What is making technology feel green around the gills?

 Albert Einstein says...

Albert Einstein once said that:

"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal"

And whilst it may seem like that at times, the technological axe may now be becoming more of a solar powered lawn mower, especially in terms of green technology.

Opulent Ethics have recently been looking at setting up a website for the brand but, like with this blog, we wanted to limit the environmental impact that our website will cause. Whilst researching how you go about setting up a website we have been finding it hard to find and digest relevant information. So this is what we have learnt and hopefully it may be of help to other like minded people in the future:

The internet is run by massive data centres which store websites and the information that you access each time you Google something. The power required to run these data centres leaves a massive carbon footprint through their CO₂ emissions. It is estimated that the internet uses 868 billion kilowatt hours per year. An average household (made up of 2 adults and 2.4 children) will use an average of 3000 kWh in a year so it is a massive amount of energy!   

In recent years numerous websites have begun to offer carbon-offset programmes whereby the same amount of energy is used but then this is counterbalanced. Some companies do this by planting trees which reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the environment. Afforestation programmes are effective, especially in areas such as California where wild fires destroy tree plantations almost annually.   

Other companies have Green Tags. These are purchased from energy companies who provide energy from renewable sources; wind, solar (sun) or hydro (water) power rather than non-renewable sources such as coal. There are also other alternatives such as sharing your server with other users, thus decreasing the initial amount of energy required.

And, now you can even register your web address as a .eco website. Yes that’s right; there is talk of a new suffix for sites which are eco-orientated. Obviously, this is not a black and white area and what is eco to one person is not to another so the people at Dot Eco are currently trying their best to filter and sort and grant a .eco to sites which fit with their standards. They also created Ecolabelling.org, a site providing information on eco-sites from around the world.

The Green Technology plant

So, once you have registered your domain name and decided on what type of green website you want to run, next you have to choose your hosting company. Some of the green hosting companies we have found include:

Green Hosting – A partner of Make Hay; a brilliant Ethical Web Design service.

HostPapa – They use 100% renewable energy resources.

Supergreen Hosting – A carbon neutral company with a very user friendly site.

Fat Cow – A humorous, application and design tool full hosting service. 

Green Geeks – A 300% green company due to the wind power they produce.

As of yet, Opulent Ethics have not decided on which of these likely candidates our site will be hosted by but watch this space for our decision, how we are getting on and, hopefully very soon, our website!

For more information on how the internet can be greener or companies which are working towards improving the green credentials of technology click on the articles below:

• Article on reducing the carbon footprint of the internet.
• Article on the many ways that hosting companies are going green.
• Apple’s environmental impact and how their product design is changed by this.
• Site which lists the best eco-friendly web hosts.

That’s all for now….