Why won’t Concordia switch its search engine?
How the university’s computers can contribute to sustainability
Disclaimer: Natalie Null is a member of the Climate Emergency Committee at Concordia University.
For decades, scientists and governments have recognized the threat of climate change, but on an institutional level, the change needed to adapt to these effects has been slow to come.
Now, as we approach climate thresholds, the necessary shifts to move away from fossil fuels and maintain biodiversity seem insurmountable amidst profit-oriented politics. Yet a growing movement demands action.
Concordia University’s student body shares a deep concern for our ecological impact and what it means for current and future generations.
In many ways, students have successfully fought for a campus culture that cares, evident in student gardens like Cultivaction and the Sankofa Farming Cooperative, in the Concordia University Centre for Creative Reuse, and in the regenerative food systems created between ABCompost and The People’s Potato.
But amid budget cuts across all university sectors, including to sustainability programs, Concordia risks abandoning the very values students have fought to build.
The university has outlined plans through PLAN/NET ZERØ, the Sustainability Action Plan and the Climate Action Plan, aiming for carbon neutrality by 2040 and targeting change across food, waste, climate, research and curriculum.
Yet without immediate, visible action, these plans come across as empty promises while student-led initiatives suffer due to dwindling funds.
These shifts away from fossil fuels and toward an environmentally centred education and campus are important and deserve recognition, but this can’t happen without accountability and follow-through. Holding the university accountable to its goals of sustainability will be an ongoing process between administration, staff and students.
Some changes, however, can happen right now.
Currently, all Concordia computers and rented laptops utilize Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge as their available and default search engines, two products made by for-profit companies. Student organizations, for their part, see a potential to change this norm and have called for change.
Starting in 2024, the CEC began pressuring administration to switch the default search engine on campus computers, like those in the library, to Ecosia.
Ecosia differs in that it’s a non-profit, founded with sustainability as its core mission, rather than a latent afterthought. Through ad-engagement, Ecosia raises money to plant trees in areas facing the effects of global climate change.
Ultimately, though, Ecosia is still reliant on the technology of Google and Microsoft Bing until it’s able to create its own search engine results.
Currently, Ecosia operates under ‘syndication agreements’, so searches are powered through Microsoft Bing and Google's technology. In this way, revenue for Ecosia’s tree-planting comes from Microsoft and Google advertisements.
Microsoft, for its part, holds partnerships with the oil giant ExxonMobil despite being praised for its climate pledges. Google has been called out for an advertisement model that allows fossil fuel companies to distort climate change-related search results.
But despite these conflicts, Ecosia has claimed to have been successful in realizing its sustainability goals. Since early 2026, they have planted more than 240 million trees, working with communities in biodiversity hotspots.
They have also raised more than C$160 million for climate action, and all of their profits go towards environmental restoration work, a radical and urgently necessary shift from the normal drive for profit within the tech sector. Ecosia further differs from other search engines with its option to opt-in AI and a carbon-negative footprint, powering search queries with solar energy.
This transition to a new search engine is also straightforward. Ecosia is already being used by 300,000 students across 40 university campuses across Europe and the U.S. Ecosia's partnerships with Google and Microsoft would mean that under this switch, students and staff would generate the same results, with a portion of the profits aimed at climate action. It’s not a perfect solution, but it is a step in the right direction.
Student demands for campus sustainability usually face resistance from institutions more concerned with the bottom line than the climate. Concordia is no exception: it's a business driven by profit, and unless student pressure becomes impossible to ignore, the administration will default to whatever's easiest and cheapest.
Switching to Ecosia costs Concordia nothing. It takes minimal effort. It aligns with every sustainability plan the university has published. If the administration can't manage this—one of the easiest requests students have ever made—then every promise about carbon neutrality and climate action proves to be no more than a pretense.
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