Those that claim our planet isn’t in a sorry state of affairs are either oblivious to the fact or have simply chosen to turn a blind eye. Most major metropolises across the planet have catastrophic air pollution issues. It has become so bad in some cities that their denizens have resigned themselves to lives of constant respiratory illness and even early deaths.

The climate across all the continents on Earth has been turned on its head: Places that had more than abundant and regular annual rainfall averages have been turned into dustbowls due to droughts that have lasted for years, while arid and semi-arid regions have seen a rise of cost in terms of loss of life and damage to property due to heavy rainfall and the flash floods that come after them.

Our Earth is struggling and it needs us to correct the mistakes we have been making for the last century or so; if not done soon, it could be irreversibly late.

But there is some hope in that some people, businesses and whole industries have decided to contribute to the healing of the planet. Critical among them are web hosting providers.

Since the birth of the internet, mankind’s thirst for knowledge has been sucking the planet dry. Server capacities have been growing at impressive rates, and with them, sadly, so too has the energy required to keep them running. In order to understand just how big an impact the energy has on the environment, we need only look at the fact that on a national scale, the US spends about $2.7 billion to foot the electricity bill that its servers and other related hardware consume. On a global scale, that same figure grows to a whopping $7.2 billion.

The direct and indirect inputs that contribute to the running of these servers have continued to increase the carbon footprint that information technology companies produce. In order to reverse this worrying trend, web hosting providers are ever-increasingly opting for green web hosting – and environmentally-conscious website owners are flocking to them.

But, what is green web hosting?

Green web hosting is the providing of website hosting using servers and workplaces that are run using eco-friendly sources of energy and implementing other eco-friendly ways of running businesses and organizations as a whole. In theory, a green webhosting company has no carbon footprint or emits no CO₂.

So, what methods do such web hosting companies use, and what unique ways of running their businesses have they implemented?

Let’s take a look:

Green Sources of Energy

Green web hosting companies usually use one of two sources of energy to run their servers and electrical equipment: that which comes from wind or solar power generators. This helps by breaking away from the dependence on non-renewable fossil fuels to produce electrical energy while also eliminating the emission of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

Using Power-Efficient Hardware

The technology we have today has allowed for the creation of servers and other peripheral devices that consume less electrical energy while performing better than their power-hungry equivalents. Green hosting providers use such hardware across their business in the shape of servers, desktops, laptops, etc. They also make use of energy-conserving lighting and motion-sensing devices to act as power switches.

Natural Air Cooling in Server Rooms

Anyone that has been inside even a small-to-medium-sized server room knows the amount of heat that is generated by the servers is quite high. Green hosts use a number of methods (or their combinations) to cool the rooms.

Looking at a few:

• First, they make sure their server rooms have optimal airflow. This way their air conditioners can work efficiently contributing to the energy conserving process.
• Secondly, they add natural outside air (during cold weather, especially) into the mix to help with the server-cooling process.
• Third, separating the cool air from the hot air produced by the servers helps with making the work of air conditioners more efficient and less time-consuming.

Mass Transport for Employees

Green hosting companies don’t stop their efforts at their doorstops. They take it further by helping their employees participate in helping the planet. One way they do this is by cutting down the amount of carbon emission each of their employees was to produce had they driven to and from their offices. How? They provide them with a mass-transit option: company buses and carpooling for those that have no choice but to use a vehicle.

Organizing Tree-Planting Events

The best way to fight pollution is to plant trees. These companies hold tree-planting events, organize their employees into tree-planting clubs or support their individual efforts outside of the company.

Supporting Other Green Organizations

Green web hosting companies also help other eco-friendly organizations (whether or not they are in the hosting industry) by making monetary contributions or investing man-hours in their conservation efforts and helping with creating awareness about their work.

If you are a website owner who also wants to be more conscious about your own carbon footprint, help in the conservation effort and encourage green web hosting.