Searching for the Environment

Ever think using a search engine could help the environment? A new initiative from Sweden shows a different way of running a charity. "Eco-friendly" search engine Growyn.com is setting out to collect money for environmental projects.

The idea is simple. All the profits from Growyn go to environmental organizations and projects. To this, Growyn is targeting environmentally aware internet users.

"I and my co-founder David, wanted to do something good and saw a lack of environmentally friendly options on the web. There are organic products, environmental certifications and other services, but no [search engine] equivalent on the web," said Kurdi Rad, founder of Growyn.

Growyn, which is ad supported, relies on technology that is similar to other search engines (it has based its search engine on the Yahoo search index). Founders Kurdi Rad and David Johansson are also working on developing an environmental portal where visitors will find eco-related information. Similar services available online are often quickly carved up and lack long-term perspectives, said Rad.

"We have built a solid organization, created relationships with key stakeholders in the environmental field and also within the corporate world," said Rad.

Among Growyn's partners are the environmental institutions at Stockholm University, Stockholm Resilience Center and The Society for the Conservation of Nature.

But can it compete against Google?

"Google started as a small company, and when they started they also had major competitors like Yahoo and Alta Vista. We've started Growyn now and believe that our service is actually competitive, both in performance but also in our profiling," said Rad.

Growyn's environmental portal will gradually expand with feeds, archives and blogs written by researchers and well-known environmental "celebrities." Growyn is hoping to establish itself first in Sweden and the Nordic countries. Later on it'll hit other European markets, but of course the search engine is global and in English.

Visitors to the search engine will soon be able to monitor how and where the money earned by their search activity will be invested.

"We do not support organizations as a whole, but select individual projects. The chosen projects will be followed up continuously and we'll show the progress via the website," said Rad.

Being a non-profit organization, Kurdi Rad welcomes more initiatives like Growyn. More competition means better support for the environment. "It promotes the purpose," she said.

Growyn has set a target of 50,000 users before the end of the year. It's difficult to say exactly what it will mean in revenues, but Rad expects it to convert to six-digit figures.