Eco hosting for an eco business?

[She Says]

Would you expect a business promoting its products as eco, green, environmentally friendly etc to have 'eco' web hosting, such as with a solar or wind powered company, or one that plants trees or carbon-offsets?

[alanc]

I would think that such a business would have a statement about their own efforts to minimise environmental impact, and they would try and get as many positive actions into that statement. Eco-hosting is one possibility.

[She Says]

Thank you. I've been doing searches on 'eco' businesses and not many have 'eco' hosting. I should think planting trees ourselves is more positive and helpful anyway!

[gibby]

its a good question.
We were told the data centre where our dedicated server is held, is one of the most efficient data centres in Europe.

We did look around for "green hosting" as there were a few advertised in the ethical mags we get. Really they were just ethical or green orientated firms using normal hosting facilities.

The only firm I have come across that uses 100% renewable energy is Plamil.

G

[Snippa]

Wow... eco-hosting is something I never even considered, but if a company is promoting it, doesn't it make sense for them?

[lightbeing creations]

Really they were just ethical or green orientated firms using normal hosting facilities.
You've hit the nail on the head there, as it does vary a lot what different companies do to then offer so-called green web hosting. I've just written an article What exactly is green web hosting? (http://www.lightbeingcreations.co.uk/about-us/helios-news/eco-top-tips/2010/jan/what-exactly-is-green-web-hosting) on this very issue.

I provide 100% solar powered web hosting (http://www.lightbeingcreations.co.uk/green-web-hosting) using the worlds first fully solar powered data centre. In my eyes that's a better option than using carbon offsets as it's using truly renewable energy to power things.

On top of that, we also plants trees, follow the R-R-R principle and such like. You can see more details of the steps we take to care for the environment here (http://www.lightbeingcreations.co.uk/about-us/ethics-environment).

So there are companies offering truly green web hosting (we're not the only ones). It really does pay to look beyond a flashy website and investigate exactly what a company that offers green or eco web hosting is doing to be green.

Hope that helps

[She Says]

When I was searching for green hosting I was looking for the ones that actually do something, like plant trees, as opposed to just carbon offsetting.
I'll have a look at the article, thanks.

[tonygreg123]

How we can say that it is eco hosting? what are the measures to be eco hosting?

[lightbeing creations]

That's what you could consider the problem with th whole eco/green hosting issue; there's no defined standards.

The way it currently stands, anyone can say they offer green hosting but there's no standard. It's down to the potential customer to actually look beyond the headlines and see what any particular company does to be green.

This is just the reason why I wrote the article "What exactly is green web hosting?" that I linked to a little earlier. That explains some of the things that can be done and looks at the differences.

Take a look round my site and you'll see what we do and why we say we offer green web hosting (http://www.lightbeingcreations.co.uk).

[othellotech]

using the worlds first fully solar powered data centre

The problem is that even at 60 kwh/day (figures from your site) that's not a DataCentre - it's a cupboard with 2 PC's and a fan in it !

60kwh/day = 2.5kw/h = less than the power requirement (4kw) of an average rack of shared-hosting servers

All our elecricity comes from renewable sources (water and wind), but it's difficult to claim to be "green" when you also have 102,000ltrs of diesel onsite to fuel the generators for the inevitable odd hour-here-and-there when the UK grid fails to supply :(

Add in that batteries (extensivey used in solar setups) are about the most environmentally unfriendly power technology in existance, the entire "green power" area is just smoke-and-mirrors, misdirection and lies.

I should think planting trees ourselves is more positive and helpful anyway!
If every business takes some responsibility to reduce it's own waste and offset it's own environmental impact, then we'll all be much better off until the next political bandwagon rolls into town ;)

[Alexishost]

So there are companies offering truly green web hosting (we're not the only ones). It really does pay to look beyond a flashy website and investigate exactly what a company that offers green or eco web hosting is doing to be green.

Hope that helps[/quote]

yes, it is good to be one of hosting company that care to environtment :)