Green Website Hosting Options - What to Look For in a Green Hosting Company

With care for environment becoming a rising tide, there are now many green hosting options to choose from. But with increasing number of green hosting options, confusion may also increase. Which one is “really” green or are they only “green washing” their business? Which one is better for your hosting needs? Which one is closer to your own understanding of green? I’ll try to answer some of the questions you might have in this short article.

The first and the most obvious problem with normal hosting companies are, they use lots of electricity. And since a good amount of the “normal” electricity power used is generated using fossil fuels, that energy use contributes to many problems ranging from Global Warming to environmental pollution due to mining and extraction, dependency on foreign oil and even having to fight wars for oil. Therefore, the first thing a “green” hosting company does is to power their servers, coolers, offices etc using “green electricity”. Green electricity is generated using renewable resources, mostly using wind turbines and solar panels. Sometimes biomass, biogas, or geothermal methods can also be used to generate “green electricity”. All of your green hosting options should at least include a way to use renewable energy.

Many green website hosting options use what is called “Renewable Energy Certificates”, or REC’s. Renewable Energy companies sell the electricity to the national power grid. Because once electricity enters the grid, you cannot distinguish which electron comes from which source, Renewable Energy Companies also generate and sell “Renewable Energy Certificates” for each megawatt-hour of electricity they sell to the grid. Therefore, when a green hosting option buys electricity from the grid, and REC’s enough to cover its own electricity use, they can rightfully claim to use green electricity without the need for another power grid exclusively for green electricity, or generating their own electricity.

And that takes us to the second option with green electricity. Some green website hosting options choose generating their own electricity, mostly using their own solar panels or wind turbines. This is a more direct approach, and makes more financial sense for the green hosting company in the long run. Because the wind turbines and solar panels have pay for themselves by electricity generated in 5 years, and an economic life of 25 years or more, it is more feasible in the long run. This is a more direct way of generating green electricity for a hosting company, and has more startup costs.

Most green hosting options don’t stop with powering their servers and coolers with green electricity. Some get more green energy credits than the electricity they use. This way they are reducing the impact they have made in the past by using electricity from non renewable resources. Some also power their offices with green electricity. Some promote telecommuting to save energy used on cars and transportation.

Energy is not the only thing that green hosting options provide either. Most green website hosting companies provide hosting for non profit organizations free, like environmental groups, peace initiatives etc. Therefore, they are using some more of their resources to provide support for worthy causes.

Some green hosting options provide other perks, like planting a tree on your behalf. Planting a tree provides multiple benefits, and popular among people with a high sense of care for the environment, and there are many environmental non profit groups who plant trees very cheaply, so it makes sense for the green hosting companies for the extra effort. Some green hosting companies further donate some percentage of their profits to Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund or other green non-profit organizations and support their efforts. Some green hosting options actively engage in green activists, emailing new green campaigns to webmasters, generating online support and awareness for green campaigns.

With that kind of green hosting options available to you, you can easily find a green hosting option tailor fit to your own needs. Just don’t also forget that you’re still getting hosting service, and in addition to being a green hosting option, your choice should also satisfy your requirements like price, 99.9% guaranteed uptime, bandwidth and disk space, customer support etc.

Bryan Bean is a website hosting veteran and can help you choose the perfect hosting company for your needs. To go to the Green Website Hosting Company that he recommends Click Here. Or, another helpful and fun site regarding green website hosting is Best Internet Host