To switch the default search engine from Google to Ecosia

Ecosia makes its profits through advertising, just like any other search engine, but instead of  being a for-profit business, Ecosia donates 80% of its surplus income to tree planting projects across the globe. They have planted over 70 million trees so far and we want the university to contribute to Ecosia'a goal of 1 billion trees by the end of 2020. 

If Ecosia were the default search engine here at the university, student searches could fund the  planting of thousands of trees each month. This campaign is part of a global movement and is present at 70 Universities across the world. The Eco Society have been promoting it via their members and seen that Ecosia (through the direct link Ecosia provided us) that over 2000 searches were made and 31 trees had been planted from those searches. 

As an example of a successful transition you can simply look at The University of Sussex and 5 other universities have already integrated Ecosia into their IT  systems and planted tens of thousands of trees combined. Jason Oliver, the University of Sussex’s Director of Information Technology, says here that: “The ITS team at Sussex are working to reduce energy consumption and waste wherever we can. We’re very conscious of the environmental impact that technology can have if not managed carefully. That’s why we’re proud to recommend and promote the use of Ecosia.”

Here is our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/portsmouthonecosia & the direct link to download Ecosia to your browser (this allows us to track how many trees are planted from Portsmouth's link)  https://ecosia.co/UniversityofPortsmouth