Going Eco-Friendly With Your Hosting Service

All it takes is a lone tree. One older tree can provide enough oxygen for two human beings on this planet. A planet currently plagued by ecological damage. The technology sector alone accounts for nearly 2% of the greenhouse gas emissions beating down our environment. How can you help? By going environmentally friendly with your web hosting.

There are many "carbon neutral" hosting companies out in the market right now. To be "carbon neutral" a hosting company must have a net zero carbon footprint - gained by balancing the amount of C02 released with an equivalent offset. There are several ways to reach this offset. One is by swapping what is lost - for many companies this means getting involved in reforestation programs. Another method to offset is by funding programs that lead to the prevention of future greenhouse gas emissions, or by leasing "carbon credits" to delete them through "carbon trading".

The positive thing is you don't have to worry about sacrificing good quality hosting by going eco-friendly. Many green hosting companies offer the same products and services as their non-green compitition. This includes web site templates, site management tools, blogging programs, database options and often times free marketing tools and software. One top rated green hosting company is SuperGreen. Their accounts include unlimited space, unlimited traffic, a free domain name, and a $25 marketing credit for only $3.95 a month. Cr8change.org offers a plan for $7.00 a month and is committed to planting one tree every month for each account they host through the California Wildfire Releaf program. If you'd rather a wind powered host, HostGator prices their accounts at $7.95 a month and includes all the options you'd expect from other hosting services.

Something to think about - this year alone wildfires in California have managed to eliminate over 121,000 acres of forest and there seems to be no quick end at the moment. By hosting your web site with Cr8change, you can help undo some of this damage by having 12 trees planted in the next year simply by hosting your website with them. Setting up an account with HostGator would create no carbon footprint as wind power does not generate greenhouse gas emissions.

When it comes to what we will be leaving behind for our children and their children, you can make a difference even within technology. Study the different eco-friendly web hosting reviews online and go green with your hosting!