gathering a general opinion…
would you be willing to pay higher for ‘green hosting’.
Assuming you already have assurance that they actually are “green” and it’s not just a marketing gimmick.
My :twocents: : It’s not worth 2¢ (even if it’s true).
Regards,
DK
There is a marginal market for it (for businesses that have to have impeccable green credentials or have a commitment to measurable energy use efficiency) but in any case I’ve seen there’s been no provenance that the host has taken extra measures to reduce energy use or has sourced their energy from 100% renewable sources.
It seems like most of the big ones, Hostgator and Bluehost for example, are already green to a certain extent utilizing wind energy so I don’t think I would pay more for a company that claims to be MORE green.
Its just a gimmick, how green can you get if your running a computer 24/7.
I would not say this. Large companies that have many computers, lights, air-conditioning… are using Hive Electrical Technology which that reduces and will even shut-down coolling/heating/lighting systems in un or low utilized system areas and will automatically spin it back up when there is demand.
Many of the Green hosts also use Wind Energy; I know of five hosts in the greater Toronto Area have put in Wind Turbines and generate 300% of their needed power, the rest gets put back into the grid as electrical credits for them and green energy entering the grid. A number of hosts also have solar arrays that supplement their energy.
A common theme with Green hosts in our area, is they have aggressive recycling practices, they configure servers for lower electrical consumption, and they allow more than usual tele-commuting that lowers the carbon footprint.
You have to do you homework and understand what you do/don’t consider to be Green, but there are companies that are doing this, not just because they want to be Green, but because Electricity is getting much more expensive and the corporate capital costs and green initiatives by our governments are encouraging host to move to cheaper Green electricity.
I do have a Green hosting company that I use and I don’t really pay that much more, but even if it was more, I would be willing to pay it, help lower grid-dependency, and provide a marketing spin for my customers.
Nice to know more people believe in it.
There’s a lot of difference between an energy efficient system, and one that isn’t. I used to have a home server that would idle at 100w, but changed to an atom based one with low power disks that now idles at 15w. I also virtualised multiple systems into the one server so reduced another overhead of having multiple boxes.
One of the key benefits and reasons for growth of virtualisation in enterprise is being able to consolidate multiple resources and systems into less ‘iron’, having less idling servers that are nonetheless consuming a lot of energy, plus less metal to buy and dispose of, and I dare say less people to look after it all. As pointed out by ServerStorm, this is driven in enterprise purely by money, but it’s never a bad thing to be less wasteful of resources.
not sure that we need to pay more for green hosting because some green hoster like bluehost, hostgator, greentohost or greengeeks offer very cheap hosting already.
I can suggest one hosting company?
Sorry if I posted wrong.
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GiraffeMan is asking whether people would be willing to pay more for green hosting, not for recommended companies.
Please read the Host Your Site Guidelines, which will explain the rules for this area of the forums. [/ot][/FONT]
I’m going to add my two cents. If a hosting company is employing Green techniques to reduce power consumption, would I pay extra for that? No! The whole point of using green techniques is to pay less for energy not more. If you have to pay more to use green electricity then what would be the point? You offset the cost from one thing to another, it does not make the environment any better. If a datacenter chooses to invest in solar cells or wind turbines as an addition to their available power, I am not going to pay extra for that when its purpose is to reduce cost!
If the environmentalist what us to be more green more environmentally friendly then they need to stop hiking up the price for all the so called “green” products. Why be green when the competing non-green products are so much cheaper, there is no incentive to be green. The same applies to “organic” food. It makes no sense to me why they have to be more expensive, maybe I am missing a key point of information.
Fair points @logic_earth, however in my case I don’t pay more for my green host as the cost of the Wind turbines and Solar Arrays was funded by Government programs. It enabled them to not have to build another coal electrical plant, so in a way it was a win for the Government and for my host. It really depends on where you live.
Your points are true that many people will not pay more for Green and it is not likely to be adopted by the masses unless it does.
[ot]logic_earth, the primary reason in many cases why organic food is priced higher is because it tends to be a commercially inefficient method of producing the final item either requiring more labour input or time. Plus the additional restrictions imposed regarding methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs. Which of course can affect yield sometimes by 50%, again it depends on environmental factors, labour costs and food type.
Though let’s say I was finishing a bull and it took 10-month longer using organic methods; obviously I would want to (re)cover my input costs, i.e. the rearing cost (animal husbandry, forage and vet bills) of an additional 10-month before it was saleable. Not an unrealistic figure, until it reached the same weight so we have simple maths at play. Though obviously a lot of food is mostly organic-grown (excuse the pun) in nature but doesn’t pass the stringent guidelines.[/ot]
From my experience, green hosting is fairly pricey for what you get.
You usually don’t get anything extra except “green status” which is up to you if you want to pay the premium for it.
I just wish these green hosts would give you something more substantial.
Hi shanshan,
A host does hosting activities, what else do you expect. Green hosting cost are not the same in every region or Country. As I earlier mentioned I don’t pay more for my very green host. I don’t put a green sticker on my site as it is somewhat common to be on a green host here.
If in your area, green hosting is more expensive then you have to decide if the green impact that the host claims to be making is significant enough for you to decide that paying for it is worth it for the environment’s sake.