The rate at which human activity damages the environment has been going from bad to worse. “The last decade has seen many nations start to recognize the negative effects of human activity on the environment and began to set up policies to reverse these effects” (GreenGeeks, 2014). Turning to renewable energy sources is among the many ways that the progression of these negative effects or global warming can be arrested. It is here that green web hosting comes into the picture. The recent over-dependence on computer services to operate has made it such that there is an ever increasing need for large servers. These servers are used to store the information that is regularly consumed by the public. These servers, therefore, need to stay running full time without any breaks since they are always needed. Using renewable sources of energy to run these servers is what is referred to as green web hosting.

Why opt for green web hosting

As a marketing strategy

When given the option most people will often choose to do the right thing. In the case of reversing the effects of global warming, the right thing calls for the application of green energy. Using the same line of thought, company heads or individuals, faced with the question of choosing a web host will most likely go with those using green energy. This is because this option fulfills their inclination to do the right thing and also store their company data. As a web hosting company, choosing to use green energy is, therefore, most likely to earn you more customers.

It is more economical

Green sources of energy include solar and wind generated energy. “Compared to fossil energy like coal and petroleum green sources of energy are a lot cheaper for industrial application than fossil energy” (Pyke, 2017). Since web hosting companies are profit driven, they will mostly choose the option that leads to reduced expense in offering their services if the quality of their product is not reduced. Green sources of energy provide cheap power without lowering the quality of their services. This is the main reason that any profit-driven company will choose to use green energy.

There is also the reason that most governments are pushing companies in their countries to go green. To ensure that this idea is attractive to many companies most governments subsidizes the costs of installing green energy systems making the process a lot cheaper.

Assists in cutting down on environment impact

“Using green energy cuts down on the pollution brought about by the burning of fossil fuels.” (Bashir, 2017) To contribute to the efforts of reversing the effects of global warming, most companies are therefore under pressure from their government to take up green sources of energy to reduce countries overall pollution emissions.

To enhance the reputation of a company

Web hosting companies are all in competition for customers. Due to the fact that most of the services offered by these companies are almost the same, there are no many chances of these companies to compete. Taking up green energy as a new source of energy for any of these companies would automatically differentiate this company from the rest. A customer would appreciate the forward thinking strategy portrayed by using green energy. The spirit of environmental protection indicated by choosing to use green energy by the company would also play a role in distinguishing this company from the rest. All these positives associated with the company would assist it to increase its market share and make more profit.

Reduction of expenses

Most of the money spent in green energy installation is concentrated at the beginning of the process. After installation expenses involved in green energy sources are only in maintenance and that is not frequently done. This is however not the case with fossil sources of energy, these sources of energy are generally expensive. The expenses involved with fossil energy are erratic and never ending. These costs are greatly affected by market changes and this has a lot of negative effects to the production process. Web hosting companies on green energy are therefore more likely to make more money than others using fossil energy.

Long term solution

Choosing to go with green energy like solar provides a long-term solution to the problem of electricity. This is because solar energy is easily and cheaply renewed by the sun. Fossil sources of energy, on the other hand, get depleted quickly and are expensive to replace. A web hosting company that takes up green energy insurers itself against expenses related to fossil fuels for a long time. Such a company can expand easily since it has more cash at its disposal. A company that chooses to continue using fossil energy even after the introduction of green energy is at a risk of shutting down. This is because fossil energy still remains expensive while green energy continues to be cheaper. Companies with more income at their disposal are therefore likely to capitalize on this opportunity to acquire more market share and push out their competitors.

Going green should be the aim of every company, this is because for a company it is more economical, attracts more customers and enhances the name of the company leading to more sales and bigger market share. Green energies also help a company plan for the future, cut down on expenses and play a role in the effort of reducing the pollution of the environment by pollutants from fossil sources of energy.