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Trees not profits: we're giving up our right to ever sell Ecosia

25/10/2018

When I founded Ecosia a few years ago, I made two promises:

1. I will never sell Ecosia.

2. I will never take profits out of the company.

I made these promises because my goal for Ecosia has always been to
make the world a greener, better place - not to get rich. I also
wanted to prove that there is a more ethical way of doing business.

Since then, Ecosia has grown into something way bigger than myself:
we're not just planting millions of trees every month, we're also
becoming one of the largest environmental movements in the world.

And so I find it important to renew my commitment to my two promises
by turning Ecosia into a so-called "steward-owned company". This
model imposes two legally binding and irreversible restrictions on
us:

 1. Shares can't be sold at a profit or owned by people outside of
    the company.
 2. No profits can be taken out of the company.

These two restrictions sound like a terrible idea to most traditional
entrepreneurs. But Ecosia isn't traditional. We're not interested in
maximizing profits, we're interested in maximizing the amount of
trees we plant.

I hope that many other businesses will follow suit. I truly believe
that the world would be a better place if more businesses were driven
by a meaningful cause instead of shareholder value maximization.

Yours,
Christian Kroll

P.S.: Being a "steward-owned company" means that it will be
impossible for me - or anyone else - to sell Ecosia at a profit or
take money out of the company. This obviously also applies to the
former co-owner of Ecosia, Tim, an experienced entrepreneur I met a
few years ago. He invested in Ecosia at a time when no one knew if
this crazy project would ever work out. Tim, I cannot overstate how
grateful I am that you agree to turn Ecosia into a non-profit
company, effectively waiving your right to get any of your investment
back.

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To start using Ecosia today, install our browser extension and
download our app.

And to learn more about how we're working with a third party to make
sure Ecosia will always be not-for-profit and never pay dividends to
anyone, listen to this podcast:


If you would like to learn more about steward-owned companies, have a
look at this TED talk, this website and the Purpose Foundation.

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Christian Kroll

Christian Kroll

CEO and founder

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