Since the advent of the World Wide Web and Websites in general, there has been no end to new businesses and companies popping up daily that utilize both these services. Computer use has almost tripled in the last ten years. That means the number of computers that are using electricity worldwide has put a major strain on natural resources and the environment. In comes: Green Hosting. Green Hosting is a new idea with old principles behind it. The principle of working with what you’ve got, recycling and respecting the resources to make things better. So how does this translate into hosting a website?
Well when a company hosts a website, it’s usually done on a server that must be on all the time. This is a huge drain on the environment, as one might imagine. If you can simply imagine that in this country alone, five power plants worth of energy is needed to keep those computers and users online; you’d understand the need to think of a “greener” way to host all these websites and users. The cost for the power needed to keep the world wide web going is in the tens of billions. So how has green hosting helped to curtail this money and resource zapping trend that seems to be a bit out of control?
Green hosting has helped by creating what’s called Renewable Energy Certificates. These certificates are purchased by companies that who make a decision to spend their funds with companies producing electricity in ways that are easy on the environment. For instance companies that are into wind and solar energy. This is important because when you dedicate your funds to a company who’s already committed to making the environment better, you’re helping in a big way. There are so many Green web hosting companies that have these renewable energy certificates. However do a web search that is not simply blogs where there may be biased views. Search for organizations that actually give you the facts on who’s actually hosting green websites.
There is another way to go green when choosing your website hosting company. You can elect to go with a company who actually generates their own power from a renewable source. Check these companies out to make sure that the claims are valid. If they say they use solar panels you can check out their locale to verify. If they are using solar panels this is a great way to go green. Since servers need to be on constantly, solar is a wonderful way to offset some of that energy use. Some of the equipment they use can also be green in that they can be self generating, which is a real help on the environment.
Going green with your web hosting company by choosing one of the aforementioned methods, is a great way to feel good about your website. There are even logo, designs and icons you can buy that show that you have a green website. In a world where everyone is becoming more and more eco-friendly, this could be a great and unexpected draw to your website. One that could translate to additional sales. So go green!
