Green Hosting: 11 Carbon Neutral Hosting Alternatives

Many individuals and business are doing their part to help the environment by using more energy efficient electronics, printing less, and recycling more. Yet it’s hard to be truly environmentally friendly when your web servers are emitting CO₂ around the clock to keep your website up and running. A growing number of hosting services are becoming aware of the huge impact they have on the environment and have taken measures to counteract their effect. While going green may cost these companies a little more, the cost isn’t always passed along to the consumer. Most environmentally friendly web hosting services are competitively priced, allowing you to save money and your guilty conscience at the same time. These are a few of the companies that have taken the pledge to go green.

1. Rackspace: Rackspace is one of the UK’s leading web hosting providers. Because of their leadership, they are taking the initiative to become carbon neutral. Rackspace has opted to offset its energy usage by partnering with The International Tree Foundation, a charity that plants and preserves trees all over the world. For every server that Rackspace uses, a tree will be planted. At the current rate, this amounts to 200-300 new servers and trees a month. Rackspace has also vowed to help limit the amount of paperwork and direct mail they print and send.
2. WebHostingBuzz: WebHostingBuzz has, like Rackspace, formed a partnership with the International Tree Foundation to help offset the carbon dioxide emissions of the electricity they use. They are providing funds to a number of tree plantation projects worldwide.
3. Sustainable Hosting: Sustainable Hosting takes pride in being an environmentally responsible hosting company. Sustainable Hosting is powered in part by wind generated electricity, a renewable and more preferable source of energy than those that rely on fossil fuels. Presently, Sustainable Hosting purchases 23,364 kilowatt hours of wind energy each year. According to their calculations, this adds up to 32,521 pounds of CO₂ that have been prevented from entering the atmosphere, an amount that would take over 12 acres of trees to offset.
4. Coreix: Coreix is a UK-based hosting center that has taken steps to offset their carbon footprint. Coreix has partnered with the World Land Trust, a conservation charity, to help carry out the plans for their offset. On their behalf, the World Land Trust will work to repair degraded forests in Ecuador. This allows Coreix to not only take CO₂ out of the atmosphere, but also provide more habitat for wildlife.
5. DreamHost: DreamHost has not only taken into consideration the energy they use running their servers, but also the gas they use driving to work and the paper they use in their office to calculate how to offset their carbon emissions. While DreamHost doesn’t have the option to be directly powered by the wind or sun, they have opted to purchase what are called “Renewable Energy Credits.” The proceeds from thesecredits go towards funding renewable energy projects. Additionally, DreamHost is purchasing more energy efficient servers and processors.
6. HostPapa: HostPapa offsets their carbon emissions by purchasing green, renewable wind and sun energy to power their data center, servers, office and computers. This doesn’t mean they are powered directly by these sources, but that their total energy usage is offset by power from these sources being pumped back into the larger power grid when it otherwise would have had to have come from a less green source. They estimate that they have prevented over 10,000 pounds of CO ₂ from entering the environment by making this simple investment in cleaner technology.
7. TigerTech: TigerTech is a Northern California hosting company that has chosen to offset its carbon output in a variety of ways. TigerTech only purchases products with the EnergyStar rating, uses fluorescent lights, and encourages its employees to conserve energy by turning off anything not in use. Additionally, TigerTech makes a donation each year to the CarbonFund, a renewable energy program, to offset the electricity that they use. This money is used to fund zero-emission energy programs.
8. GreenGeeks: This web hosting company pledges to replace, with wind power credits, 3 times the amount of energy your website will use.
9. AISO: AISO has followed in the footsteps of Iron Mountain and chosen to power their entire hosting center with a system of 120 solar panels. They’ve also designed their offices with solar tubes to use outside light during the day and have invested in servers that use less than half of the energy required by a normal server.
10. Ilisys: Ilisys is based in Australia, the largest producer of greenhouse gases among developed nations. They’ve taken steps to start reducing their contribution. Ilisys gets its energy from renewable wind and solar power sources in Australia. They also donate to the CarbonNeutral program. Carbon Neutral plants trees on their behalf to help offset any additional CO₂ emissions produced by car and air travel.
11. AcornHost: AcornHost is another web hosting company that helps offset the emissions by purchasing green certificates. These allow renewable energy to make up a larger part of the total energy used by the larger power grid, and help invest in new innovations in renewable energy technology.

If you’re serious about reducing the carbon output of your business, using a carbon neutral web host can be a big step toward achieving that goal. Whichever service you choose, you can be proud of the fact that that you’re doing your part to support a more earth friendly Internet.

Tags: Eco Friendly, Resources