What is green sustainable web hosting and why should you use it?
When choosing a web hosting company, we think about how good a service the company provides, how cheap their services are, how easy it is to set up but we often don’t think about the environmental impact a web hosting company can have. Many web hosting companies are relying on data centre, some of these companies have their own data centres and others rent space at other companies. Most data centres are running on dirty electricity such as coal energy and this results in all the websites using that data centre polluting our breathable air with CO2.
What is green web hosting?
Green web hosting is a term used to describe a web hosting company or data centre running on green sustainable electricity/energy. To earn the status of being green and sustainable all energy/electricity must come from renewable resources such as solar power, wind power or water power. This means no coal was burned or nuclear waste created when producing the electricity to run these data centres.
Besides getting the electricity from green and sustainable methods some of these data centres choose to send out the excessive heat created from running the servers and then use it to heat water for the citizens living in the nearby city. The servers are already running 24 hours every day and they are producing lots of heat, so using the excessive heat to heat up homes in nearby cities ensures that they are sustainable and have less bi-product.
You can read more about green and sustainable data centres here at Interxions website https://www.interxion.com/why-interxion/sustainability. Interxion is not the only green data centre, in fact there are many located around the world, but Interxion is used to host our website.
Another way that a web hosting company or data centre can be green is by compensating for the amount of energy used to run their servers. This can for example be done by planting trees to compensate for the amount of CO2 emitted while running their servers or by buying climate credits to cancel out the amount of CO2 emitted during the year.
There are quite a few ways to be green, so make sure to choose the right company that suits your interests and idea of being green. In the next section we will go into the types of green web hosting certifications that exists and what it means.
Types of green web hosting certifications
As mentioned in the previous section there are many different levels of green web hosting certifications, but in this article we will talk the two most common ones: Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) and Carbon Offset Certificates (VER).
The most common certification used is the Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) which ensures that all electricity used to run a data centre comes from a renewable source such as wind power, solar power or water power. It is a renewable source because the sun shines every day, the wind blows most days by itself and water runs downwards automatically because of gravity. Let’s say that a data centre is using 1 TW pr year in order to run their servers, then it has to be proven 100% of the energy came from a renewable source in order for them to earn the (REC) certification.
The others less common certification called Carbon Offset Certificate (VER) is another way for a data centre to become green by taking other initiatives such as recycling, planting trees or buying carbon credits to cancel portions of the CO2 emitted every year. Many companies have used this method and to give you an example, then lets say a company spent 1 mega watt last month to run their production, then by the end of the month they choose to donate 100.000 trees in order to compensate for the amount of CO2 emitted during the production. The company could also have chosen to recycle some of their bi-product or spend some of the revenue to buy carbon credits in order to cancel out their footprint.
To many people the Carbon Offset Certificate (VER) sounds wrong and doesn’t make much difference in the world, so when choosing a green web hosting company in 2021, it is important to research which type of company they are and how they run their business.
You can read more about the Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_Energy_Certificate_(United_States)
You can read more about the Carbon Offset Certificate (VER) here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voluntary_Emission_Reduction
Benefits of green web hosting
One of the greatest benefits of using a green web host is the environmental impact your website has. Instead of being a polluter you will contribute to a more clean internet since the servers will be running on green sustainable energy from sources such as wind, solar and water. Sustainable and green energy is getting popular and also the visitors are starting to look for signs that certain websites are sustainable.
It is hard to ensure that your website is 100% sustainable since you can’t control what type of electricity your visitors are using, but alone the fact that you can keep your slate clean is a huge benefit.
In 2018 statistics showed that if the internet was a country it would be the 7th worst polluter in the entire world. The internet alone was responsible for 3.7% of the CO2 emissions measured globally. These numbers are expected to be doubled by 2025 unless changes have been made before. Renewable energy only made up for roughly 23% of the amount of electricity needed to run the servers from all the websites in the world.
To read the full article, please click the link below to be redirected to our website: https://sustainablewww.org/principles/60ac84a598e7ec002376e739
