Thousands of NHS workers have reached a major milestone by planting more than 1 million trees simply through their hospitals’ decisions to set Ecosia, the search engine that dedicates 100% of its profits into climate action, as the default search engine.
This remarkable contribution to global reforestation comes from their everyday web searches on Ecosia – a simple action with major environmental impact. Ecosia uses the revenue from searches to fund tree planting and biodiversity protection projects across the UK and around the world.
NHS staff across the country have been part of this green movement since 2020, when Ecosia launched a programme to plant trees and green areas on NHS grounds in collaboration with participating 10 hospitals and trusts from Scotland to Cornwall, offering a tangible benefit to staff, patients, and local communities.
The link between trees and health is well-documented. Research indicates that every 10 percentage point increase in tree-canopy cover corresponded to a 4% reduction in asthma-related emergency room visits or hospitalisations. Additionally, tree cover in urban areas can reduce summer maximum air temperatures by around 0.5°C to 2°C.
With many areas of London exceeding WHO pollution limits, since Covid, through Ecosia’s ‘Grow Your Love for the NHS’ programme, Ecosia users have been been supporting tree planting and green space creation on 10 NHS trust sites across the UK, alongside global initiatives funded via this partnership – improving nature in these areas has a measurable impact on air quality, wellbeing and recovery: patients with views of trees and greenery recover faster, require fewer pain medications, and report higher satisfaction with care. For healthcare workers, the presence of trees provides a welcome source of cleaner air, calm and restoration during long shifts.
NHS Forest and other initiatives have long advocated for nature-based solutions in healthcare settings – and now, thanks to efforts by 5 London hospitals – notably Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust which has planted over 229,000 trees thanks to more than 11 million searches made by staff and Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, with more than 268,000 trees funded via 13 million searches – London’s NHS staff are actively helping make these happen.
Professor Bob Klaber, Director of Strategy, Research & Innovation and Net Zero Lead at Imperial College Healthcare, said: “We are one of the biggest NHS Trusts in the country and are committed to reducing our impact on the environment through a range of schemes linked to our green plan.“
“Relatively small changes, like switching our search engine, can have a big impact and in this case, led us to planting a quarter of a million trees. This is positive for the environment and our staff, patients and local community. I am grateful to everyone who has contributed to this scheme both at the trust and Ecosia.”
