Green Web Hosting Services

Web hosting is an energy-intensive business. Hosting providers burn a lot of energy powering dozens, hundreds or thousands of web servers that run day and night. But some companies are working on greening the web. Below are several eco-friendly hosting providers that all power their plans with renewable energy.

But how to choose? We've included information not only about their hosting plans, but also about other initiatives these companies are taking to make the world a better place. So get ready, get set, go green!

I've been using HostGator for over a year and had started shopping around for a new, greener host when I built this lens. I had actually signed up for a new green web hosting company but hadn't moved my sites over when I got the good news that HostGator has gone green! So I'm sticking with them because I've always had good service and their hosting plans are cheap and allow you to host multiple domains.

HostGator buys Green-e certified wind RECs to power and cool their servers, and they go above and beyond the typical 100% offset. They actually buy enough credits to offset 130% of the heating and cooling for their shared and reseller servers.

Plans at HostGator start at $4.95 a month for one domain. But I l like the unlimited domain plans that start at $7.95 a month with unlimited bandwidth. I can honestly give this company two thumbs up.

AISO (Affordable Internet Services Online) is about as green as a web hosting provider can get. They run both their data center and office with energy from solar panels on the roof, have foot-thick ecofriendly insulation in the building walls to minimize the use of heating and air conditioning, and use solar tubes and windows to bring in natural light during the day rather than wasting energy on lighting.

As a result of these and other efforts, they are the first (and currently only public data center) that is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council. They were also named to Inc. Magazine's list of Top 50 Green Companies.

If that weren't enough, AISO is also a member of Co-Op America, an EPA Green Power Partner, and the web hosting provider for Live Earth.

Their Windows or Linux hosting plans start at $9.95/month for 500 MB of space, 5 GB of monthly data transfer, PHP5, CGI/Perl, ASP, and other features.

Sign up now for AISO hosting.

ThinkHost offers affordable green hosting with carbon neutral hosting plans powered by 100% Green-e certified renewable sun and wind energy.

In addition, as part of its commitment to social responsibility, the company partners with Trees for the Future to plant a tree for each new customer and offers free and discounted hosting to nonprofit organizations.

The company also allows most of its team members to telecommute, uses little paper, and encourages the use of notebook computers to conserve electricity.

ThinkHost is a member of Co-op America.

Plans start at $7.95/month for 100 GB space, 1000 GB transfer, unlimited add-on domains, unlimited POP3 email accounts, PHP 4, Perl 5, Ruby on Rails, FastCGI and other features. Sign up now at ThinkHost.

HostPapa's green hosting is achieved through "purchasing 100% green renewable energy to power our data center, web servers, office computers, laptops and office space."

Their credits are Green-e certified.

Plans start at $5.95/month for 1500 GB disk space, 15000 GB bandwidth, a free domain name for life, unlimited domains on one plan and other features.

Sign up now at HostPapa.

DreamHost is a carbon-neutral web host that purchases Green-e certified renewable energy certificates (RECs) and emission reduction credits to offset their emissions.

The company also practices common sense green business by doing such thing as "turning off the lights, reducing travel, and printing on both sides of the page."

In addition, DreamHost promotes charity. Every few months, they select nonprofit organizations to promote and invites users to donate by simply clicking a button. The donation is then added to the hosting bill and DreamHost matches the donation.

Affordable hosting packages start at $5.95/month for 500 GB storage, 5 TB of monthly bandwidth, unlimited MySQL databases, a free domain name. Multiple domain hosting is unlimited. Also offers dedicated hosting.

Sign up now with DreamHost now and enter promo code GREENSQUID to save $50.

Acorn Host provides carbon neutral green web hosting by purchasing green tags equaling the energy consumed by their servers, lights, and office equipment.

They support socially minded organizations by offering a professional-level hosting package for only $3.95/month, and organizations do not need to have official 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. Rather, they need to meet three criteria:
- be a non-profit, social service agency, or school
- serve the public good
- unable to afford regular web hosting rates

Acorn Host is a member of Co-op America, and is a woman-owned web hosting business.

Plans start at $7.95/month for 2GB space, 50 GB bandwidth, unlimited add-on domains and subdomains, PHP4 and 5, and other features.

Sign up at Acorn Host.

Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), also known as Green tags, Renewable Energy Credits, or Tradable Renewable Certificates (TRCs), are tradable environmental commodities that represent proof that 1 megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity was generated from an eligible renewable energy resource. These certificates can be sold and traded, so customers can buy green certificates whether or not they have access to green power through their local utility or a competitive electricity marketer. And they can purchase green certificates without having to switch electricity suppliers.

In states with REC programs, a green energy provider (such as a wind farm) is credited with one REC for every 1,000 kWh or 1 MWh of electricity it produces (for reference, an average residential customer consumes about 800 kWh in a month). A certifying agency gives each REC a unique identification number to make sure it doesn't get double-counted. The green energy is then fed into the electrical grid (by mandate), and the accompanying REC can then be sold on the open market.

Sources: US Department of Energy, Wikipedia

Many of the hosting providers above purchase RECs certified by Green-e. So who is Green-e? Green-e is the leading voluntary certification program for renewable energy. The program sets consumer protection standards for energy products, and verifies, or certifies that these products meet those standards and don't get double-counted.

According to Green-e.org, the programs's goals are to:

* Bolster customer confidence in the reliability of retail electricity products reflecting renewable energy generation.

* Expand the retail market for electricity products incorporating renewable energy, including expanding the demand for new renewable energy generation.

* Provide customers clear information about retail "green" electricity products to enable them to make informed purchasing decisions.

* Encourage the deployment of electricity products that minimize air pollution and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Webmasters (and ALL computer users) can use the following site to save energy. LocalCooling.com can optimize your computer to use less energy while you're using it, and can also power down your computer and monitor when you're not using it. Never fear - you're in charge of the settings, so there's no need to worry that it will shut your computer down when you don't want it to do that. It's free and good for the planet. So check it out.