Mitchelaneous

Where Are You in the Green Hosting Debate?

Comments (3) · May 8, 2008 at 5:21 am · Web Hosting
Tags: carbon credits, comments, feedback, green, hosting, podcast, web-hosts

I’ve got a lot of positive and negative feedback on this week’s edition of the Web Hosting Show podcast.  The most interesting of the bunch is the debate over how usual “green” hosting really is.  I know some hosts out there really want to do better by the environment, and feel like this is helping.  After reviewing all the facts though I still feel like it is a three card monte-like scam.  Here is a view from the other side of the fence from Jen L, one of the debaters…

We do it, and if it’s a scam, then so is my electric company regulated and overseen by the government.

At my home, I have the option to pay a premium for renewable energy, and I have lots of official stuff on my bill showing the higher price I pay with the guarantees that money got fed into the grid. My electric company releases the energy I pay for into the grid - they have to, or its illegal. Are the zaps coming into my house guaranteed to be clean?

No. Energy delivery is communal - but the higher premium I pay puts more clean energy into the grid that would not otherwise get there. If enough people chose to pay for the higher premium, a higher percentage of energy in the grid would be renewable. Does it come with the same ego boost as solar panels on the top of my house? No. Does it ensure that less pollution comes from me because I pay more than everyone else? Yes. It makes a difference.

It’s the same concept. Green Tags enable people that want to buy renewable energy but who don’t have it directly available to them to do so. If *everyone* did it no matter where they were, we could all be green in a short amount of time.

If you wonder if its a scam, ask to see the certificates that were issued (as we all get certificates saying precisely what we bought), and the report as to how they arrived at how much to offset. If they can’t give it to you, then yes, possibly, it’s a scam.

If they *can*, the place you are hosting is paying for their energy *twice*, once to keep the power on, and again in the same amount to feed that energy they used back into the grid as green energy so someone else doesn’t have to use dirty energy.

How someone voluntarily choosing to pay for their electricity twice can be considered “a scam” is beyond me.

Check out podcast 151 for yourself and join the debate.  Is green hosting good or just another sales gimmick to get you in the door?

Green Hosting, Sales Term of the Future?

Comments (1) · October 16, 2007 at 5:22 am · Web Hosting
Tags: carbon credits, earth, green hosting, jargon, recycle, trash, web-hosts

I have a lot of mixed feelings about green web hosting. There are many companies doing it many different ways, but to wrap it up in a nutshell you could say this. Green hosting is an action taken by a web host to balance their waste with something good for the environment.

Carbon credit scams are nothing more than a well worked shell game.

Let me give you an example of how things should not be done. Lets say I am a real jerk. I treat people like crap and I like to kick them when they are down. I am the kind of guy that would rather lead an only lady into on coming traffic than help her get across the street.

Now there is another company that comes along and says, “You don’t have to stop being a jerk, but for $100 a year you can buy nice credits from people who are too nice.” With these nice credits I can claim to be nice, and I really don’t have to be? This is brilliant! I can keep being a jerk and then tell all my friends I am the geeky male version of Mother Teresa.

Doesn’t that sound silly? Unfortunately that is pretty much how these carbon credits work that web hosts buy from other companies.

So what can you do to become a real green web host? I say take the action in your own hands. Don’t go buy credits - do something without getting an officially recognized seal. You could have all of your employees go out once a month and clean up trash along the high way. You could plan community recycling events in your area. You could go out and buy a acre of land and plant a tree or two each year. There are more than a few ways to really help the planet.

So is green hosting nothing more than the sales term of the future? Hard to tell. I do think that people should really do their homework though before signing up with any web host who claims to be green to see what they are really doing. Are they getting out there and getting to work or are they just buying useless credits from some other company?