Eco-friendly Hosting Solutions For Greening the Internet

World internet usage statistics show that the internet is still doubling in size in the U.S. and growing from 400 to 1000% a year, worldwide. That’s staggering. The energy usage needed for that type of demand is also equally staggering. According to an Information Week article written in 2007, “In the United States, the power consumption in 2005 for servers and related equipment in data centers was equivalent to about five 1,000-megawatt power plants, or your five typical nuclear or coal power plants..” With so much demand on resources, an eco-friendly hosting service is a good step to help ease or offset the incredible energy usage demands of the internet.

Green web hosting has just caught on in the public’s mind, although there are a few hosts who have been ahead of the demand for quite some time. Now more than ever, people are looking for environmentally friendly companies and are voting with their wallets, so to speak. As a business person, or even just an independent site owner, you can begin to build your brand as an environmentally friendly company, by using green web hosting. It makes a statement of value that many people appreciate, and you are also voting with your wallet too.

Trying to navigate the maze of hosting however, is not always easy. There are many web hosting companies advertising themselves as “green”, but what does that really mean?

Degrees of Green Hosting

So, who’s green enough? You’ll get a lot of opinion on that subject. Some feel that if a hosting company is not completely “off gird” (not using any power from the electrical grid), then they are not really green. Others say that doing something is better than nothing. I tend to fall somewhere in the middle. So, let’s decipher all this:

Some companies will talk about being “carbon neutral”. They are buying carbon credits. While many thing this is not good enough to call yourself green, it still means the company is spending extra money to do something. It’s much cheaper to do nothing! Going carbon neutral hopefully means that they’ve added up all they energy they use (and not just from their servers, but total company consumption) and they are purchasing carbon credits, or green tags (also known as RECs or TRCs), to put back into the grid.

Other companies have made the investment to go fully solar powered. They will of course have the gird as a backup in case of weather, but they are completely solar-powered. Still other companies have gone with wind power. Solar power is actually gaining momentum and is a serious alternative to grid power.

I guess I’d rather see a company buy green tags or carbon credits than do nothing. But there is much more that the companies can do, and you can see if they are talking about these things on their websites.

How Do Hosting Companies Go Green?

Buy Carbon Credits. Offset means “neutralize,” “balance,” or “cancel out.” When you buy a carbon offset, therefore, you are helping to fund a project that reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Offsets can also involve planting trees.

Buy Green Tags. This just means that the energy that you use is created by a green source (wind, solar, hydro) and delivered to the power grid you’re connected to. (Even though you aren’t using it necessarily.)

Virtualization. This is a type of sharing of resources among customers, so that you can more effectively use your server hardware. This can potentially reduce the number of servers consuming energy.

Use more energy friendly servers. There are alternative types of servers that green companies can choose to buy and use. Some have two servers housed within a single box, utilizing the same power supply. This cuts down on consumption. There is also a server technology called “speed stepping” that will reduce the amount of voltage and heat a server uses, especially during peak usage.

Data Center Layout. Anything from how you weatherize your center to how you lay out your air conditioning can greatly reduce the amount of energy consumed.

Big time capital investment. Windmill driven data centers, installing solar panels, completely solar data center, paperless office, telecommuting employees, incentives for alternative work transportation are all excellent measures.

Basically, I’d rather see a company buy green tickets or carbon offsets than do nothing. But there is also so much more that can be done. Hopefully, this will give you an excellent starting point to choose a green web hosting company.

The internet demands a lot of energy resources, so an eco-friendly hosting service is a good step to help ease or offset the incredible usage demands. Visit our top green web hosting companies review page to see who is leading the way in offsetting the energy usage!