Did you know that it is possible to minimize your environmental impact thanks to your website? For this, it is certainly important to be economical in terms of images and videos, but the major point is the following: you must choose an ecological web hosting. Explanations…
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[EN VIDÉO] How big is the internet? The answer in images Scaled representation of the space the bytes would occupy if each one were 1 cubic mm. © MetaBallStudios
” Internet is virtual… How could a website be bad for the environment? This is the thought that comes to mind for some people when they talk about the environmental consequences of the site of their company or their association. The reality is quite different. Website data is housed on real computer servers, and these are voracious consumers of fossil fuels.
Usually, when asking the owner of a website about his motivations, he will usually answer that he wants to attract as many visitors as possible and if possible, convert these visits into an involvement of these visitors: the subscription to a newsletter , the purchase of an item, etc. It is rare that he responds that he maintains an ecological motivation or even that he is aware of being able to improve his environmental impact through his website.
At the same time, more and more citizens want guide their actions to the sustainable development and wish to minimize their environmental impact, through actions such as recyclingthe purchase of green products, the use of clean means of transport, etc.
If you are in such a state of mind, know it: you can also reduce your environmental impact by choosing to host your website with an access provider concerned about its ecological impact.
Consumption close to that of aviation
When one thinks of a source of pollution, the aeronautical sector spontaneously comes to mind. The reference website, Atac.org tells us that the aviation industry is responsible for 2.1% of emissions of CO2. However, if we are to believe Web Neutral Projectthe pollution coming fromInternet is very close to that of airplanes, i.e. 2%!
Web Neutral Project brandishes other alarmist statistics:
- The Internet consumes 10% of the world’s electricity;
- If the Internet was a country, it would be the 6e electricity consumer behind Russia, Japan, China, India and the USA;
- Data centers consume 200 terawatt/hour (TWh), more than a country like Iran.
That’s not all. Failing to act in the direction of better energy saving, from 2025, computer servers should represent 32% of emissions of carbon, claims Zella DC which builds small computing units with a greatly reduced environmental impact. According to the same source, this figure is set to double approximately every four years.
It also happens that the number of users is also increasing: in April 2022, there were 5 billion internet users or 63% of the world’s population. For its part, Internet Live Stats lists some 2 billion websitesand this number is constantly increasing.
The ecological cost of cooling computing units
Why is Internet hosting so energy intensive? The main culprit gate a name: cooling. Data centers accommodate thousands or tens of thousands of powerful computers and these generate a heat intense – and this, all the more so as they are in a row in vast unventilated rooms. To compensate for this heat, it is necessary to install high-level cooling systems. This cooling activity alone consumes more than 40% of the energy.
Another source of energy waste is that most of the time, such equipment is in operation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, at many times, these servers are idle. However, they still remain in operation.
How Green Web Servers Work
To remedy this situation, more and moreweb hosts highlight the fact that they take this ecological factor into account and can thus contribute to making your site neutral in terms of CO production2 or even, better still, that its impact is negative.
To do this, these green hosts rely primarily on renewable energies such as hydroelectricity, solar or wind turbines. Some acquire very small servers. Artificial Intelligence is used so that the cooling of the units is recalculated in real time in order to be adjusted precisely. In the same vein, a central unit which is not used at a given time of the day or week can be placed in a state of very low or even zero power consumption.
Therefore, when renewing your subscription with your host, you can check if it takes care of its environmental impact and, if necessary, change service provider. In this way, it is possible to manage a website while helping to reduce the production of CO2 and this asset can even be highlighted on your site.
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