A local pay-per-click ad network and green search engine enables users to offset their carbon emissions by planting trees for searches.
Called Ads4Trees and GreenSrch.com respectively, the ad network and search engine plant one tree for every 500 user searches, with a goal of planting 50 million trees within the next five years.
Founder and CEO Charles Ash says the idea was born out of a desire to offer an alternative to the ubiquitous Google, without the heavy impact on the environment. “For every R1 000 an advertiser spends, we'll plant a tree in their business' name at one of our global reforestation centres.”
The self-proclaimed “greenest search engine in the world” uses only renewable energy to power its servers, with data centres in Germany running off hydro-electric power. It also plans to add infrastructure in Iceland that uses geothermal energy.
The online advertising service plants trees and food gardens on behalf of premium advertisers. Ads4Trees publishes ads on both GreenSrch.com and through its global publisher network, which includes Web sites and mobi sites, says Ash. The company also provides a full breakdown of the click including where it came from and how much was spent.
Another differentiating factor is that the company incentivises public searches on GreenSrch.com, by planting one tree for every 500 searches which a registered, logged-in user conducts. Ash believes it allows advertisers to tap into the rapidly growing green business space.
“Market reports show consumers are prepared to spend more with a company that has an explicitly green strategy or pro-environmental approach. It allows businesses to qualitatively tap into that in a measurable, performance-based way.”
Publishers and content owners can earn 40% of the click value on ads they publish. There's also an affiliate programme, whereby Ads4Trees places an ad on the publisher's site, and once users click on the ad, register, and fund their account, the referring site earns 10% of the value with which their accounts have been funded.
Users can sign up using their Facebook login and password, or register on the Ads4Trees network, which enables GreenSrch.com to record the number of searches done. They have the option of registering as advertisers, publishers, or both. By loading their account with a minimum of R1 000, using either PayPal or EFT, users can then create and manage ad campaigns, check ad stats and set daily budgets.
At present, GreenSrch.com relies on Google and Bing for its search results, but the company is building capacity at its data centre with multi-terabyte indexing servers and full spidering features coming online within a few weeks. “Thereafter, we will wean ourselves off of Google and Bing and rely exclusively on the high-quality results from our own green-powered servers,” says Ash.
Most of the tree-planting is done in SA, with sites in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape, although the company also has reforestation sites in Malawi, Ecuador and Honduras. Focus is given to schools, low-income communities and orphanages. For tree-planting done in SA, users receive a photo and the GPS co-ordinates of every tree they help plant. For tree-planting done elsewhere, users receive the co-ordinates of the tree-planting vicinity.
Ash says that unlike Google, it encourages people to click on ads to build awareness of those walking the talk. “We want people to develop real benefits from going green, and show search users that these are the companies stepping up to the plate when it comes to caring for the environment.”
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