When considering the environmental impact of the Internet, web hosting often falls by the wayside. But this practice can be a massive carbon emitter; websites host their data on massive servers located all around the globe in colocation data centers that need to remain at an ideal cool temperature using energy generated from power grids that run on fossil fuels – producing about 2% of global carbon emissions, making the Internet one of the 7th biggest polluters worldwide.
Eco friendly web hosting has seen tremendous growth recently and many companies have committed themselves to making their sites greener. An easy way to determine whether a website is hosted sustainably is with The Green Web Foundation’s search tool; just enter its URL to see if its powered by renewable energy or offset with carbon credits.
A2 Hosting offers an impressive variety of hosting plans, such as shared, WordPress, VPS, reseller and dedicated servers. Their sustainable practices extend even to their own offices where employees are encouraged to work from home or telework whenever possible.
HostGator is another web hosting company that takes sustainability very seriously, beginning at its offices where waste reduction efforts and healthy workplace culture are prioritized. Furthermore, they focus on energy efficiency by purchasing renewable energy credits (RECs) to offset 100% of energy used by data centers across their network; additionally they have a program in which old hardware can be recycled or resold.