No online company can currently avoid the topic of sustainability. We at Raidboxes have also been dealing with green hosting right from the start. Because "the Internet", WordPress and WordPress hosting consume a lot of energy. How ecological can the web be? And are sustainable approaches genuine? An overview of the current discussion.

What does WordPress have to do with the climate?

Simon Kraft aka @krafit is a veteran of the German-speaking WordPress scene. In his blog, he deals intensively with the combination of WordPress and sustainability. He also speaks regularly on this topic at WordCamps and WP MeetUps. At WordCamp Stuttgart 2019, there will be a separate topic area on "Sustainability and Performance".

Simon writes in his article:

"The operation of the internet already accounts for just under 10% of annual global energy consumption. This figure is expected to rise to over 20% by 2030."

Currently, around 34 percent of all websites worldwide are operated with WordPress. In concrete terms, this means that the future of our planet depends on how well WordPress performs.

"We need to buck the trend of increasingly complex and overloaded websites ... We already have all the tools for climate-friendly websites in our hands. We just need to finally be consistent in using them."

With these words, Simon takes us all to task. In WordPress, the web and the climate, he lists specific measures:

• Remove unnecessary clutter from your website. Especially those areas that send a lot of data through the network. For example, maps from Google Maps. Or social media integrations that connect to the networks every time a page is accessed.
• Are image galleries and oversized post images really necessary? For example, when posting our latest SEO article, I turned large .gifs into much slimmer still images. They explain the topic just as well, but also minimize the loading time. The post image for this text is also deliberately a very low jpg quality level.
• Clean out your plugins. This not only makes WordPress more secure, it also increases the speed in many cases.
• Do you develop plugins and themes? Then Simon has some special tips for you. Simplify the code, update old code libraries or remove them. Every byte that is not transferred saves resources.

WordPress developers in particular can have a much greater impact here than they realize. This is because their source code is used on a large number of websites. The total traffic generated by poorly thought-out development is therefore multiplied!

Do you run your own website or online store with WooCommerce? Then you can also make an important contribution. See our articles on this

• 10 important measures for WordPress optimization
• Increase performance with WooCommerce

At websitecarbon.com, you can roughly estimate how high the CO₂ emissions of your website are. We list further tools in our article on green hosting.

Sustainable "surfing"

What we are rarely aware of when it comes to sustainability is that our "surfing" behavior has a huge impact on our personal carbon footprint. Ranting about SUVs, pillorying air travel and streaming every conceivable series on Netflix & Co. at the same time? That only goes together to a very limited extent.

If you really want to get involved in climate protection, you should consider the following points, among others:

• Do I really have to upload every file, every photo and every backup to the cloud?
• How long do the files have to be stored there? Do I regularly delete old data?
• In which cases is a local backup sufficient, in the classic way on USB or on an external hard disk?
• How often do I use formats such as live streaming or data-intensive games?
• Is it possible to switch off certain features that increase traffic but which I can do without?
• What do I download from Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify or Netflix and similar services without ever actually watching or listening to it?
• Are there materials in the office that I keep downloading? Can I save them locally?

Your user behavior on social networks also plays a role. Do I really need to reload my timeline on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Co. every 5 minutes? Do I leave YouTube autoplay running in the background? Even if some of these tasks only consume a small amount of data: Taken together - and across all users - they quickly add up to a huge data load.

Green search as an alternative to Google

The Ecosia search engine takes a different approach. It is technically based on Microsoft's Bing. The difference: the profits generated are used to support reforestation projects. Similar to Raidboxes. For every WordPress site you host with us, we plant a tree for you. More on this later.

Ecosia is based in Berlin. The company promises the following key points on sustainability:

• Transparency: The search engine publishes monthly reports. These show how much money has been raised and what percentage of the proceeds goes to tree projects.
• CO2-neutral: Ecosia is very sustainable thanks to various projects. Google is also making efforts to use renewable energies, but admits that there is still room for improvement.
• Data protection: Ecosia claims to protect privacy. For example, search queries are not permanently saved and data is not passed on to advertisers. Indirectly, this also reduces electricity consumption.

The project goes one step further with the green leaf campaign. Search results from sustainable companies and initiatives are highlighted with a corresponding symbol:

The search engine works together with eco-labels such as Hilfswerft and natrue.org. Alternatives to Google still have a very niche existence. But the first discussions about the market power of the internet giants are already underway. Maria Steinberg lists other digital ways to plant trees in her blog.

Measures for online stores

In a recent article, t3n takes a very pragmatic view for online retailers:

Ignoring climate change will be expensive. That's why retailers need to become climate neutral.

The author sees a "responsibility towards future generations". But also a responsibility "from a PR perspective". You can also see it that way. If it actually helps the environment.

Do you use WordPress or WooCommerce to run an online store? Then the t3n guide is definitely interesting for you. It covers the following topics, among others:

• What can store owners do to become climate neutral? Just as Amazon is already giving itself a green face.
• Is offsetting emissions only an interim solution?
• When can the justified accusation of greenwashing arise?
• What advice is available on sustainability and climate protection?
• In which specific areas can Co2 be saved? For example, when purchasing green electricity, in shipping or in the vehicle fleet.

You don't always have to reinvent the wheel if you want your online store to be greener. We have collected exciting articles on the topic of "green online stores" for you. You can get great inspiration from the online stores mentioned in these articles:

• The most sustainable online stores (ecowoman.de)
• Shopping with a clear conscience ("Natürlich Schöner")
• Online stores for fair fashion ("Werde" magazine from Weleda)

WordPress hosting - Raidboxes and climate protection

Web hosting devours energy. This doesn't just apply to the servers themselves on which your WordPress or WooCommerce project is hosted. The infrastructure of a data center also requires a lot of resources. As a provider of managed WordPress hosting, we also need electricity for our office, marketing and for our employees to travel. For example, to the WordCamps.

Do you want to offer your customers a particularly fast portal? That's understandable. But then you are using high-performance web hosting, which consumes more energy. In return, features such as server-side caching ensure that the data load is reduced.

Green WordPress 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 minimize CO2 emissions
3. A generally sustainable corporate philosophy

At Raidboxes, we use all three options for our Green WordPress hosting. Because we want to do more for the common good, step by step. With our programs for renaturation, we work in a climate-friendly way:

• We support Eden Reforestation Projects (Eden for short). This non-profit organization works in regions that are particularly affected by climate change and global deforestation. With the help of our customers, we have been able to plant over 13,000 trees so far.
• Raidboxes uses 100 percent electricity from hydropower. We are aware that not all green electricity is the same. That is why we pay attention to fair framework conditions with our energy partners.
• In addition to compensating for green WordPress hosting, we are gradually implementing a corporate philosophy that focuses on sustainability in all areas.
• These include points such as our vision on open source and equal opportunities, the concept of holacracy, environmentally conscious products and materials for our office and support for working from home and remotely.

Do you also want to opt for green web hosting? And benefit from the advantages of managed WordPress hosting for WordPress or WooCommerce? Then take a look at our sustainable WordPress hosting. As an agency, you have even more leverage: develop your projects for free, recommend our WordPress Green Hosting, earn top commissions and have trees planted in return. See our FREE DEV affiliate program.

You can find out more about our "Plant, Prevent, Protect" campaign in this video:

In its projects, Eden relies on local residents and workers who are paid from the donations. This is another reason why we chose this partner. The organization makes an active contribution to the fight against poverty. And for us, this is an essential part of sustainability.

Featured image: Becca Lavin