Trees not profits: we're giving up our right to ever sell Ecosia (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: Shares can’t be sold at a profit or owned by people outside of the company. 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 inte ... Read full article.