Some of you might have noticed a logo on the left hand side of the blog that looks like this:

This means that we have offset the carbon emissions produced by the website WebEden.co.uk.

Its a little known fact, but PCs and web servers consume a vast amount of energy. Whilst your own PC uses plenty of electricity, all websites sit on servers in datacentres. Each server is basically a computer that is on all the time. And a data center is a vast room full of servers, which requires huge levels of air conditioning, due to the heat created by the servers.

All these factors combine to make sure that each website consumes a not inconsiderable amount of electricity. And of course where there is electricity consumption, there are carbon and CO2 emissions.

Most recent estimates are than a single server produces over 2 tonnes of CO2 every year. When you consider that the average UK household produces 5.5 tonnes, you can see the size of the problem. In all, the Internet is thought to consume 5% of the entire world’s electricity.

So we decided to offset the carbon emissions of WebEden.co.uk through the COCO2.org service. For a small annual fee, you can offset the emissions from your website. This means you get a nice COCO2.org logo to put on your website, which shows your visitors how green you are. In addition, you get a listing in the COCO2.org directory of carbon neutral websites.

The great thing about the directory is that you get a link to your website from a highly authoritative website, in a category that’s relevant to you. And as anyone who has read the link building chapter of our Search Engine Optimisation Guide will know, that can really boost your website up the Search Engine Results Page.

So how do you sign up to COCO2?

1.    Follow this link to start to offset your carbon emissions.
2.    Click on the ‘make my website carbon neutral’ link on the right hand side.
3.    Fill out the form about you and your website. At the bottom of the page you get the option to choose, shared, VPS or dedicated server. It looks like this:

Choose Shared.

4.    Pay using your credit or bank card.
5.    When filling out your entry in the directory of carbon neutral websites, be sure to concisely describe your business or website. Not only will this help boost you up the SERPs, but its also useful for people browsing the directory looking for carbon neutral websites.
6.    At the end of all this, you get a access to the logo to put on your website. You’ll need to use the HTML widget to display this logo accurately.

And that’s it! Good luck offsetting your website’s carbon emissions. And let us know if you have any problems.