With the growing awareness about global warming and climate change, “green” has been a hot topic of conversation, especially when it comes to technology. Data centers consume large amounts of energy to ensure hosted websites are up and running, and the energy consumption is predicted to keep increasing.
One of the giants in the cloud space is aiming to go carbon-free by 2030. You’ve probably heard of this company – Google. Google going carbon-free means there will be many hosts you can choose from which operate on carbon-free energy, as Google is one of the largest cloud providers.
But what are the benefits of green web hosting? Here are 10 reasons to consider green web hosting:
1. Green Web Hosting reduces carbon (CO2) emissions
Most data centers used by traditional web hosting companies are not built to be sustainable and therefore produce carbon emissions. Newer data centers, however, are typically built with sustainability in mind, and use more efficient hardware to ensure the lowest energy consumption.
Companies can vastly reduce their carbon emissions by opting to use more solar or wind energy for data centers. One of the huge companies aiming to be carbon neutral is Google. While this is not a quick change to make, lowering carbon emissions will improve the lives of everyone in the long term.
2. Green Web Hosting reduces energy consumption
Green Web hosting companies will use more efficient hardware to reduce their carbon footprint which results in the benefits that we’ve mentioned in the first point. Using more efficient hardware means they have to produce and use less electricity to serve the same amount of people.
While reducing CO2 emissions is the main goal, there are many more methods to doing this apart from using more renewable energy. In the past, computing technology was not developed with sustainability in mind. Today, each new iteration of information technology is built with efficiency in mind.
3. Green Web Hosting improves air and water quality for everyone
Air and water are two of the most important resources on the planet, they are essential for human life. Traditional power plants must somehow discharge of unnecessary gases, toxins, and water. These are let out into the atmosphere, natural waters, or the sewer system. Due to this, power plants directly affect air and water quality, and in certain cases quantity.
On the other hand, the production of green energy through means such as solar panels and wind turbines, do not produce waste toxins. Fewer toxins being released means less pollution overall.
4. Green Web Hosting improves waste management
Because renewable electricity produces less waste when compared to traditional electricity production methods, companies can invest a lot less into waste management. This allows them to spend more money ensuring their company is as green as possible.
Production-related waste managed increased by more than 5.0 billion pounds (22%) since 2011, driven by a 6.6-billion-pound (76%) increase in recycling, statistics by US EPA. As waste production is increasing, we should be looking at solutions that produce less waste.
5. Green Web Hosting ensures sustainability for the future
The ultimate goal is to ensure that humanity can last on Earth as long as possible. Green web hosting companies are developed to be as eco-friendly as possible. This, in turn, ensures that less harm is done to the Earth during the operation of the web hosting company.
People are already migrating into sustainable companies as awareness about climate change and global warming is rising – 66% of global consumers, but 73% of millennials, are willing to pay more for sustainable goods, statistic by INC.
6. Green Web Hosting slows down global warming and climate change
Greenhouse gas emissions are the number one human-caused contributor to global warming. Green web hosting companies slow down global warming by producing as few greenhouse gasses as possible, contributing to a cleaner planet for us all.
Starting around the 2000s – internet usage has been increasing exponentially. Starting with the dotcom era, and now with practically everyone having a social media profile, green data centers can be a huge contributor to slowing down global warming.
7. Green Web Hosting helps you reduce your carbon footprint
Most of us are trying to reduce our own carbon footprint one way or another. Turning off lights, or using public transport more often are some of the small changes we can make to reduce our carbon footprint.
Another small change we can make is to ensure your website uses green web hosting. Each view temporarily increases the resource usage of the server, therefore causing more energy usage. To combat this, make sure your website is as lean as possible and hosted on green web hosting.
One website you can use to approximate your carbon usage is websitecarbon.com
8. Green Web Hosting assists companies in saving money in the long run
Using green technology also helps companies save money. By using green energy, companies have fixed costs to invest in the production of green energy, while saving on the monthly recurring costs of purchasing electricity.
While this might not seem beneficial for the end-user, once implemented in the production chain, this can affect the price of the final product.
9. Green Web Hosting pushes more businesses to adopt a clean energy policy
As the saying goes – you vote with your money. When you are using a green web hosting company, you are adding your vote to the importance of sustainability and a better future for us all.
Other companies see that more and more people are starting to use green services, and when a threshold is reached will start adapting their infrastructure to make it more eco-friendly and ensure they do not miss out on a large portion of the market.
10. Green Web Hosting is the change we need in this industry
The web hosting industry needs more eco-friendly companies joining in to push other competitors to move toward using more green energy and improving their efficiency to consume as little electricity as possible.
Green web hosting is the way to go to ensure the internet has a sustainable future. And with companies like Google aiming to go carbon neutral, this change is already underway, and will only keep speeding up.
