'Green' Ecommerce Web Hosting

November 15, 2008

The recent higher costs of energy and on-going environmental challenges has opened up a new opportunity for hosting companies to offer an innovative and environmentally friendly solution which results in lower energy costs lower environmentally damaging implementations.

This is more that just a greener datacenter facility with energy optimization and better energy utilization dynamics, more efficient power supply, backup, and cooling technologies.

Some companies (specially in Canada) have taken the initiative of going green by purchasing 100% Green Renewable energy to power their datacenter facilities, their servers, office equipment and lighting, and their entire office building. They have planned fro a entire energy consumption for their business based on Green Renewable strategy and utilizationof solar and wind power.

This is a lot more than just trying to conserve energy due to temporary higher costs of energy. This is a mission for them, and no doubt more profitable in the long run.

Some ecommerce web hosting companies are buying Renewable Energy Certificates which reflects the use of power through ecofriendly production methods, such as solar, wind, geothermal, or biogas.

Other hosting companies intend to generate their own environmentally friendly energy, such as 100% from solar for their entire operations, which also depends on what grid they can connect to, (and therefore contribute to for offsetting evening power consumption), and their location in the hemisphere for the longer hours of solar coverage per day. As you can imagine more solar energy can be obtained from Las Vegas region than from North Canada.

And then there are those that are just starting with some good ideas to be greener hosting companies by doing such things as: carbon offsetting, paperless offices, allowing telecommuting by their staff, providing discounts for companies that provide enviromentally responsible products and services.

Not all hosting companies that declare themselves as "Green", are as environmentally friendly as their marketing department declares. In fact many of these hosting companies simply purchase renewable energy credits and may not even take part in an intensive audit of the amount of harmful greenhouse-gas production of their facility.

However, some are 100% environmentally friendly energy consumers based on renewable energy sources of solar or wind. See below for a few of examples.

100% Green Ecommerce Web Hosting

Go Green Hosting - ecommerce web hosting solutions starting from $30/month

Green AISO - ecommerce web hosting solutions starting from $29/month

ThinkHost - solutions starting from $8/month but there are other fees that are separate

Carbon Neutral Hosting

Acorn Host - solutions that add up to about $24.95/month

A2 Web Hosting - solutions that add up to about $30/month (PCI fees are not included)