Environmentally friendly webhosts

J

JamesCWilson

New member
I am not sure who else has heard about hosts like these, but there are actually supposed to be some environmentally friendly web hosts out on the market now.

For anyone who wants to know what I am talking about, check out

http://www.thinkhost.com/ to name but one of the numerous green hosts out there now.

Have any of you used hosts like these before, and can you tell me how good they operate?
 
Poormouse said:
I would never choose web hosting provider because it green. And may I ask you why do you think it is scam?
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May I ask you why you WOULDN'T choose a web host that professes to being green?

I realize there are many other things that need to be taken into consideration when choosing a web host, but being green would definitely be a major selling point in my opinion.

And also, I see no evidence that makes me think it's a scam.

Did HL-James even look at the website I linked to before saying that, or even did any research to back up his claims?
 
I think it would be difficult to prove a webhost was truly green, from the hardware they used, to the energy used to run the server, etc. I'm sure you could do it, but I'm not sure people would want to pay the cost of that in hosting. I think its a good idea, but too many places higlight the "green" things they do while making no mention of the others.
 
JamesCWilson said:
May I ask you why you WOULDN'T choose a web host that professes to being green?

I realize there are many other things that need to be taken into consideration when choosing a web host, but being green would definitely be a major selling point in my opinion.

And also, I see no evidence that makes me think it's a scam.

Did HL-James even look at the website I linked to before saying that, or even did any research to back up his claims?
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I have looked over a lot of these companies that offer so called "green" hosting. When people see green hosting, most of them are thinking that it would involve the actual servers.

99% of the time, thats not true. The green part the companies are referring to is in regards to the office. Not to mention none of these hosts are proving any of this, they are just stating it.

I would not trust a provider that says it is green, without showing any type of proof of how it is.
 
From what I've noticed, most hosts claiming green status, flaunt a "carbon neutral" badge, which merely means that some third party will be planting trees to offset their carbon footprint. Same as if driving a Hummer and planting trees, and claiming it's the ecological way. :) It's better than nothing I guess.
 
The "green" advertising and marketing movement kind of annoys me.

On the one hand, I believe that everyone should be trying to work, live, and act as responsibly as possible. This doesn't mean going to extremes - just think about what one is doing, and the impact the actions will have. If everyone is just a bit more conscious and responsible in their actions than they currently are, everyone will benefit.

On the other hand, there are plenty of companies doing the ecological equivalent of plenary indulgences - having some third party plant trees to offset the carbons they pump into the atmosphere, or making a token effort and then shouting about how "green" they are. There are some things that just put carbon into the atmosphere, and there's not much way to get around it...yet. Companies are coming up with more solutions all the time, from more efficient power sources to more efficient, cleaner-burning fuels. Those should be the default tools. Sadly, for so many companies, they're not...but it's easy enough for a company to build up how green they are, regardless of how responsible their business practices actually are.

Words and badges are easy enough to display. Actions (or lack thereof) are a bit less difficult to fake.
 
HL-James said:
I have looked over a lot of these companies that offer so called "green" hosting. When people see green hosting, most of them are thinking that it would involve the actual servers.

99% of the time, thats not true. The green part the companies are referring to is in regards to the office. Not to mention none of these hosts are proving any of this, they are just stating it.

I would not trust a provider that says it is green, without showing any type of proof of how it is.
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The thing is though, how could they prove it even if they wanted to?

I am not trying to say you are wrong or are lying or anything, and you may very well be correct.

However, I would hate to think that all of those green hosts are flat out lying or bending the truth.

This is not an easy thing to prove either way, so I dunno what really can be done.
 
Lesli said:
The "green" advertising and marketing movement kind of annoys me.

On the one hand, I believe that everyone should be trying to work, live, and act as responsibly as possible. This doesn't mean going to extremes - just think about what one is doing, and the impact the actions will have. If everyone is just a bit more conscious and responsible in their actions than they currently are, everyone will benefit.

On the other hand, there are plenty of companies doing the ecological equivalent of plenary indulgences - having some third party plant trees to offset the carbons they pump into the atmosphere, or making a token effort and then shouting about how "green" they are. There are some things that just put carbon into the atmosphere, and there's not much way to get around it...yet. Companies are coming up with more solutions all the time, from more efficient power sources to more efficient, cleaner-burning fuels. Those should be the default tools. Sadly, for so many companies, they're not...but it's easy enough for a company to build up how green they are, regardless of how responsible their business practices actually are.

Words and badges are easy enough to display. Actions (or lack thereof) are a bit less difficult to fake.
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Exactly what I was going for.

JamesCWilson said:
The thing is though, how could they prove it even if they wanted to?

I am not trying to say you are wrong or are lying or anything, and you may very well be correct.

However, I would hate to think that all of those green hosts are flat out lying or bending the truth.

This is not an easy thing to prove either way, so I dunno what really can be done.
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What would I be lying about? This is my opinion. You can't really lie about your opinion on a topic.

Easily. Show the other ways they are using alternate sources of power, show if they are going the planting tree route. There is tons of ways.
 
JamesCWilson does have a point though. I mean, I could tell you I lead a green life. That I use no paper. That the energy efficiency is the top thing in every purchase I make. Even detail a very efficient PC/server configuration. It doesn't mean I do all that, but I can claim them just the same. And even if I wanted to prove them, it would be very hard to do so in a way that would be beyond any shadow of doubt.
 
ldcdc said:
Same as if driving a Hummer and planting trees, and claiming it's the ecological way. :)
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I can just see someone in a hummer throwing trees out the back as they drive while talking on their cell phone about how they "help the environment and offset their carbon footprint" :D

I agree its not something that easy to prove, but I imagine there are standards set up for these badges. So long as they seem to be doing it for the right reasons and not just marketing its fine by me.
 
Green is the new buzz word. There are enough people who are concerned about the environment but not able to check into the credentials of such companies, that they know they will gain those customers. It's the bleeding hearts tactics, and really they could be doing a lot more.
 
I doubt that any webhost is completly green regardless of wether they use solar power etc etc.

But like other people we try and do our bit for the enviroment by not using so much paper and ink etc etc. We also carbon offset the emmissions from each server and PC.
 
Rob said:
I doubt that any webhost is completly green regardless of wether they use solar power etc etc.

But like other people we try and do our bit for the enviroment by not using so much paper and ink etc etc. We also carbon offset the emmissions from each server and PC.
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How so?

(10 char limit...erg)
 
ldcdc said:
JamesCWilson does have a point though. I mean, I could tell you I lead a green life. That I use no paper. That the energy efficiency is the top thing in every purchase I make. Even detail a very efficient PC/server configuration. It doesn't mean I do all that, but I can claim them just the same. And even if I wanted to prove them, it would be very hard to do so in a way that would be beyond any shadow of doubt.
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That is exactly what I was trying to get at!

To say you are doing one thing would just be a claim you have made, and people either can believe them without any real proof, or proclaim that they are full of crap.

Either way you want to look at it, that would still be our word against theirs.

Personally I feel that at least SOME of those green hosts must be doing something at least.

As for how many that may be, who knows?
 
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We use a third party which calculated our footprint and then told us the cost to offset with them... I know what they do as well so they dont rip us off by just taking our money and not actually planting trees etc.
 
Rob said:
We use a third party which calculated our footprint and then told us the cost to offset with them... I know what they do as well so they dont rip us off by just taking our money and not actually planting trees etc.
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That's excellent that you know the group well enough to know what they actually are doing. Right now, there's not much regulation in the carbon-offset/eco-energy sector, so there's not much way to verify that (for example) the windmills your offsets built in India were, in fact, actually built. And are functioning.

Part of me thinks, wow - that's a heck of a way for companies to get gullible consumers to effectively pay for their R&D.
 
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