28th Feb 2019
Of course, we spend most of our time talking about Green Hosting here, which makes sense I guess. But I thought it would be good to share the other ways we aim to help make a positive difference with our Green Hosting business too. Here are some of the things we do...
In our early days when we first set up back in 2004, the ethical business world was much smaller than it is now. However, we always knew that we only wanted to make money from clients who are doing positive things. Our ethical policy guides us and communicates the kinds of activities we do and do not support via our web services. The ethical policy still stands more than 14 years later and is still fundamental to our way of working. We just don’t want to make money from exploitative, cruel or careless companies and we’re sure our clients don’t want us to either.
We are extremely fortunate now to have many like-minded colleagues and a community of conscious brands around us, sharing good practice, supporting each other and working to make ethical business stronger and more mainstream.
Choosing responsible suppliers is important to us too. We bank with the Cooperative, use Ecotricity to power our office and the Green Stationery Company for any supplies we need. More recently we took out business insurance with Evergreen Insurance and this was new to us last year, which shows we're on a constant learning curve. For our IT equipment we choose energy efficient products and purchase from companies with ethical credentials when we can. All electrical equipment and lights are switched off when we aren't using them. Even though our electricity is from renewable sources, there's no need to waste it.
In the day-to-day running of our business travel is kept to a minimum and so is paper use, we just don't really need either of those things to provide our service. Sometimes its handy to write things down and so if we have notepads or notebooks they are made from scrap or recycled paper. The pens we buy are made from recycled materials too.
Most of our marketing is done online but if we need printed materials we choose a printer with environmentally friendly practices and products. We haven't had anything printed in a while but we recently discovered Hatch and so we might try them next time we do.
We have an environmental policy which goes into lots more detail if you'd like to read more.
We know that the technicalities of websites and web hosting can be daunting, especially when a business relies so heavily on their online presence and e-mails. So we aim to be kind in our approach and communication. Our clients reciprocate that kindness in lovely feedback, messages of support and spreading the word about us. It makes us feel really good!
With a view to hopefully making a difference in a more direct way, we work with community groups and positive projects that make us smile, providing services for free. Most recently we built the new Greens Windmill website, update it as volunteers and we power it with our wind powered hosting too. It gives us a real buzz to be able to do this and to get to know some really fantastic people and organisations.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Everything we do in our business reflects how we live our lives outside work. Like lots of other people we're increasingly more conscious and careful about what we eat, what we wear wear and what we buy (or rather don't buy). We're cutting down our plastic use, composting kitchen waste, planting flowers for pollinators and growing veggies, supporting charities, shopping locally, buying second hand, raising our awareness. We're a small business trying to do our best, we're know we're not perfect but we're always learning and working to do more.
Since we started out in 2004 our values of wanting to make a difference haven’t changed, but thankfully the business world around us has. It’s so wonderful to now be part of a much bigger movement of brands driven by the triple bottom line - people, planet and profit – and we’re excited by how much of a difference we can all make in the future.
28th Feb 2019
One of the things we love to do here at Green Hosting is shout about our clients because, wow, they're amazing!
Take a look at our Clients page and you will see individuals, businesses and non-profits all working to do good for people and the planet. We have social charities, conservation groups, sustainable fashion companies, conscious lifestyle bloggers, ethical marketing brands, cruelty-free & organic skincare producers, fairtrade jewellers, artists, educators and so, so much more.
If you want to make your website kinder to the planet by switching to Green Hosting, you can see you're in good company.
Here are a couple of lovely messages we received from our happy customers too. Head over to our Clients page to read more:
"I switched to Green Hosting a week ago now, and I honestly feel it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made."
Francesca Willow
Ethical Unicorn
"I'm really impressed with the service I received from Green Hosting. I was nervous about moving my site over in case anything got lost or broken but they guided me through the whole process, answered all my questions in plain English and kept me updated at every stage. They handled the whole switch over for me and it went smoothly. Not only have they made my site more sustainable but it's actually much faster now too!"
Sian Conway
Ethical Hour
"As always a great service from you. I have recommended you a number of times and will continue to do so. Not very often you get such fantastic service these days.....big pat on the back to the Green Hosting Team. I'm a very satisfied customer."
Jason Hollingsworth
Etheco
We'd love to power your website by the wind too. Do get in touch to see how we can help.
4th Oct 2017
Great news! Green Hosting is now listed in the Green Web Foundation's international directory of hosting companies using renewable energy AND we are a Green Web Foundation Partner too. We have gained partner status due to our ethical and environmental policies published on our website.
The Green Web Foundation is a non-profit organisation working hard towards an internet powered entirely by renewable energy and checks every members' green credentials before listing them on their website. They provide an online tool to check whether websites measure up as Green (powered by renewable energy) or Grey (powered by fossil fuels or status unknown). If your website checks out as being green you can show one of their badges on your website.*
*NOTE: We have found that websites using Cloudflare may check out as not being green when in fact they are. This is because Cloudflare obscures the website's actual IP for added security.
13th Sep 2017
We 'met' sustainable lifestyle blogger Francesca from Ethical Unicorn via the online #EthicalHour Network this summer. We had been talking about our wind powered website hosting, answering questions and generally finding out that still even lots of environmentally aware folks do not know of the pollution caused by web hosting powered by fossil fuels. We were delighted when Francesca signed up to one of our hosting plans and hired us to help her switch from her old WordPress hosted platform to our Green Hosting server and get her set up with a new theme.
I switched to Green Hosting a week ago now, and I honestly feel it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
Once her new website was up and running Francesca wrote about what she learned about the website hosting industry, how there is an environmentally friendly alternative and her experience on working with us. Read Francesca's article 'The Environmental Impact Of Web Hosting, And Why I Switched To Wind Power'.
We get lots of lovely feedback from our clients but we thought this was particularly great, detailing Francesca's initial decision to switch right through to our customer service. Take a look at our clients page to see some of the other websites hosted with us.
1st Jul 2017
Hosting your website on servers powered by 100% renewable energy is a real way of ensuring your business or organisation is helping the environment.
You might wonder what impact that can really make but second to the aviation industry, the powering of datacentres and cloud computing run on fossil fuels is reported to be the largest global contributor to carbon emissions. That is a big deal!
Don't be put off by the idea that switching from your old website host to Green Hosting is complicated and disruptive, it needn't be. We can help you make a smooth transition to us.
All you need to do is add the 'Website Transfer Service' when you sign up to one of our hosting plans. The best part is that our transfer service isn't expensive, it's just a one-off fee of £25.
If you have a WordPress website we can transfer your site and provide extra security features to help protect it from hackers.
If you'd like to know more please get in touch.
Green Hosting works handsomely with:
Auto-installer now available on all accounts
