In their words:

“AISO.Net is a reliable and responsible green web hosting company. We have made a strong commitment to help fight pollution and preserving our natural resources. Solar panels run our green data center and office, not energy credits.

Solar tubes bring in natural light from the outside providing light during the day. AMD Opteron powered IBM servers use sixty percent less energy; generate fifty percent less heat.

These are just some of the ways AISO.Net is becoming the world’s most responsible green web hosting company.”

AISO.net is by far the most environmentally friendly web host we’ve found. This is because their servers are directly powered by renewable energy. You won’t find renewable energy credits here. Check them out here.

In their words:

“HostGator hosts over 1,300,000 websites on its shared and reseller servers. That means a lot of servers, and a lot of carbon emissions. So we asked ourselves, What can we do to be part of the climate change solution? We took steps to minimize our environmental impact at the office, but still we weren’t satisfied. We then switched to 36% more efficient servers, but still we weren’t satisfied!”

Check them out here.

This is one method of making sure the energy-suck of hosting is environmentally friendly. Purchasing a “carbon credit” essentially means the web host has calculated their total energy usage and purchased a credit for the greenhouse gasses they have contributed. Usually this means they are purchasing green energy and putting it into the energy grid.

This could also mean the host has contributed to a program that is supposed to have “scrubbed” the atmosphere of the amount of CO2 the host put in.

Important note: This does not mean the servers are powered by wind, solar, etc. This means the energy could have come from anywhere, and the host has made the effort to neutralize their carbon footprint.

A truly green web host will attempt to improve the energy source – as well as the energy consumption of their operation.

Several green hosts claim they have replaced their old, clunky, energy-sucking servers with state-of-the-art, energy efficient ones.

This is difficult to verify – however several hosts identify the exact servers they use which can be checked against a list of most efficient servers. Dell, HP and IBM all sell an energy efficient model of their servers.

Green web hosting is a movement to change the way the internet is served to its customers. Web servers run 24/7, and draw an immense amount of energy from the power grid. Over 50% of the energy generated in the United States comes from dirty coal power – making web hosting a significant contributor to global warming.

The world is at a tipping point right now when it comes to making web hosting more environmentally friendly. Ways that hosts are greening their services include:

• Using energy efficient servers
• Powering their facilities with on-property solar or wind energy
• Purchasing carbon credits or energy offsets to remove the carbon they put into the atmosphere
• Planting trees for each new account to balance out the carbon footprint
• and more

Coupon Code: Free domain: ECOHOSTDISCOUNT

In their words:

“We’ve calculated the impact of everything that DreamHost uses and leaves behind in the course of our daily work. All of the resources that we use – paper in the office, electricity for our servers, even the gas in our cars that bring us to the office – leaves behind some kind of soul-sucking residue in the world.

When we learned that running DreamHost generated as much carbon dioxide as 545 average-size homes we realized we had to do something to neutralize our emissions.

With a bit of research we found the most effective approach begins with resource conservation: turning off the lights, reducing travel, printing on both sides of the page. Efforts are being ramped up here daily to do what we do with less. The next step is to use clean, renewable energy. Without the option to put up solar panels or connect with a green power utility for us this means purchasing Renewable Energy Credits. Finally, to neutralize those unavoidable emissions we’ve invested in Emission Reduction Credits (a.k.a. “offsets”) which guarantee our remaining impact is effectively erased.”

Dreamhost makes the point that “green hosting” is not just purchasing carbon offsets. Although that is their chosen method of greening their energy use, they also believe in environmentalism’s place in the office, and in their community. From using coffee cups made from renewable sources (ceramic mugs would be even better), to upgrading server quality to save primary energy usage – Dreamhost is making real efforts to clean up web hosting. Check them out here.

Coupon Code: 30% off: oak_35857d20

In their words:

“We strive to be a constantly evolving and improving, socially-responsible company, providing the very best green web hosting services, and dedicated to playing our part in making this world a better place for all.”

ThinkHost offers green web hosting powered by renewable wind and solar energy, over a world-class outsourced network. Your carbon neutral account with us offers you top-level technology, while at the same time supporting a more earth-friendly future.

We provide unlimited domains, unlimited databases and unlimited emails… And we support the community, with subsidized hosting for selected partners in progressive causes.

We’ve been providing quality web hosting services since 1999.”

Check them out here.

In their words:

“Interactive Online is a privately held company dedicated to helping individuals and businesses create a powerful online presence easily and economically. Founded in 1997, Interactive Online has grown considerably by providing a comprehensive array of web services backed by superior service and the latest technology. Interactive Online is able to successfully meet our customer’s evolving needs. Our value-packed plans keep your costs low and profits high. Additionally, by carefully managing our growth and remaining privately owned, we have avoided the financial hardships that so many publicly traded web services firms have experienced. Interactive Online utilizes state-of-the-art data center facilities. Our customers receive all the benefits of more expensive hosting services at an extremely competitive price. The greatest factor in our success is the quality of our network, which rests on two foundations – structural diversity and technological excellence.”

Check them out here.