JT Website Hosting Goes Green
Did you know that our hosting servers are certified green? Now, what exactly does that mean – of course, in the digital world of hosting websites we’re not talking about saving paper. Believe it or not, the IT sector has a huge climate impact.
Consider this: about 4 percent of all electricity used in the world goes to running data centers, and that’s only going to increase in coming decades. One server has about the same climate impact as a 15mpg SUV! So, here at JT Website Design we’re increasing our energy efficiency and reducing our carbon footprint. How?
1) Our servers are 36% more energy efficient than the average webserver. Our maintenance scheduling, server configuration, and hardware are all optimized for the best energy efficiency, and all without sacrificing performance of the websites that we host.
2) We use renewable energy to both power and cool the servers, as opposed to only offsetting the electricity used to power the servers. That’s a big difference, because servers generate a lot of heat. For every watt of electricity that a server uses, 1-2 watts of electricity are typically required to cool it. So we invest about twice as much renewable energy on a per server basis.
3) We’ve invested in Green-e certified RECs. What the heck is that? RECs, or Renewable Energy Credits, are basically like paying a windfarm to generate renewable energy on our behalf. We don’t own the windfarm, but for every REC purchased, that windfarm generates 1 megawatt wind power and puts it into the grid. We’ve got enough RECs for 130% of the electricity used to power and cool our servers – that’s right, more renewable energy than we even need for our servers!
Of course, in addition to this, we exercise common sense practices such as telecommuting to save gasoline, using energy efficient bulbs, and recycling paper (when we use it!). What can you do to minimize your impact on the climate? Well, for one thing you can switch your hosting company to JT Website Design, if you’re not already a customer! Beyond that, there are may great ways to go green in your personal life. For a quick start, check out CarbonTracker.com’s list of simple steps you can take to minimize your impact on the climate.
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