How to make your website carbon neutral
We internet types like to think of ourselves as 'green', and online is considered by many to be an earth friendly way to run businesses, communicate and have fun. It's paperless, instant and clean. But how green is it really?
It's been claimed that the digital industry has as big a carbon footprint as aviation -- and while aviation is slowing down, digital is growing at a tremendous rate. There are only so many planes you can fit in the sky, but the internet is virtually limitless...
Another statistic I've heard is that every Second Life avatar consumes as much energy as a real life, flesh-and-blood Brazilian. Whether or not this is entirely accurate, I think it's fair to say that this is a worrying state of affairs. The amount of power we need to fuel our digital habits can only go up, and it has to come from somewhere. How can we ensure those sources are doing as little damage to the planet as possible?
One way to appoach the problem is with carbon neutral web hosting. There are quite a few providers offering this service now, for as little as £6 a month; one of these is Coco2. As well as using tried and tested methods like tree-planting schemes, Coco2 finds sources of renewable energy by creating wind farms and investing in renewable energy projects around the world.
How does this relate to your site? Well if, for example, if the electricity it needs to run emits half a ton of CO2 per year, the provider will plant trees that offset that effect by taking half a ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere, or it will generate the equivalent amount using renewable sources.
At such a low cost, I can't think of any reason not to switch to carbon neutral hosting. You're losing nothing, and gaining the peace of mind that you are investing in renewable energy as well as planting a few trees, so why not make the switch? Other companies offering carbon neutral website hosting are Rackspace and Greenest Host. With so many services to choose from, there's bound to be a deal to work for every website, and best of all, you'll be able to flaunt your new-found carbon neutral status to all visitors to your site, encouraging them to do the same! Now I just need to convince shiny media to offsett this article...
We know you like Nakedbodycare - Abi raved about our White Ginger Bodywash a while back.
Well, thought you'd like us even more now we've told you that our website has been hosted by Rackspace since Oct 2007.
Goody two shoes or what?
Louise Potts
Founder
Naked Bodycare
Posted by: Louise Potts | April 29, 2008 6:50 PM