Green Hosting Company

What to Look for in a Green Hosting Company

Because people care more about nature and environment nowadays, there is an increase in "green" products, as well as green hosting options. But which one is better for you? What does a green hosting company do? What should you look for while choosing a green hosting option? I'll discuss these questions with you with this short article.

Hosting companies need a lot of electricity to run their servers and properly cool them, and that is the first thing which damage the environment. Because a lot of the electricity on the power grid is generated using fossil fuels, this contributes to a lot of problems. These problems range from environmental pollution and deforestation while mining and extracting fossil fuels, to depletion of limited resources, and even to fighting wars to control oil fields. Therefore, to capture more customers from the nature loving market, most green hosting options use electricity generated from renewable resources. The most common sources of green renewable electricity are solar panels and wind turbines. However, sometimes biomass, methane, geothermal or other methods can also be used to produce green electricity. All of your green hosting options should at least use green electricity for their servers and cooling.

If a green hosting option chooses to use green electricity, and still buys electricity from the national power grid, they buy enough "Renewable Energy Certificates" from a renewable energy company to cover their electricity usage, in addition to the electricity they buy from the grid. This way, there is no need for a separate power grid, only carrying electricity from renewable resources. This increases the electricity costs a little, but this way they support the solution of all the problems associated with electricity generation from non-renewable resources. Most of the gree green hosting options choose to utilize the REC's because of their convenience.

And that takes us to the second option with green electricity. Some green hosting options choose generating their own electricity, mostly using their own solar panels or wind turbines. This is a more direct approach, and makes more financial sense for the green hosting company in the long run. Because the wind turbines and solar panels have pay for themselves by electricity generated in 5 years, and an economic life of 25 years or more, it is more feasible in the long run. This is a more direct way of generating green electricity for a hosting company, and has more startup costs.

Many green hosting options you'll see will include more than just running their servers and cooling the server room using green electricity. Some run their whole offices on green electricity. Some buy more REC's than the electricity they use, making up for the damage done in the past. Some green hosting companies promote telecommuting where workers save energy from transportation.

Some green hosting options include free hosting to non profit organizations, like environmental protection associations or peace initiatives. By not charging money from such groups, they further give some of their resources to worthy causes, and support them.

Some green hosting options provide other perks, like planting a tree on your behalf. Planting a tree provides multiple benefits, and popular among people with a high sense of care for the environment, and there are many environmental non profit groups who plant trees very cheaply, so it makes sense for the green hosting companies for the extra effort. Some green hosting companies further donate some percentage of their profits to Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund or other green non-profit organizations and support their efforts. Some green hosting options actively engage in green activists, emailing new green campaigns to webmasters, generating online support and awareness for green campaigns.

So there are many green hosting options available to you, and you can choose any of them to fit your own style. But remember that, all the green hosting options should also include great hosting, and you're still getting a hosting deal. Also consider your requirements for budget, guaranteed uptime, bandwidth, disk space, customer support and anything else that is important to satisfy your hosting needs.

About the Author

Jim Talbot is an internet marketing genius. The following is Jim's suggestion for the Best Green Hosting Option available today. You can also visit Jim's site, Best Internet Host. Sign up today, you will not regret it! This and other unique content 'green hosting options' articles are available with free reprint rights.

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