Why choose eco-hosting?
Deforestation, global warming and polluted waterways are just a few of the myriad of environmental disasters hitting the headlines each day. As web professionals, there’s something substantial and economical we can do to help address the problem and to demonstrate to our clients our social conscious. The strategy is simple ─ choose a green web host for hosting sites. This strategy will help boost our bottom line and build our clientèle.

Electing to host your sites with a provider powered by renewable energy goes way past the warm and fuzzy aspects of doing good for the planet. Here are some reasons why it’s an excellent business decision to opt for a carbon-neutral hosting service.

1. Reducing the environmental impact of hosting
In 2005, the amount of electricity consumed by data centers globally was equivalent to the production of 14 coal-fired 1,000-megawatt power plants. Given the huge growth in the technology sector since then, the impact would be even more devastating today, particularly when you take into account that traditional coal-fired electricity generation spews around 1,970 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per megawatt hour. As educated, professional people we know that it goes well beyond a desire to reduce our own business impact on the environment and becomes more of a responsibility.

2. Responding to customer concerns
Long gone are the days when environmental concerns were the realm of hippies ─ it’s now very much mainstream. The average consumer wants to reduce his and her carbon footprint and insists that companies they do business with do the same. This demand goes right up the supply chain, past the products that companies sell, to their administrative infrastructure and ancillary services such as web hosting. By hosting with a green provider you can get ahead of the curve and have a distinct edge over your competitors.

3. Helping your clients, helping you boost your bottom line
A great aspect of hosting on a server powered by 100% renewable energy is that you can advertise this fact on sites you develop for your clients. It will help those clients boost their own sales ─ a great selling feature for your own services you can highlight in proposals.

4. An economical choice
While green web hosting used to be expensive and lean on features, you’ll find that pricing nowadays is akin to typical web hosting. The more investment that occurs in renewable energy, the lower the infrastructure costs, until hopefully one day electricity generation by environmentally destructive methods such as coal-fired generation becomes a shameful memory. The huge investment in renewable energy has already brought prices down which has flowed on to hosting companies. For example,

5. Choosing a green web hosting company
Quite a few web hosts have jumped on the green bandwagon in recent years, which is wonderful to see. Unfortunately, with some it’s just a token gesture, a marketing tool, and eco-savvy consumers will recognize this and consider it greenwashing. When selecting a green web host, dig into the company’s background and see what else they are doing about lightening their environmental footprint.