Green Hosting to Help Reduce your Carbon Footprint
With the UK experiencing soaring temperatures and hitting unprecedented heights of over 40 degrees in some parts of the country, it’s impossible to ignore the climate crisis we’re living in. The internet is part of this equation, as it uses up vast amounts of the earth’s energy to run and. Data centres cause greenhouse emissions and, in the UK, alone, 12% of our electricity consumption is taken up by these facilities. Arguably, it’s for a very important reason, but there are alternatives that can be explored, to find greener ways to web host and reduce the environmental impact.
Green Hosting
Green hosting is an eco-friendly way to help lower the carbon footprint involved in web hosting. This can mean using renewable energy to power data centres, as they need electricity to run them. The energy needed can be sourced in alternative ways, such as wind or solar power. A lot of this decision-making process is dependent on location and what type of energy can be best harnessed in that area.
The way that data centres are built can be made more sustainable too – the design of a building can be more eco-friendly and allow it to have better climate control, for example water-based chillers that use ‘free cooling’ technology can be used.
Responsibility
As a business, you’ll probably have a website, which can end up using 533 kilograms of CO2 per year to run, so it makes sense to try and reduce this as much as possible, so you can lower your carbon footprint. Everyone has a responsibility to try and do this as much as possible and as a business, it’s in your interest to show that you’re doing as much as possible to be an ethical and environmentally conscious employer.
It’s possible that audits could be put in place in order to help the UK cut emissions, but your business can also use green grants to help it become more carbon-neutral, so putting infrastructure in place, such as green hosting can help to demonstrate your commitment to cutting carbon.
The great thing is it’s not going to cost your business significant amounts to choose a green host instead – in fact choosing the right provider could be cheaper for your business and save you on monthly energy costs.
DOWO
Here at DOWO, we use completely renewable energy to run our servers and we use Ofgem regulated 100% renewable energy from E.ON. We offset more carbon than we use every month and we’re part of a reforestation effort and plant a tree for every invoice paid. Our servers are as efficient as possible and we use as little electricity as we can too. When you opt in to our green hosting, it’s super affordable and you’re helping the planet.