Introduction

A phenomenon currently growing in popularity with many website owners is the idea of using a green hosting company. Although it’s not guaranteed to help you save money, by using a green web hosting company you will be doing a bit more to ‘save the planet’; and if your website is an integral part of your business - then green website hosting is definitely something that can contribute to your company’s green credentials and reducing your carbon footprint.

Can green web hosting really help to save the planet?

The answer to that question is simply yes; hosting websites is quite an energy intense business despite the amount of electricity required to actually power the server that your website resides on being relatively small. But, presuming you are using a web hosting company that knows what they’re doing; they will have your web server located in an air conditioned room, with permanently charged back-up battery power available, not to mention an office full of people providing web hosting support etc; all of which will also need power, lighting and heating/air conditioning. So, the total amount of energy required by the best web hosting companies will quickly ‘rack up’, to coin a phrase - and all of that energy generates Carbon Dioxide and other things harmful to the environment.

Finding a green web hosting service.

Finding a green web hosting service is easily done by just adding the term ‘green’ to a search you do on the internet for web hosting companies. Of course any web hosting company can claim to be ‘green’ - but what should you look for in their website and literature to determine just how ‘green’ the really are?  One point to look for here is do they use a renewable energy source themselves. There are various renewable energy sources available such as solar, wind and biomass. A company claiming to use a renewable energy source probably doesn’t mean that they are generating all of their own electricity from the renewable energy source, but are buying electrical energy from an energy utilities company that can guarantee them that at least a proportion of the energy they sell is from a renewable source. Finding green web hosting companies that use an electricity supplier giving them 100% renewable energy should not be a problem. Some web hosting companies do claim to produce their own electricity from a 100% renewable source, usually solar energy. Whilst it’s not impossible by any means, it will probably make their web hosting services considerably more expensive than their competitors; so you’ll have to decide if a web hosting company producing its own energy merits higher rents than other ‘green’ web hosts. Although some air conditioning will invariably be needed you can also look for green web hosting companies that emphasize how they use modern building designs, materials and air flow currents to reduce the amount of air conditioning they need to operate; thereby significantly reducing the amount of energy they use. Finding and reading some of the excellent web hosting guides on the internet will also help you to build up a good profile of what the better ‘green’ web hosting companies will be doing.

Green web hosts - servers and paper.

As an increasing number of personal computers come onto the market with green credentials, offering low power consumption and environmentally friendly components; manufacturers of racked web servers are also ‘going green’. Some web hosting companies, like SuperGreenHosting.com, are installing such machines into their facilities to further enhance their own green credentials. In the long run using lower power servers along with reduced air conditioning requirements means that their energy bills fall - and that they can then pass that saving on to you. So, whilst by looking for a green web hosting company you might not necessarily be also looking for a cheaper web host, you could also be pleasantly surprised to be financially rewarded by ‘going green’.  Finally, you could consider how much paperwork the web hosting company sends out or uses. Looking for a paperless, or at least a paper efficient, web hosting company will mean that they are consciously saving both trees and energy - to make one ton of paper uses 15 or more trees and over 10,000 kWh of electricity!