho and what we're trying to do, you're helping to counter the damaging effects of global warming. Spread the word about ecocho and you help to raise awareness. It really is that simple! By all means go ahead and work out your own carbon footprint (this is a good place to do it: www.climate-wise.com) and then try to make personal changes, but as a first step we reckon that Ecocho is an effortless positive move.

It depends on how many of you switch to our site! Pretty much anyone and everyone searches the web. The more people who are willing to search via Ecocho, the more trees we can grow. Ecocho is really that straightforward. We have our own tree-growing targets and we'll regularly put info on the site telling you how many trees have been grown based on the searches you've performed.

We also hope that our supply company will be able to give us the info to let you know exactly where trees are being planted. If we are able to do this, you'll be able to know exactly which parts of the world are directly benefitting from your searching of "football results", "car insurance" or "carbon footprint" using the Ecocho search engine. (Of course, the whole world benefits no matter where a tree is planted - we just want to spread the trees everywhere!)

Unfortunately this would be counter-productive.
Unless real people are using the site for actual searches, it's not cost-effective for companies to advertise. Without advertising, we can't grow trees.

Indeed, you can find our tree count on the Ecocho homepage (that'll make it much more interesting!). We also have a handy CO₂ counter, for you to see how many kilos of CO₂ we've removed from the atmosphere with everyone's help.

Yes. We enlisted the Carbon Reduction Institute to study the Ecocho project's energy and transport usage and advise us as to our carbon output (21 tons), which we offset accordingly. We will be checked and reassessed on a quarterly basis for carbon output. We had already invested in carbon offset credits as part of the project's initial budget, which searches on ecocho help to pay for. We believed that the project would capture people's imagination, as we saw it as such a simple way for everyone to do good.

Ecocho is our way of reducing our carbon footprint - and it provides you with a great first step to reducing yours.

No. We never see your password, only your log in email address. Your password is encrypted immediately and transmitted directly to your host email provider's site (Google, Yahoo, MSN Hotmail). We use very secure SSL technology by Digicert and their Digital Certificate Authentication system ensures that your personal information is protected and confidential. We never store any email addresses or any of your information.

Yes, there is! On the home page you'll see a link reading "Black version", click on this to change Ecocho to Ecocho Lo (power-saving Ecocho). You can also switch Ecocho between the black and white versions in the "Set your preferences" section.

Yes. Currently you can set your preferred language and your preferred colour (black or white) by selecting the "Set your preferences" link on the home page. In future you will also be able to select your preferred domain (country version of Ecocho), and we may also offer some more colours for Ecocho, so stay tuned! Requests via the feedback form, please.

Yes we do. If you visit the "Toolbar & add-ons" page, you'll see the section that says "Add the Ecocho search engine to Firefox or IE7". Follow the "Installation instructions" to install this feature and search directly from your browser. We've also heard from Ecocho users who have successfully installed the Ecocho browser search for Opera and Konquerer too. It should work in these browsers and you can try it in any other browser also. Here's how to do it:

1) When on the Ecocho home page, right-click on the actual search box field and select "Create search..."

2) You will see Ecocho's description in the "Name" field. In the "keyword" field, type "keyword".

3) Select "OK"

4) In the drop down browser search menu, at the top right hand corner of your browser, you should now see Ecocho search. Select Ecocho search and start eco-searching!

Please get in touch if you have any problems installing it and we'll try our best to help.