Green Web Hosting – How It Works? Benefits of Green Web Hosting for Your Website	1.0/5.0 (1 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
Paul Sanders September 21, 2018

An average person who develops content needs the help of a web hosting company. We sign up from the comfort of our home or office, pay the money and manage our content digitally and we don’t think how data center usage may affect us.

Sites are hosted on data servers that demand plenty of energy to provide 100% uptime as well as sufficient air conditioning to make them stay cool.

In most countries, the energy that is used to run web hosting data centers is produced from the burning of fossil fuels. So data centers have large carbon footprints and every website owner who deals with such web hosts also carries indirect responsibility for these carbon emissions.

Are you interested in reducing your company’s online carbon footprint? Here is the information about how green web hosting works and what its benefits are.

The Notion of the Problem

A recent research by Stanford University in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy found out that American data centers consumed 70 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2014. This number equals the energy 6.5 million American homes generally consume.

Many web hosting companies don’t think about their carbon footprints. But when you select a web host you will rely on, remember that your business will also take on a part of their carbon footprint.

Would you like to find an eco-friendly web host that won’t affect your carbon footprint? Opt for green web hosting companies. There are several of them on the Internet, and eco web hosting review can help you choose the most suitable option for your business.

How to Understand If Web Host Is Green

All web hosting companies that can be called eco-friendly typically use these three main methods in their work:

They produce or purchase energy from renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind. But producing one’s own energy is extremely expensive; therefore this method is not very common. However, many web hosts still prefer to buy energy from renewable energy providers.

In case it’s very hard to find a supplier of renewable energy, web hosts can buy energy off the grid and later purchase 100% renewable energy to put back on the grid. Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) are used for these purposes. They serve as a proof and certify that energy was generated from renewable sources.

Some web hosting companies calculate their emissions per year and buy carbon offsets from a certified provider that invests in projects on renewable energy. By this, the web host offsets their carbon emissions.

How to Create an Eco-Friendly Website

Web hosting servers consume tremendous amounts of energy 24/7. Each of them produces about 1400 pounds of CO2 a year. As a result, it is predicted that the web hosting industry will surpass even the airline industry in environmental pollution by 2020. If you’ve already decided to make your business eco-friendly, it’s time to build an eco-friendly website too.

First of all, you should read professional reviews of the top-rated green web hosting services and make your choice. The eco-friendly web host will offer the same features, such as lightning fast websites and unlimited domains.

The next step is to offer green options to your own users. For instance, installing special plugins for making a more printer-friendly version of your content will allow your website to become more environmentally printer-friendly. This way ads and navigation items will be removed and the font will be smaller.

Moreover, you may use lighter color schemes for your site, reduce the number of videos and graphics. This simplification will be user-friendly as well as beneficial to the environment.

Consider these options to make your website more eco-friendly and choose the green web hosting company to contribute to bettering our planet.