By Justin Lee, theWHIR.com
September 25, 2008 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Australian web hosting provider Digital Pacific (digitalpacific.com.au) announced on Thursday that it has launched a new green hosting program (digitalpacific.com.au/green-hosting) where it will routinely purchase carbon credits to match the estimated amount of energy it uses.
The web host says it is conducting quarterly reviews of its total carbon footprint to estimate the emissions generated for every aspect of its business including the daily operation and maintenance of hosting servers, routers and air conditioners.
After each review, Digital Pacific says it will purchase carbon credits to cover 100 percent of its estimated emissions, ensuring that the company takes the same amount of power it uses and feeds it back into the electricity grid from wind or solar power instead of non-sustainable methods.
Many other web hosts have performed similar initiatives in the past. Most recently, telecommunication solutions provider WireIE Holdings International partnered with carbon offset provider Carbonzero to help Canadian IT firms reduce carbon emissions by monitoring and selling carbon offsets.
The company says the program assures Digital Pacific customers that by using Digital Pacific's green hosting services they are playing a positive part in climate change without any affect on the day-to-day operations of their business.
In the press release, the company says it is encouraging all customers to display a new "EcoHost" logo on their websites in an effort to promote the idea of offsetting business carbon emissions and getting others to consider their own carbon footprint. However, some cynics might consider this to be more of a marketing ploy than anything, promoting Digital Pacific, the company, instead.
"Data centers and their associated cooling and infrastructure account for an estimated 0.8 percent of the world's electricity use," says Digital Pacific managing director, Andrew Koloadin. "That may not sound like much but it is equivalent to the annual output of 14 one thousand megawatt power stations. As a participant in this industry we feel that Digital Pacific can make a small but essential and positive contribution by offsetting our carbon footprint."
In addition to the carbon offset program, the company lists a few other green practices, including participating in ecological awareness events such as the 2007 Earth Hour, electronic billing to reduce waste, encouraging staff to recycle as much plastic, cardboard and paper as possible, and encouraging staff to telecommute whenever practical to reduce automobile emissions.
The Sydney-based Digital Pacific provides web hosting, domain names and search engine marketing solutions to business and individuals Australia wide.
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May 2009 - The Blueprint for a Small Web Host
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