Green Hosting

An en­vir­on­ment­ally friendly way to provide websites is the so-called green server hosting, where the web hosting is done with green elec­tri­city. In this way, CO₂ con­sump­tion can be reduced. Modern green hosting projects go one step further and ad­di­tion­ally try to do something good for the en­vir­on­ment.

The Internet is pen­et­rat­ing almost all areas of life, so its energy con­sump­tion is also con­tinu­ously in­creas­ing. The required hardware gobbles up vast amounts of resources, equipment that is no longer needed is in many cases not recycled ap­pro­pri­ately, and the elec­tri­city used to run data centres often still comes from fossil sources. The Green IT approach aims to change this.

To this end, there have been many de­vel­op­ments, es­pe­cially in the area of web de­vel­op­ment, because until now the eco­lo­gic­al footprint of most websites has been far too large. An average website produces 533 kilograms of CO₂ per year. If you want to run a website, you quickly get to the point where you have to pick the right server. A server holds all the relevant data that users need to retrieve in order to access a website. A com­par­is­on of web hosting providers shows that in addition to con­ven­tion­al servers that do not use eco­lo­gic­ally generated elec­tri­city, more and more hosting providers are offering en­vir­on­ment­ally friendly al­tern­at­ives.

Servers that are powered by green elec­tri­city only make use of renewable energy. Apart from the energy supply, green web hosting is also char­ac­ter­ised, in the best cases, by the fact that the providers of the servers generally act in an en­vir­on­ment­ally friendly manner. For example, it is possible to recycle hardware that is no longer usable in a pro­fes­sion­al manner.

Servers where users share resources are also part of green hosting. The approach of sharing economy has long focused on shifting the focus from owning things to using them. Among other things, this is intended to protect the en­vir­on­ment. This is also one of several good reasons to switch to cloud hosting. In the com­par­is­on shared hosting vs. dedicated hosting, the resource-saving feature of shared servers is par­tic­u­larly evident.

But why is con­ven­tion­al web hosting so bad for the en­vir­on­ment? Data centres generate the same amount of CO₂ emissions as global airlines One hour of video streaming, for example via Netflix, causes about as much CO2 as driving 300m by car.

On top of that, the energy re­quire­ments of the Internet are con­stantly in­creas­ing. The Internet’s current energy con­sump­tion is already twice as high as it was in 2010. In addition, due to modern de­vel­op­ments and di­git­al­isa­tion, it can be assumed that energy con­sump­tion will continue to grow. For example, more and more busi­nesses are switching to the concept of the paperless office and need cloud storage for this. Of course, this saves other valuable resources in return.

At the same time, technical progress ensures that data centres can be operated more and more ef­fi­ciently. This makes it possible to process the same amount of data using less energy, which in turn is be­ne­fi­cial for the en­vir­on­ment. Climate-friendly data centres also help to meet the growing demand for energy in a sus­tain­able way.

It is obvious that current web hosting is in conflict with the UK gov­ern­ment’s plan to cut emissions by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990 levels. However, modern ap­proaches not only promise web hosting that is climate-neutral, but also rely on methods that even give something back to the en­vir­on­ment.

Everyone knows it from their own computer at home. As soon as ap­plic­a­tions are started that place greater demands on computer per­form­ance, heat is generated. It’s the same with large data centres. One con­sid­er­a­tion is therefore to use the waste heat generated in data centres to heat res­id­en­tial areas or cities. A great deal of energy can also be saved in cooling data centres by relying on open-air cooling instead of air-con­di­tion­ing systems.

There are already data centres today that com­pletely absorb the CO₂ they produce. The startup WindCloud has built a climate-neutral data centre on the North Sea. It is powered by 100 percent green elec­tri­city from wind turbines. The waste heat generated by its operation is used to grow algae, which in turn absorb CO₂. In addition, the algae are sub­sequently processed. So, modern ap­proaches like these make it possible to make web hosting climate neutral.

It is not too hard to tell if your host is climate-friendly. The main feature of eco-friendly web hosting is the operation of servers with eco­lo­gic­ally generated elec­tri­city. Ini­ti­at­ives that hosting providers support beyond that are also important features. The following table provides you with an overview of the crucial points for green hosting.

Green web hosting requires no more effort or cost from your side than con­ven­tion­al hosting. You just need to choose the right provider. IONOS offers green web hosting by default. In addition, IONOS saves over 900 tons of CO₂ annually by recycling servers that are no longer func­tion­al in a pro­fes­sion­al manner. Highly efficient hardware and con­tinu­ous op­tim­isa­tion of the in­fra­struc­ture in the data centres also reduce the number of servers required, which ul­ti­mately reduces overall energy con­sump­tion.