Have you heard of green hosting?

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Since I started this blog I knew that at some point I needed to get shared hosting to bring it to the next level, to go from WordPress.com to WordPress.org.

I did a few searches on the Internet over the course of several months. I couldn’t make up my mind. Different websites recommend their preferred hosting service provider. Sometimes one website recommends one, and then, I would find another website where that particular provider didn’t get great reviews. So, I continued undecided.

Three weeks ago, I decided to give it another go. I googled best hosting service or something along those lines. A list of hosting providers came up. I started reading it when I noticed a link in very small print that said 100% green host or something similar. Intrigued, I clicked. It brought me to a page where there was the grand total of three green hosting providers.

I was baffled. I have never heard of green hosting before and I had been looking for a hosting service for a while.

I never knew there was a choice

I never knew there was a choice between green hosting and polluting web hosting. I got a sense of déjà vu again. It is only after researching and looking for alternatives that I find what’s available out there, like a door opening into a secret world.

Going green/organic/natural really simplifies your life since the number of choices is more limited, making easier to decide. It gets rid of the overwhelming amount of choices available in the market today.

From having a list of the top ten providers now I had only three choices. The implications of this being there are only a small number of companies and people behind them willing to and aware of doing things differently in a way that supports the environment. If they support the environment and take the road less travelled, chances are they will also go the extra mile for me.

The good news is that this small number of companies can grow into more companies doing the right thing, if we support them. When other companies see the support green companies get, they will also join the movement. It will also be encouraging for people starting new companies to do the right thing and they too will decide to apply green principles and practices into their companies.

My final choice was Green Geeks

Trey Gardner, founder of the company, mentions that “studies show that by 2005 the web hosting industry used as much energy to power their servers as the equivalent of 14 major power plants.” (my emphasis). It is estimated that by 2020 the web hosting industry will exceed the airline industry in pollution if we don’t change it, if we continue to do what we are doing, if we don’t do something different. They do a great job at explaining how the web industry is polluting the environment and how that trend is set to continue if we don’t stop it and start making wiser choices.

“Website hosting servers pull energy from the grid, most of that energy comes from fossil fuels. Each web hosting server produces 1390 pounds of CO2 each year! There are tens of millions of servers worldwide.”

They are a U.S. recognised EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) green power partner.

They are also 300% green hosting powered by wind power. This means they purchase wind energy credits three times over the energy they consume from the grid. What this means for you and me is that our website’s carbon footprint is negative. I think this is possibly tax-deductible, which is an added bonus. They also use “energy-efficient hardware housed in data centers which are designed to be environmentally friendly.”

Why I chose Green Geeks

I went to their website and found what you get when you sign up to their shared hosting service for WordPress.

Some features of their package are: unlimited web space and data transfer, free site building tools, 99.9% uptime guarantee and a 30-day money back guarantee for an affordable price: 3.96 a month for three years.

I also liked their website, found it very informative, with well laid-out content and easy to navigate, surely a sign of the quality of their products. They also provide information about the security and speed of their servers.

They have a resource section with how to create and transfer a website, which I thought it was a good starting point to help me out transferring from WordPress.com to WordPress.org since I didn’t have a clue how to do it. They also offer a free transferring service in case I wouldn’t be able to do it; always reassuring. At the end, I managed to do it myself.

They also have a one-click installation for WordPress and others, which was a breeze to install. I am still getting acquainted with the C-panel but so far, I haven’t encountered any problems. They also have a 24/7/365 live chat support. Phone and email support are also available. At the moment, I have only used live chat and I found it easily accessible at the top of the page.

I also found a performance article Performance of the Best WordPress Hosting Companies Compared in which the best 12 companies are compared. It wasn’t the fastest but it wasn’t the worst either.”Green Geeks didn’t do badly at all in the performance testing…For the most part things were pretty solid.”

I couldn’t find any negative reviews.

All in all, I got a good feeling. I thought it was the obvious choice to align myself with a hosting provider that is doing things differently, a company that cares about the planet. This attitude seems to stem from its founder Trey Gardner, who describes himself as “someone who just loves the outdoors and it’s important to me that we work to preserve as much of our environment as we can.”

It is all about awareness

There is a lack of awareness of our reality as it really is.

Three weeks ago I didn’t know that

  • the web hosting industry is a heavy pollutant.
  • green hosting (also called eco-friendly or ethical) even existed and is a viable option.

 

According to Wikipedia, “World Internet usage statistics show that the Internet is still rapidly growing in the U.S.[1] and growing from 400 to 1000% a year, worldwide. In fact, the total electric bill to operate those servers and related infrastructure equipment was $2.7 billion in the United States and $7.2 billion worldwide.[2] a web server on average produces more than 630 kg of CO2 and consumes 1,000 KWh of energy annually. A green host on the other hand, theoretically produces zero CO2″

Why should I care? My life is busy enough as it is.

Just for purely selfish reasons: Earth is our home; it’s the only planet we know that supports life, our life. We cannot survive without the Earth.

Earth is amazingly beautiful and we are destroying it; we are destroying habitats, species are disappearing and indigenous populations are being displaced.

We are one. We are connected.

What happens in one place has a repercussion and it is felt everywhere else. It is no coincidence that we are getting sick as the planet is being destroyed in unprecedented ways.

The fact is that we live on planet Earth. As much as we would like to kid ourselves, we are not independent of the Earth. We think ourselves as separate from the natural world but the reality is we need the Earth to provide for us.

Making the right choice

The added bonuses of making the right choice are:

  • You FEEL GOOD about yourself.
  • It gives you a sense of CONTROL over the situation (read economic, political, over your life in general).
  • You are part of the SOLUTION instead of part of the problem.
  • You feel EMPOWERED, you are doing something that matters and that has an impact. When we choose this way, we start making empowering choices in other areas of your life.

By supporting COMPANIES THAT CARE about their impact on the planet we are supporting a different way of being and doing in the world as well as paving the way for other companies to do the same.

Consumers have great power: vote with your wallet, the vote that really counts.

We have a choice.

This is just one example of how our purchasing power can have a positive impact. Whether it is buying web hosting or something entirely different, it starts with awareness of our impact in the environment and who we are supporting with our money.

Green Geeks was my choice as a green hosting provider for this website. You can make up your mind as to which is the best hosting provider for your needs. I hope you decide to choose a green hosting provider.

If you decide to choose Green Geeks I would really appreciate it if you purchase it through my affiliate links below. It would be an amazing way to show your support for my work.

Green Geeks green hosting services

Green Geeks provide shared web hostingreseller hostingVPS hosting and dedicated servers.(affiliate links)

If you would like to support my work, Green Geeks and planet Earth

please click here for WordPress hosting.

Please click here for Drupal hosting.

Please click here for Joomla hosting.

If you would like to check out their reviews page, click here.

If you prefer to visit their homepage click here.

PS: I believe in win-win scenarios.

Disclosure Policy: This post contains some affiliate links to Green Geeks. I get a small commission every time somebody purchases a product through the link.  Green Geeks have not paid me for reviewing their services. I have not received my shared hosting service free. I paid for it.

green hosting

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