Australian search-engine buys carbon credits worth two trees for every 1,000 searches– launch campaign generated 120,000 users within one week. 

5 June 2008 - Ecocho.com, the world’s first “green” search engine, commissioned Hotwire to undertake its European PR launch in Germany, Italy and France. Hotwire is implementing a targeted PR programme to drive the public launch and draw users to the Ecocho site. PR activities are focused on targeting online media and blogs. With Hotwire’s support, Ecocho aims to raise awareness for the urgency of climate protection and to change people’s everyday behaviour to make a positive impact on the environment. For every 1,000 searches with Ecocho, the company sponsors the growth of two trees, equalling a carbon offset of one ton.

“Our launch strategy for the national Ecocho websites focused on generating broad coverage in online media to drive users to Ecocho.com from the outset. The press-facing campaign was supplemented by targeted blogger relations and using microblogging service Twitter as a means to update users on the progress Ecocho was making over the first week after launch”, said Ute Richter, Managing Director of Hotwire in DACH. “The response has been amazing. In Germany, for example, we received online coverage on most daily news sites within the first 24 hours after launch. User statistics show that the European countries already contribute massively to Ecocho’s fast-growing traffic. Within the first week, 120,000 users visited the site and performed searches worth over 500 trees.”

How does it work?

At www.ecocho.eu/de users will find a search site very similar to popular search engines. Ecocho uses Yahoo!’s proven search technology and delivers the same reliable and trusted results. For every thousand searches Ecocho buys carbon offset certificates from the Australian government programme New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme (GGAS). Funded by advertising revenue from the search site, a thousand searches on Ecocho enable the company to buy enough carbon offset credits to fund the planting and growth of up to two trees. Over their lifetime, these trees will then, on average, remove one ton of CO2 from the atmosphere. Trees are planted by Government-accredited projects, currently in New South Wales, Australia. Auditing company KPMG will run quarterly and final year-end audits on the amount of carbon credits purchased and "retired" by Ecocho. As the search engine is used by more and more people, Ecocho will support further carbon offset programmes in other regions around the world. The use of Ecocho is free of charge.“

Climate protection has never been so easy for individual consumers. All they have to do is use Ecocho as their default search engine,” says Tim Macdonald, founder of Ecocho. “In a country like Germany, hundreds of millions of searches are conducted online every month. If only a small portion of this is done via Ecocho, it will make a major contribution to climate protection.”

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About Hotwire

Hotwire is an international public relations consultancy established to provide innovative business and consumer PR services for the technology industry.   

Hotwire has six specialist practice areas: applications & services, banking & finance, consumer, digital media, enterprise & electronics and telecommunications. The company has offices in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Madrid and Milan.   

Since its foundation, Hotwire has won a number of prestigious awards across Europe.  The awards recognise the campaigns Hotwire implements for its clients as the most creative in our industry and include Best Pan-European Programme at the 2007 Sabre Awards, Best Technology Campaign at the 2007 PRWeek Awards, Best PR Campaign in France at the 2007 Sabre Awards and the 2007 Top Com Trophée for PR, Consumer Category. 

Hotwire has also been recognised as a great company and fantastic place to work winning the International Consultancy of The Year at the PRWeek Awards 2007 and being named the Best Consultancy to Work For in the 2007 Holmes Report.