How Green Hosting Helps The Environment

With the internet growing day by day more and more companies and individuals, just like you, are creating an online website in order to keep up with the times. Doing so can lead to a range of benefits including a reduction in operating costs, provide additional points of contact for customers and simply reach a broader audience. However, as the number of websites and internet users continually increase so does the overall energy consumption needed to keep everything up and running, ultimately affecting the environment via greenhouse gasses and carbon emissions.

The constant supply of energy required to keep everything afloat online is quite significant and is used for a lot more than just the powering the web servers as many people may believe. Much of the required energy consumption is required for the following:

Data Center

A data centre is the central point of a web hosting provider, it houses all of the physical servers and a range of alternate hardware such as security systems, power supplies, routers, generators and uninterruptible power supply systems. An average sized data centre can utilise a great deal of electricity to maintain functionality and a single data centre is estimated to use enough energy to power close to 180,000 households on an annual basis.

Internet Service Providers

Without an active internet connection it would be impossible for data centres and web hosting providers to get your data out on the internet. A constant supply of bandwidth is required not only to share your website with the world but also to handle the incoming traffic that is needed for the public to access it. This means that there is also the inclusion of additional electricity usage that is required by the ISP’s data centre, networks and a whole range of other physical hardware required to run and maintain a local and global internet connection.

Green Web Hosting

When it comes to web hosting there are literally thousands of providers across the world who offer a range of services suitable for your website, even down to direct niches such as wordpress hosting. With the heightened concern for the well-being of the environment across the globe, many providers have remoulded the structure of their services, hardware and data centres to take on an eco-friendly stance by reducing their carbon emissions or opting to purchase carbon credits.

Many eco-friendly web hosting providers complete a range of tasks and activities to ensure they are looking after the environment in the best way they can. Some of these include:

Carbon Offsetting

Carbon offsetting is known as the utilisation of renewable energy sources to provide enough power to run the physical hardware and equipment required to provide a hosting service. There is also the inclusion of planting trees around data centres and making use of energy saving appliances, hardware and lighting.

Carbon Credits

Due to a range of restrictions such as business location and operating restrictions it may not always be possible for a web hosting provider to carry out the full task of carbon offsetting. As a way of making up for this, many providers opt to purchase carbon credits which are purchased at the equivalent of 100 credits per 100 tonne of carbon emissions. These credits are then invested in a company that works to reduce pollution and improve the environment in a range of various methods.

Recycling

As with just about any company, an eco-friendly web hosting provider strives to ensure that any paper, cardboard, plastics and other recyclable material used within the office is correctly recycled. On top of this, most providers will bill their customer electronically rather than mailing out a physical paper invoice, thus saving paper.

Telecommuting

Telecommuting, or telework, is the act of working remotely and is used by many companies. Web hosting companies however are known to practice it quite often due to reduced need for many employed positions to physically attend the office. The point of telecommuting is to alleviate the additional pollution that may otherwise be made by employees traveling to work.

Go Green

If you're currently looking for a web hosting provider, or wanting to migrate from your current provider, go further and show your support for the environment by opting for a green host for your next hosting service and domain names. Signing up with a green hosting provider will have no financial impacts on you and it means that you can play your part, albeit in a small way, for the sustainability of our environment.