It’s time to establish Eco Host Reviews’ annual award categories.  As with everything we do here, this will be user-driven.  What’s your vote for award categories?

Greenest host?  Cheapest host?  Best value?  Best Customer Service?  You decide!  Leave your comment or contact us with your recommendation.  In one week, we will determine the categories and share them here.  Shortly after, we’ll evaluate all our green web hosts and dish out the awards!

These web hosts are directly powered by clean energy.  You won’t find any offsets or carbon credits here!

• Solar Host (http://www.solarhost.co.uk/)
• Solar Web Host (http://www.solarwebhost.net) – could be a reseller?
• Affordable Internet Services Online (http://www.aiso.net/)
• Solar Energy Host (http://www.solarenergyhost.com/)
• Taproot Web Hosting (http://taproothosting.com/)

We will pay for 2 months of hosting for every pagerank the linking page has. For example, if you link to us from a page with PR 5, you will get 10 months of absolutely free web hosting at BlueServers.org. You won’t be roped into a contract and are free to cancel the account after the free period ends.

What do you think? Can you help out Eco Host Reviews by linking to us? If so, please drop us a line. We would also like to chat about special arrangements for those with highly trafficked sites, even if your pagerank isn’t that high.

In their words:

Working with a partner like NativeEnergy, Rackspace is diligently working toward the goal of being a greener company. We know it’s not something that can happen overnight, but by addressing the problem and educating our customers and employees, we are taking the first step toward a cleaner tomorrow.

Here is what we found:
From the inside: Rackspace works with employees to minimize their environmental impact.  They host a “Green Day” with local vendors as well.

For customers: Rackspace worked with NativeEnergy to develop a carbon footprint calculator for consumers to use.  See the calculator here.  Looking closely at the calculator, it looks more like a conversion tool for roping in new customers.

The nitty gritty: What about their nine datacenters?  Rackspace has made no claim that they have offset their non-renewable energy usage.  They redirect the attention to a few important but small changes like using compost on their lawns.  Seriously?  This is far from a “green web host”.

Although we’re not discounting the efforts they have made, Rackspace has fallen short of our recommendation.  We thought it would be only fair to ask for their input.  We contacted Rackspace through their online chat tool, here is the full, unedited conversation.

Welcome to Rackspace. We are connecting you to our next available operator.
My name is Justin V. and I am a Live assistant. How may I help you today?
you: Hi, I’m reading about Rackspaces “green” efforts…
you: I see lots of programs, but have you offset your energy usage with renewable energy certicates?
Justin V.: that’s a great question. let me get you the contact to our team that will be able to provide those details for you.
Justin V.: are you looking for a new hosting provider at this time or is this for a new project/
Justin V.: green initiative
you: I am reviewing Rackspace’s “green” program for a blog I run.
Justin V.: oh ok, the link provide has a lot of great info. about our Green Initiatives
you: Yea, I read the green initiative page. I found some great programs, but no mention of offsetting the massive amounts of energy your 9 datacenters use.

Justin V.: our PR contact will be able to follow up with this for you and better address that topic.
Justin V.: For all media inquiries, please contact Rachel Ferry at ….
Justin V.: (email removed)
you: Ok, thank you.

The verdict: Rackspace has been around a long time and probably offers quality hosting services. If you’re looking for a truly green web host, however, you best look somewhere else.

It’s refreshing to find a host that runs their own servers.  How can you tell?  They offer services like co-location.  Co-location means your servers are physically located in someone else’s facility.  This can be very helpful because the attention and time required to keep servers running smoothly is pretty significant.

AISO.net (Affordable Internet Services Online) offers co-location services as well as the basic hosting accounts common to the rest of the green web hosts listed on this site.

Do you have a popular eco blog? We still have some limited room in the network for interesting blogs that focus on the environment. Contact us to start a discussion.

There is no guarantee that everything submitted will be posted. Anything that includes a special deal for our readers will be given preference.

If you’re ready to submit news now, click here.

1. Free, live support. – Live chat support is a HUGELY HELPFUL feature and can be the difference between getting your site back up and running in the shortest possible time.
2. Unlimited storage. – This is quickly becoming the standard among web hosts.  Although technically there is no such thing as “unlimited storage”, you should never be limited in terms of how much web space your host provides you unless it is a budget or economy web hosting account.
3. Unlimited bandwidth. – Bandwidth or “file transfer” is an often limited feature of web hosting accounts.  This is also a common way web hosts sneak in extra fees to nail you.  Unless you’re operating a file sharing service or video hosting website (two very bandwidth-intensive activities) you really should not be limited in this area.
4. Unlimited web sites. – If you stay within storage and bandwidth limits (if you are limited, see #2 and #3 above), you should be permitted to host as many websites as you wish.
5. Access to your root files.  Although you will rarely be granted access to the server root on a shared hosting account, you should be able to access files right down to the public_html folder which holds helpful files like .htaccess and robots.txt.

Image credit: GraphicRiver.net