Is Eco Friendly or Green Hosting a good thing? There seems to be some studies and research saying it is. It is something that is becoming popular among the many web hosting companies. There are also some signs that some of the big time web hosting companies are starting to turn to alternative energy sources to power their servers, and that they are trying to show that their company doesn’t have a negative impact on the environment.
There was a survey on server energy usage done by Stanford in 2007. This survey said that thanks to the huge growth of VOIP, video, and the increase of broadband Internet services, data center usage of energy consumed from 2000 to 2005 doubled, and that it’s only been getting worse over the past 4+ years since the study. Web hosts are trying to make as much effort as they can to make sure that they consume much less energy and become more environmentally friendly. This is a very important thing as we start to use more and more energy to power our websites.
What Exactly is Eco Friendly or Green Hosting and How Does It Work?
Here are a few different ways that web hosting companies have figured out how to become more Eco Friendly, or shall we say Green in how they power their servers. They all have an effect, some more than others.
Carbon Credits
Buying carbon credits means that the company is purchasing credits to fund another eco friendly project, which in theory cancels out their carbon usage. I can't knock somebody for at least doing something.
Carbon Offsetting
Because changing to a more eco friendly setup can be expensive for web hosts, the most popular way to become more eco friendly is to do some carbon offsetting to reduce or even eliminate their carbon base. Companies will do general energy conservation and also things like planting trees for new accounts and do some general energy conservation.
Renewable Energy Certificates
Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) These show that the energy used by the web host is from some kind of natural source, like either wind energy or solar energy.
Better Data Center Layouts
Data center makers have figured out ways to optimize their server farms so that the least amount of energy is used. The less air conditioning a server needs, the more eco friendly it is.
Other Eco Friendly Options
In some cases windmills power servers, and there are even paperless offices. Some companies also use propane instead of diesel gases for backup resources. There are many number of ways that a web hosting company can make their company more eco friendly.
Hey, now that we’ve covered and have a bit more knowledge about how web hosts can become more green (or eco friendly), here are some hosts that are trying to do their part to make a more eco friendly hosting company.
The list below are some of the Eco Friendly and Green Hosting sites and the way they go about being Green:GreenGeeks A 300% Web Hosting Company
GreenGeeks offers customers a no-questions asked money back guarantee on the hosting service that they provide. If you decide to cancel within the money back guarantee period of 30 days, they will provide you with a full refund less any setup fees, domain registration, or transfer costs.
A2 Web Hosting
This is an excerpt from the A2 site about FutureServe. FutureServe is A2 Hosting's initiative to protect the environment for future generations. A2 Hosting applies a number of global protection practices in our everyday actions. FutureServe Green Hosting can be broken down into three distinct, but interrelated divisions. These divisions are:
- A2 Hosting's Carbon Offsets
- Employee Eco Protection Practices
- Hosting Equipment Energy Reduction
iPage Hosting
iPage has gone green! - Since generating wind energy on site isn't feasible, they are offsetting all of their electricity use with wind generated Renewable Energy Certificates, or RECs, which prevent the release of 2,660 metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year. You can be proud that the machines hosting your Web site and e-mail are fully eco friendly!
That figure is staggering when you consider the estimated yearly benefit to the environment is equivalent to any one of the following:
- planting approximately 2,390 acres of trees
- not driving 6.1 million miles
- removing 510 cars from the road
Hostgator
All of HostGator's shared and reseller servers are powered and cooled by wind power generated in our home state of Texas. Hostgator actually prides itself in using 130% wind energy by purchasing Renewable Energy Credits, or RECs, and using wind-powered servers. In theory, they are actually reversing their environmental impact.
HostPapa
HostPapa has taken the initiative of going green by purchasing 100% green renewable energy to power our data center, web servers, office computers, laptops and office space. These energy sources supply HostPapa's entire equivalent energy consumption into the power-grid with certified 100% renewable green energy sources, such as wind and solar-powered energy.
SolarEnergyHost
Carbon Free vs Carbon Neutral: Does it Matter? Yes it does! Their web servers run on 100% Solar Powered “carbon-free” energy. This is very different from companies who buy “carbon credits” to offset their energy use. With Solar Energy Host, the energy comes directly from renewable resources: our sun.
ThinkHost
ThinkHost uses wind and solar power to manage their data centers. Each of their plans is covered under their carbon neutral green program and they will also plant a tree for each hosting account. At the time of this writing, if you click the link, there is a $30 coupon.
This is all that I have for now. I was doing some research for web hosting companies and discovered that a lot of these companies have gone green, or trying to go green. I had never really thought about it. I am currently researching more Green Web Hosting sites. This does not mean that they are the best or worst site, but that their means of hosting are of the green nature. I will continue to add more, so check back often for more sites. All comments are welcomed, as long as they are related site. Thank you and have a wonderful day.
