(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Taking another step toward offsetting its carbon footprint, Houston-based web host BounceWeb (www.bounceweb.com) has purchased Renewable Energy Certificates to support the production of 6,000 kilowatt-hours of renewable energy.
According to BounceWeb’s Monday announcement, its REC purchases last month are equivalent to eliminating 9,414 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere – equivalent to 346 gallons of gasoline or a little more than half the greenhouse gas emissions from a typical car in a year, according to US Environmental Protection Agency calculations.
“There is no way a company can function ethically in today’s world without contributing to the betterment of our environment,” BounceWeb sales and support manager James Willit said in a statement. “This is just one step for us in our goal of achieving a zero carbon footprint and a greener, healthier planet.”
With the IT industry consuming between 3 and 4 percent of the world’s electricity usage, according to estimates cited by BounceWeb, the impact of the industry is enormous.
“If more companies like ours got behind this type of initiative, a lot of good would come of it,” Willit said in a statement.
BounceWeb bought its renewable energy certificates from 3Degrees (www.3degreesinc.com).
Last week, the largest web hosting and colocation provider in the Northeast Pennsylvania region, BurstNET Technologies (www.burst.net), purchased five million kilowatt hours worth of Green-e Energy (www.green-e.org) certified, renewable wind energy certificates from Community Energy, Inc. (www.newwindenergy.com) to match 100 percent of its electricity needs.
While buying carbon offsets has come under fire within the industry because, at their worst, they let companies use money to clean up their image, without having to reduce their own carbon emissions or directly use renewable energy sources, however, many argue that a carbon offset program – at the very least – makes a company conscious of its ecological footprint, and it is sometimes the only option for businesses that cannot access renewable access in their area.
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