As the number of web users continues to rapidly increase, there is greater demand for web hosting services. As a result of this the UK market alone is becoming saturated, and the strain on energy resources is a major concern.

Web hosting providers are having to consider options to reduce their energy usage and find alternative hosting solutions. It is the use of energy efficient resources that has emerged as a solution to reducing the impact on the environment, namely Green Web Hosting.

But how easy is it to go green?

Several leading UK web hosting companies are employing green initiatives in their daily business, being such a contested issue in today's society. Going green is an education. Even the most basic initiatives contribute to the overall ethos of Green Web Hosting, most importantly by encouraging employees to not only go green in the workplace, but also in their daily lives.

Going green can be something as simple as employees working from home or aiming to use green methods of transport to travel to and from work. It also extends to the office, for instance recycling and using environmentally friendly and reusable products. There are endless ways to educate employees about the impact that their lifestyles have on the environment, and taking a green initiative in business promotes a more positive outlook on the issue.

One of the most effective ways to reduce energy usage is Carbon offsetting, a way of compensating for the amount of energy consumed by a business. The energy that needs to be offset and reduced is calculated against the size of a business's carbon footprint. The amount of carbon dioxide that is released by web servers and other equipment can be balanced out by renewable energy sources, such as wind farms or solar panels.

However a more enduring scheme that many businesses choose to partake in is tree and grass planting, particularly in areas surrounding data centres. Tree planting is the most natural way of taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and releasing oxygen, and is something that if undertaken regularly and on a large scale would have hugely beneficial effects on the environment.

Energy efficient hardware has also revolutionized the web hosting industry, proving to be both cost-effective and environmentally friendly. With products such as low voltage processors, power saving hardware and memory on the market it is becoming even easier to take the initiative and go green.

The innovative Cloud hosting platform that is dominating the web hosting landscape also has considerable power saving benefits. With the Cloud each blade server shares 6 power supplies, meaning that only 6 power supply units are required for 16 servers. Due to the size of each blade enclosure there are cooling benefits, even with a huge reduction in rack space . Also as several Cloud platforms are on a pay as you go basis, businesses use as much energy as they require.

Green initiatives are so easy to implement that it seems pointless not to. With Green Web Hosting, businesses can not only invest in the future of the environment, but also in themselves. Going green and being affiliated with energy saving associations can be beneficial, promoting the image of  a progressive and environmentally-friendly business.

Want to do your bit for the environment? Why not use Hyve ?

Hyve are the UK's first enterprise VMware cloud hosting provider and are proudly carbon neutral.  The leading SecureCloud not only offers high performance, reliability and flexibility, but is the most energy efficient platform compared to traditional dedicated servers.