The definition: Green web hosting or Eco-friendly website hosting is anaddition to the arena of website hosting which involves a given green website hosting company showing that they are not having any negative impact on the environment in an attempt to reduce carbon emissions. The two main options for green web hosting are Carbon Neutral and Carbon Free web hosting. The difference is that Carbon Neutral uses a Carbon offsetting system to balance the carbon emissions used to provide the green web hosting while Carbon Free web hosting uses leaves no carbon footprint at all.

The figures: World Internet usage statistics showed figures that the Internet is growing from 400 to 1000% every year, worldwide. The raw fact is that the total electricity bill to operate and run servers and related infrastructure equipment was £5.8 billion worldwide^*. In 2007, Internet organisation, WebHostingCompare.org predicted that by 2020 the hosting industry would be on a par with the aviation industry in terms of carbon emissions. Other sources beleive we are a lot closer to that comparison already. Datacentremanagement.com believes data centres contribute the largest single proportion of energy use and carbon emissions from the IT sector. Data centres account for a quarter of IT-related carbon emissions, which in turn make up 2% of the world’s total carbon emissions. With so much demand on resources, eco-friendly or green web hosting services has emerged as a necessity.

*Article: Data Center Energy Consumption Has Doubled Since 2000, dated 2.15.07