Ecosia

Christian Kroll remains CEO and the primary architect of Ecosia's deployment strategy, but the steward-ownership structure means he cannot sell the company or extract profits. The Purpose Foundation holds a veto share that enforces the mission — all profits beyond operational needs must fund reforestation, renewable energy, or mission-aligned advocacy. Day-to-day project selection runs through the Ecosia team in Berlin, which partners with on-the-ground NGOs for tree-planting and with developers for energy assets.

Neither. Ecosia is structured as a steward-owned limited-liability company under German law, certified as a B Corporation. The Purpose Foundation's veto share ensures the firm's profits remain locked to its environmental purpose, but Ecosia is not a registered charitable foundation. It operates a commercial search engine that competes directly with Google and Microsoft, then allocates the resulting profit to reforestation and renewable-energy deployment.

Ecosia partners with vetted NGOs and community organizations operating in biodiversity hotspots — as of 2026, projects span Brazil, Burkina Faso, Indonesia, Madagascar, and more than 15 other countries. The firm publishes monthly financial reports and tracks satellite imagery to monitor planting outcomes. Tree species are selected for native ecosystem compatibility rather than timber value, and Ecosia often funds multi-year programs rather than one-off plantings.

Ecosia owns the Rottenbach Solar Park and a distributed German rooftop solar portfolio. In October 2024, the firm committed an additional €20 million to German solar projects. The solar generation feeds into Ecosia's claim of carbon-negative search — the assets produce more energy than searches consume. These are not structured as market-return investments; they are mission assets designed to back the firm's environmental accounting, though they do produce electricity revenue.

Ecosia's deployment is almost entirely direct — tree-planting partnerships with NGOs, equity in its own solar assets, and the joint venture with Qwant for European Search Perspective. The firm does not operate as a fund of funds or make venture-capital investments. Its cash reserves are held in ethical banks, but the primary capital deployment is proprietary environmental spending rather than third-party manager allocations.

Ecosia and French search engine Qwant formed the European Search Perspective (EUSP) joint venture to build independent search infrastructure, reducing reliance on US-based technology platforms. EUSP launched in late 2024 with the goal of creating a European search index. The venture is operationally separate from Ecosia's tree-planting deployment, but it supports the firm's broader mission of digital sovereignty and aligns with its steward-ownership model.

The steward-ownership structure, finalized in 2018 with the Purpose Foundation, legally prevents a sale. Kroll and co-owner Tim Schumacher transferred control to the company itself, with the Purpose Foundation holding a single veto share that can block any change to the mission. No individual, family, or investor can extract Ecosia's profits — the architecture is designed to permanently bind the search engine's revenue engine to environmental deployment.