Green hosting for WordPress: How sustainable can web hosting be?

Climate protection is on everyone’s lips. If you run a website or an online shop, you consume a lot of resources. We want to do something about it – with our climate-friendly hosting for WordPress & WooCommerce. About the opportunities and limitations of ecological web hosting offers.

“If the internet were a country, it would have the sixth largest electricity consumption on our planet” – as described in a documentary by ZDF. There are various studies on how much electricity is actually required. One thing is clear: web hosting devours energy – and causes considerable CO2 emissions.

Does a faster web lead to more waste?

This doesn’t just apply to the servers themselves on which your WordPress or WooCommerce project is hosted. The infrastructure of a data centre also requires a lot of resources, from air conditioning and administration to emergency power generators. As a provider of WordPress hosting, we need electricity for, among other things

• Technical infrastructure
• Office equipment, cleaning
• Office supplies and marketing
• Food
• Mobility/travelling

Not to mention the fact that travelling your information through the internet also costs energy. And if you understandably want to offer your customers a particularly fast portal, you use high-performance WordPress hosting, which consumes more energy. Services such as ecograder.com show you how sustainable the web design and hosting of your website is.

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Climate neutral

Green hosting cannot make the energy required obsolete. But it can compensate for it. In principle, there are three options for doing this:

1. Ensure that the electricity used comes from the “cleanest” sources possible
2. Support projects that minimise CO2 emissions
3. A generally sustainable corporate philosophy

Raidboxes also favours green hosting, as we want to do more for the common good step by step. See our workshops on this topic. With our renaturation programmes, we are working for a better world. More on this in a moment.

When you host with us, you are actively contributing to climate protection. In concrete terms, this means

Trees for the Eden Reforestation Projects

We did a lot of research to find a partner that provides CO2 compensation with added value. For every WordPress site or WooCommerce shop that you host with us, we plant a tree for you. We work together with Eden Reforestation Projects (Eden for short). This non-profit organisation works in regions that are particularly affected by climate change and global deforestation.

According to its own information, Eden has already planted over 300 million trees since 2004, in 5 countries with a total of 82 projects. We at Raidboxes have added over 175,000 trees in 2021 alone – thanks to our customers.

In its projects, Eden relies on local residents and workers who are paid from the donations. This is another reason why we decided in favour of Eden Reforestation Projects. The organisation makes an active contribution to the fight against poverty.

Climate protection project work

In addition to reforestation, we support the Greenspark initiative (formerly GetMads). It invests in climate protection projects that are selected according to strict criteria – including the United Nations Convention to Combat CO2 Emissions. The projects that Greenspark supports are focussed on developing countries. This also promotes their social and economic growth.

Through the partnership alone, Raidboxes currently offsets 40.48 tonnes of CO2 every month by funding certified carbon and plastic offset projects through Greenspark. Here are some examples of what this means in terms of monthly CO2 savings according to Greenspark:

• Compensation for 7700 plastic bottles that pollute the oceans
• 43 return flights from London to Los Angeles
• Removal of over 300,000 straws or 38,500 disposable plastic cups from landfill
• More than 160,000 kilometres driven by car

You can find more information about the initiative on the Greenspark project page.

Green electricity from hydropower

Raidboxes uses 100 per cent electricity from hydropower. We are aware that not all green electricity is the same. That is why we pay attention to the following framework conditions with our partners:

• The electricity comes entirely from plants that generate energy from hydropower. Hydropower electricity that is remunerated in accordance with the EEG is not included.
• Our electricity is produced exclusively in Germany.
• The criteria are TÜV-certified and are reviewed annually.

WordPress Hosting: Sustainable management

In addition to the compensation for green hosting, we are gradually implementing a corporate philosophy that focuses on sustainability in all areas. This includes the following points, among others:

• Goals that do not focus on maximising profits, but on the benefits for our customers and society. See our vision on open source and equal opportunities.
• Environmentally conscious products and materials for our office, sustainable food for our employees.
• Employee participation programmes and the concept of holacracy. Read why there are no more bosses at Raidboxes. Support for home office and remote work.
• Fundraising campaign and social commitment of the team, for example for disadvantaged families or sustainability.
• Supporting customers and retailers or supporting the #supportyourlocals campaign during the coronavirus crisis.
• Internal workshops, for example on non-violent communication (NVC ).
• Promoting the mental and physical health of our employees, for example through mental health.

We are constantly working to fulfil our social responsibility. And hope that the models mentioned will find many imitators.

Images: Markus Spiske, Taylor Vick, Samuel Zeller @Unsplash