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.

Further to the story about how much energy big Internet services use, Silicon Valley newsbreaker TechCrunch has uncovered how Google is finding novel ways to reduce their carbon footprint. Believe it or not, but Google have rented a heard of goats to cut the grass around their HQ:

Here is a picture of a goat, for visual appeal…

They’re renting the goats on a weekly basis. Apparently what happens is that a sheperd turns up with about 200 hoofed friends, who then chomp down and, erm, fertilise, as I think they call it.

Sounds like a good way to reduced CO2 emissions to me. Although not so good for gardeners and lawn mower manufacturers…

Building a website feels like a non-harmful activity doesn’t it? You’re doing something creative, pulling in your ideas, and thinking about things.

Unfortunately, there is an energy cost for everything to do with the Internet. Quite apart from the energy that your own PC or Mac uses, there is of course the servers that you connect to on the Internet.

Every website and web based application sits on a server in a data centre somewhere. (A data centre is basically a large room or warehouse with racks and racks of servers, and a very fast Internet connection). Not only do servers consume a lot of energy themselves, they also require lots of other supporting equipment, such as air conditioning. And of course they’re on 24/7. It was recently claimed that every Google search uses as much energy as boiling a kettle.

Whilst that myth was dispelled, there’s no doubt that web based activities require a lot of energy – in fact recent estimates say that the Internet uses up to 5% of all the world’s electricity.

In fact, some of the biggest Internet firms use eye-watering amounts of servers and power.
 
Google itself is said to have between 35 and 40 data centres with around 1 million servers. Whilst we don’t know how many Microsoft have, they are said to be increasing their servers by around 20,000 per month.

The more servers you put in a data centre, and the more densely you pack them, the more air conditioning you need to keep everything the right temperature. The amount of energy a large data centre (DC) needs is equivalent to that of an aluminium smelter. Microsoft have just completed a $500m DC near Chicago requires three electricity sub stations to keep it going.

Such are the cooling needs of large data centres that their location is now almost always decided by a source of cheap power. This is why so many locate next to the Columbia River, whose flowing water can be used as a source of power and cooling.

In what is a logical next step, Microsoft itself is scouting locations in Siberia so it can make use of the freezing temperatures. And maybe now due to its banking collapse, Iceland is marketing itself as perfect DC country due to its geothermal energy supply and a chilly clime.

WebEden for its part is run on servers located in a data centre in Paris. Not much chance of help from the weather there! And in terms of environmental impact, we offset the carbon emissions from the energy used by all WebEden websites using COCO2 carbon offset system.

Does any of this change the amount of time you want to spend online or building a website? Leave us a comment below.