i have a hosting company

think if this makes me green

everytime some one orders a package i plant 1 tree ... and and every time they donate a dollar i plant 3 trees.

does this make me green because over a year i would have planted over 3000 trees.

thanks

Do you actually plant these trees or your bs'ing?

Glad to hear that you are really planting the tree for per order client. Its good thing that you are doing to save the world.

IF you are truly planting the trees then yes that would be a good carbon offset. Consider switching your primary energy source to wind also if you have that option.

Do you actually plant these trees or your bs'ing?

IF you are truly planting the trees then yes that would be a good carbon offset. Consider switching your primary energy source to wind also if you have that option.

I have rule in my hosting company ... never to lie and always to keep my words. i will not take peoples money for no reason. I wanted to this to be labeled has a "green host."

I was planning on using this site to do it. When i redo the yearly theme and configuration on my hosting company this in a week for the new year i was planning on using this site to go ahead with my plan.

http://www.mokugift.com/

I was doing this for a while:
http://www.plantabillion.org/

Nobody seemed to care... :(

I will probably pick it back up soon and re-incorporate it into our offerings. :) Just because It's attempting to do something good/better.

i have a hosting company

think if this makes me green

everytime some one orders a package i plant 1 tree ... and and every time they donate a dollar i plant 3 trees.

does this make me green because over a year i would have planted over 3000 trees.

thanks

I'll give you $100.00 to come over and plant 300 trees then. :stickout:

I'll give you $100.00 to come over and plant 300 trees then. :stickout:

ROFL... I ll match that and fly you down to miami to do the same...

$1.00 per tree / plant !!!!

According to the web site in one year an acre of trees can provide enough oxygen for 18 people. Your carbon foot print for your hosting is more than your offer. So no.

I'll give you $100.00 to come over and plant 300 trees then. :stickout:

ROFL... I ll match that and fly you down to miami to do the same...

$1.00 per tree / plant !!!!

i am not planting it.

the trees are being planted in 3rd world countries.

i am not planting it.

the trees are being planted in 3rd world countries.

I can see them planting trees for a dollar. It definitely goes a lot farther in some countries still than it does here...

There's no official definition of being "green" .. it's all kind of a hype/fad/current phase the western world seems to be going through.

So sure, planting a tree could be considered "green" .. green enough to claim you're green on your website. And some people might sign up with you who wouldn't have otherwise.. maybe!

Or, you could buy carbon offsets to "offset" your electicity use. But how green is that? How many do you buy? From whom? Are they certified? Does buying carbon offsets really help the planet as much as planting trees? Probably?

Or, you could get only 5-year-old servers. You could work from home and use only solar electricity for your data center. You could only serve locally grown food at company picnics. You could outsource your tech support to some third-world country where the average person uses way fewer resources than the average person in your country.

You could keep doing this stuff forever, but the question will always be:

Does it matter?

Does it matter in terms of "helping the planet"? What does that even mean? Does it matter in terms of getting customers? I assume that's your real goal.

Cynically, if you're trying to just get customers out of it, sure, planting a tree per signup is probably going to give you the majority of the "green" marketing oomph going whole-hog green would!

I actually wanted to use it to reduce the impact my servers have on the earth. marketing was another benefit but most of the customers dont care what you use to run the servers

I think your company will be green when you will have an extra green in your packet ;-)

i am not planting it.

the trees are being planted in 3rd world countries.

Green Outsourced :stickout:

Green Outsourced :stickout:


well yah. or else here in the usa union workers will be like "since i dropped out of highschool i deserver 25 dollars an hour." - i dont mean like teachers and those people . believe they should be paid more because there job is like 24/7

Low power consumption servers(and cooling units), and alternative power consumption (green power credits) are the only things you can really do that are relevant to hosting. Everything else is just a gimmick, and although it may be helpful to the environment, it's not directly related to your industry. It'd be like taking a daily multivitamin, but not quitting smoking.

i have a hosting company

think if this makes me green

everytime some one orders a package i plant 1 tree ... and and every time they donate a dollar i plant 3 trees.

does this make me green because over a year i would have planted over 3000 trees.

thanks
it's more than being green. it it's true, keep it up.

I wouldn't says that what your company does makes it green, it definitely helps the environment but it still uses non renewable energy.

Yes, If you are really planting those threes then I don't see why you aren't a green web hosting company.

It's a start, but IMO to be really green you need to look at everything your company does and work to reduce it's consumption of resources at all levels

sounds nice, i agree. if you switch to green energy like whater or wind then you are fully green in my opinion.

i am not planting it.

the trees are being planted in 3rd world countries.

How can you be sure they're really planing them?

Low power consumption servers(and cooling units), and alternative power consumption (green power credits) are the only things you can really do that are relevant to hosting. Everything else is just a gimmick, and although it may be helpful to the environment, it's not directly related to your industry. It'd be like taking a daily multivitamin, but not quitting smoking.

Okay, I have to respond to this because my wife and I are currently working on quitting smoking.

ANY Doctor worth there grain of salt is going to tell you that taking a vitamin daily, even if you do smoke, is going to still help your overall health.

Now, there are many ways to be green, but you have to realize we use power as hosts and we use metal, along with glass.

Although a tree only helps in some aspects, I can list a few.

1.) Power can come from a variety of sources, most commonly Coal and Gas plants. Each of these produces air pollution. Trees help clear the air of this.

2.) Mining for metals can degrade the land where it is done. Planting trees in areas where this has been done can help reclaim that land.

3.) see above regading metal for glass where the sands are mined to make glass.

As you can see, trees can help offset what we cause production as hosts.

Go Green or Go Lean, if you can create verifiable business efficiencies into your business and remove any unnecessary hardware then you could say that you are going green by going lean. You don't necessarily have to plant trees. In my opinion that is a lot of work. :) In all honesty, going green is more marketing than anything else, and if you can use it to your advantage then go for it. If you are doing trees, then you should definitely put a tree counter on the front page of your site. :)

Wind energy? No, when the globe is full of wind powered facilities and homes it will change the way of the "wind" it self and nature. Go with solar energi, or move your DC to outer space and use a nebula as power-source.

Can you imagine the marketing spin on that - Galaxy powered, or plantary wind powered! Great comment ;)

Can you imagine the marketing spin on that - Galaxy powered, or plantary wind powered! Great comment ;)

Just wait another 200-300 years, if you could. I can only image what possibilities there would be which may include galaxy powered DC's :D.

Its a great start, no one can say you are not a green company if you are doing something to help to planet but to be officially a green company I would offset all energy you use with carbon credits or something of the similar nature.

Personally, even after a lot of reading, I truly don't understand how a company can purchase "Carbon Credits" to make up for what they use. It isn't logical.

To me steps would be such as this:

1.) Reduce usage of paper.
2.) Cut gas usage in the business (hire workers close to the office, live close to or in the office).
3.) Use lower power servers, desktops, etc...
4.) Plant trees to make up for those taken down.

This list could go on, but just doing a few of these makes a company "Green" in my opinion. And more so than those buying carbon offsets.

The best description I have heard of in Carbon Offsets was when there was a news artical a while back about how one of the largest polluters on the west coast of the US had purchased tons of these things and then claimed themselves to be "Green" even though there pollution level had gone down only a minimal amount.

Spending money and buying something doesn't make you or your company green. It's the actions you take and the decisions you make. These are what show a company is green and set the examples for the next generation. Not flaunting money in purchasing something that essentially "says" your green.

Well, if you are honest by your sayings, then show us a video/image of YOU planting trees.
It'd be better if you mail your clients who ordered the service, by making a video of planting a tree and placing a paper with their username on the tree to show that you ARE really planting. Else, no one will care about it without such a strong proof :)

Well, if you are honest by your sayings, then show us a video/image of YOU planting trees.
It'd be better if you mail your clients who ordered the service, by making a video of planting a tree and placing a paper with their username on the tree to show that you ARE really planting. Else, no one will care about it without such a strong proof :)

Would it work? I'm sure I can find tons of videos of people planting trees.

It'd be better if you mail your clients who ordered the service, by making a video of planting a tree and placing a paper with their username on the tree to show that you ARE really planting. Else, no one will care about it without such a strong proo
Got it ?
So, you'll find many videos on net for planting trees. But you'll find none with any usernames on it.
Example : Search for a tree plantation video in which the planter writes my username on the paper and shows the camera and then starts to plant the tree by himself.
So this will work :p

Thats pretty cool if you really do plant the trees.

cool concept, but i think you should do it local to your area.

A+ for effort... (if you are really doing it.)

It depends on weather your really planting the tree or not. I always though of doing somethink like this but another way around.

I think your company will be green when you will have an extra green in your packet ;-)

hahaha! OP said "the trees are being planted in 3rd world countries."
Hope, he still planting trees with other countries. Good Thing :)

Plant the trees yourself and take videos of you doing it. If you're outsourcing your Green-age then you can buy Green Credits:

http://www.bing.com/search?q=green+credits&src=IE-SearchBox&FORM=IE8SRC

John

It seems that people are trying to get Green so much in this days. Good for them but this wont affect my decision if I will like to purchase a service/good

Changing to a Wind Powered datacenter would be considered Green Hosting. What you are talking about would be that you support green! But it does not mean your hosting or servers are green.

I agree, Green is just a "hype/fad/current phase the western world".

Sure the electricity powering those servers might be "green", which I would consider as buying wind/solar/geothermal power. However, the components making up those servers are definitely not green and I doubt many companies dispose of their old servers in a environmentally friendly way. Sure, they might send to them a "green" electronics recycling company, but those companies often send them to third world countries and melt them down to get precious metals and then scrap it.

Well, if you are honest by your sayings, then show us a video/image of YOU planting trees.
It'd be better if you mail your clients who ordered the service, by making a video of planting a tree and placing a paper with their username on the tree to show that you ARE really planting. Else, no one will care about it without such a strong proof :)

I even think just showing you planting a few trees would be enough to earn some trust. Maybe hold up a sign with a company logo or something on it. Then keep your clients up to date with new videos or pictures on your forum or blog. I think that'd be doing a lot more than a lot of "green" companies are doing.

It would really upset your clients if they knew that you have data center in one country and trying to offset green house gas emissions from that data center in another country.

I think people should try and truly be green.. Being Green would be doing something like ANZ: http://anz.com/about-us/corporate-responsibility/environment/environmental-footprint/new-workplace/

They don't buy carbon offsets..

Yes, this makes your company green. I think you should also advice people to stop wasting papers as this will lessen the cut down of trees.

If you want to go green. Lower your carbon foot print by using server virtualization and using smaller servers (1U servers) with lower power consumption. The less power you consume the better off you are for the environment.

Also if you have a data center that you can generate power to instead of consuming this is an excellent way to become green. Solar panels on a roof are an excellent example of putting power back into the power grid.

- Chris

There are a lot of things that you can do to "become green". I think a major step is to bought more efficient servers. Servers that use less power, but process more. Servers that put out less heat, so AC units do not run as much, or do not run as hard as they use to.

100% of our power in our Seattle Facility is generated by the grand coolie dam. So a majority of our power is hydro-power. Just one of the benefits living in Washington I guess.

Planting trees is making your hosting less ungreen (if that makes sense), but you are not making up for the damage being done. Difficult to say whether or not this makes it green hosting. A hybrid car is still doing some damage to the environment but less than other cars, so if that is green then so is your hosting. I think officially what you do is considered green hosting.

Personally I think all of this tree planting stuff is a bit of BS. There are data centers that are mostly hydro-electro powered or wind powered. That, to me, is green hosting. All of these green credits, tree planting, etc. They all leave way to much trust in the fact that the business person is going to be doing these things, paying for these things, or outsourcing these things. What's the chance that all of that gets done? And gets done with the impact that they claim it is?

Personally I think all of this tree planting stuff is a bit of BS. There are data centers that are mostly hydro-electro powered or wind powered. That, to me, is green hosting. All of these green credits, tree planting, etc. They all leave way to much trust in the fact that the business person is going to be doing these things, paying for these things, or outsourcing these things. What's the chance that all of that gets done? And gets done with the impact that they claim it is?
Well Silentj9, you may think it's a little BS. However if these people are really doing it really does help, every plant always helps in factor, just expect them to do it if they're stating it.

Really, if you're using a power generator and it saves most energy than others and its meant to be green, this can mean you're company is green, no one can define that but helping the earth. Plant a tree every now and then, that is certainly green, no one can't tell you that.

Depends on where you plant the trees and if you care for them to survive the first year. Trees need water. If you are planting them on your own property, this is a stretch.

Hosting uses so many resources, so using a "green" hosting company has become a marketing flag. Check out fatcow and hostgator who use the "green" activities that they do to position themselves as "green". You can buy energy credits from wind-farms to offset the electrical resources.