I've been using Rackspace (UK) for my hosting for about a year now, and I am very happy with their great support and uptime performance. I am one of those people who also feel worried about the effects of global warming, and I would like to do something to protect the planet for our children's futures. So I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Rackspace has taken an ethical stand and is supporting a green hosting initiative by planting trees. Am I the only one who thinks this way? It seems many people turn a blind eye to the fact that computers feed on fossil fuels, but we can all do our bit towards protecting the environment. What other ways can hosting companies become greener, and how many other companies will follow Rackspace's example and offer us a choice between "green" and "non-green" hosting options? We often hear the term "carbon neutral" spoken about in the media these days, and this means that somebody has to take some action to restore the balance. I don't mind paying extra for Rackspace hosting because I know that I can rely upon them, but I am aware that money is the all-important element in many customers' minds when they are looking at a hosting company. Maybe in the future cheap hosting will be thought of as the high carbon option. We all have choices to make, and I expect many reading this will buy a factory produced turkey to put on the Christmas dinner table, because it's cheap - but it don't taste as good as the organic alternative.We've actually been discussing this with a number of the managed forrestry companies for about 6 months now, looking at what we can do to offset our CO2 emissions.The only problem with offsetting though, is that it does just that, it only offsets the problem to a future date and doesn't make much of an impact right away (As I believe the CO2 figures are based on a 50-100 year lifetime for the trees planted, I'll see if I can find the exact figure in a moment).You aren't the only person thinking and dreaming about greener tech.
This year I built a green hosting center to sustain my own technology practice. I have been coding and hosting network services for most of my life.
I had to find a way to balance the scales, so to speak.
We just launched publicly yesterday, and a friend of mine forwarded to me your post. I hope my joining in discussion here isn't viewed as only commercially inspired. This project is the culmination of several years of personal research, thought and evolution.
In a nutshell:
- the network, devices and servers are powered using energy acquired from renewable sources (wind, solar, biogas)
- the data center itself is built using green products and techniques
Looking forward we hope to add on-site solar, bio-diesel generators, and whatever else makes good sense as we learn along the way.
We posted information about our project on our web site, and would enjoy hearing more from others on this topic.
<<Signature to be setup in your profile>>Hrm. As a new member of this forum, I am not yet able to include our web site URL. Luckily, we're not too difficult to find if one tries my forum handle followed by .net. I hope this helps, and I look forward to hearing from others their ideas about green hosting.- NathanHi Nathan,Whilst this sounds like a good step, I'm intrigued to understand the scale of what you've done - its all very well doing a concept that will support 20 racks or so, but I suspect quite another in doing a full blown 10k sqft datacentre on this basis.As Karl states above, there are clearly some problems with Carbon offsetting. Certainly I believe the problem extends beyond just renewable power, you need to start looking at how you cool the servers, are they AC or DC, etc. Options towards water cooling servers and DC power are going to be more power efficient than current AC power supplies and tremendous Air Conditioning based cooling.Would welcome input from anyone else whose looked at an "eco" datacentre.If you're going for green, then of course you need to be looking at green constructions methods (concrete is waaaaay bad), green power, avoiding losses with power conversion, lead acid batteries in UPS are also obviously very bad, how you source emergency power etc.Not to mention thinking about the little things, like lighting, heating for staff areas etc.We've actually been discussing this with a number of the managed forrestry companies for about 6 months now, looking at what we can do to offset our CO2 emissions.
The only problem with offsetting though, is that it does just that, it only offsets the problem to a future date and doesn't make much of an impact right away (As I believe the CO2 figures are based on a 50-100 year lifetime for the trees planted, I'll see if I can find the exact figure in a moment).
How much equipment do you have to be running before you wake up one day and think "wow i'm putting out way too much CO2." Personally, i've been in this business for a decade and have never had that thought until the OP brought it up.
On that subject, CO2 stimulates plant growth and has successfully brought the production of organic foods to a level of growth that is outpacing the human birth rate according to some studies.So by that logic, we'll all be fine if the level of CO2 keeps increasing? There's a flaw in that, as the level of CO2 increases, the temperature increases, which causes sea levels to rise and lowlands to flood and desert to spread - meaning less suitable land for plants to be grown on, especially as people have to be rehomed on to what land is left available, very flawed.When you convert from kWh used into tons of CO2, the numbers start to look scary - Even more so when you convert that in to trees that would have ot be planted and then look at the rates of de-forrestation that are going on.We are in the middle of switching our power provider from the usual grid in Toronto, to this: <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.bullfrogpower.caYou're">www.bullfrogpower.caYou're</a><!-- w --> not the only one with a conscience
So by that logic, we'll all be fine if the level of CO2 keeps increasing? There's a flaw in that, as the level of CO2 increases, the temperature increases, which causes sea levels to rise and lowlands to flood and desert to spread - meaning less suitable land for plants to be grown on, especially as people have to be rehomed on to what land is left available, very flawed.
When you convert from kWh used into tons of CO2, the numbers start to look scary - Even more so when you convert that in to trees that would have ot be planted and then look at the rates of de-forrestation that are going on.
There are other studies which suggest those theories are overdramatic. Anything that is slated to happen in the future is only theory, however, i've seen pretty solid data suggesting that CO2 emissions over the past 100 years have been positive to the environment.I don't know if anyone saw it but there was an interesting article about "green" issues in Information Age. The article is on their website and is titled Right On? (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.information-age.com/article/2007/january_2007/right_on">http://www.information-age.com/article/ ... 7/right_on</a><!-- m -->)Anything that is slated to happen in the future is only theory,
Heh, another one of these "everything is theory" thinkers. Well, most of what we live, breath and function with TODAY was just theory YESTERDAY. Not sure what it takes for people to wake up, but I think some people actually know the impacts, however choose to clout for the other side of the fence in an effort to ignore it for the time being.
however, i've seen pretty solid data suggesting that CO2 emissions over the past 100 years have been positive to the environment.
Oh sweet, then when you start your car in the mornings make sure you remain inside the garage with teh doors closed while it warms up. Come back to me and tell me how much of a "positive" effect this has had on your health in 10 years from now
Seriously Jeff, if you believe that rot then you really are reading the wrong cartoons in the paper. I come from a family that has done extensive commercial research in these areas, and speaking with many people who are qualified on such topics all agree that we are coming closer to a time where we will not be able to reverse, but rather nurture a permanently scarred planet.
Regards,
Joelonce read an article concerning diesel generator at data centre... and thats a huge megawatt plant. basically, i support green hosting.we actually have a division which offers entirely carbon offset hosting which i have to say is proving very popular. So much so that we are thinking of moving it into the mainstream for all products we do.
However as has been said, it is not the solution to the problem. WHat we really need is to have the juice generated greenly in the first place. Having said that, this is an area which we have little control over.It seems that the green campaign is starting to have real effects on companies in the hosting business, and this can only be a good thing for long term benefits to the environment. I just noticed the news that Rackspace will be opening a new data centre (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.rackspace.co.uk/default.asp?docId=15765">http://www.rackspace.co.uk/default.asp?docId=15765</a><!-- m -->) in the UK, which will run on environmentally friendly energy. As more companies join this search for ways to reduce their impact on the environment, then it will be harder for old style fossil fuel energy users to ignore the growing awareness of the damage they cause.
This year I built a green hosting center to sustain my own technology practice. I have been coding and hosting network services for most of my life.
I had to find a way to balance the scales, so to speak.
We just launched publicly yesterday, and a friend of mine forwarded to me your post. I hope my joining in discussion here isn't viewed as only commercially inspired. This project is the culmination of several years of personal research, thought and evolution.
In a nutshell:
- the network, devices and servers are powered using energy acquired from renewable sources (wind, solar, biogas)
- the data center itself is built using green products and techniques
Looking forward we hope to add on-site solar, bio-diesel generators, and whatever else makes good sense as we learn along the way.
We posted information about our project on our web site, and would enjoy hearing more from others on this topic.
<<Signature to be setup in your profile>>Hrm. As a new member of this forum, I am not yet able to include our web site URL. Luckily, we're not too difficult to find if one tries my forum handle followed by .net. I hope this helps, and I look forward to hearing from others their ideas about green hosting.- NathanHi Nathan,Whilst this sounds like a good step, I'm intrigued to understand the scale of what you've done - its all very well doing a concept that will support 20 racks or so, but I suspect quite another in doing a full blown 10k sqft datacentre on this basis.As Karl states above, there are clearly some problems with Carbon offsetting. Certainly I believe the problem extends beyond just renewable power, you need to start looking at how you cool the servers, are they AC or DC, etc. Options towards water cooling servers and DC power are going to be more power efficient than current AC power supplies and tremendous Air Conditioning based cooling.Would welcome input from anyone else whose looked at an "eco" datacentre.If you're going for green, then of course you need to be looking at green constructions methods (concrete is waaaaay bad), green power, avoiding losses with power conversion, lead acid batteries in UPS are also obviously very bad, how you source emergency power etc.Not to mention thinking about the little things, like lighting, heating for staff areas etc.We've actually been discussing this with a number of the managed forrestry companies for about 6 months now, looking at what we can do to offset our CO2 emissions.
The only problem with offsetting though, is that it does just that, it only offsets the problem to a future date and doesn't make much of an impact right away (As I believe the CO2 figures are based on a 50-100 year lifetime for the trees planted, I'll see if I can find the exact figure in a moment).
How much equipment do you have to be running before you wake up one day and think "wow i'm putting out way too much CO2." Personally, i've been in this business for a decade and have never had that thought until the OP brought it up.
On that subject, CO2 stimulates plant growth and has successfully brought the production of organic foods to a level of growth that is outpacing the human birth rate according to some studies.So by that logic, we'll all be fine if the level of CO2 keeps increasing? There's a flaw in that, as the level of CO2 increases, the temperature increases, which causes sea levels to rise and lowlands to flood and desert to spread - meaning less suitable land for plants to be grown on, especially as people have to be rehomed on to what land is left available, very flawed.When you convert from kWh used into tons of CO2, the numbers start to look scary - Even more so when you convert that in to trees that would have ot be planted and then look at the rates of de-forrestation that are going on.We are in the middle of switching our power provider from the usual grid in Toronto, to this: <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.bullfrogpower.caYou're">www.bullfrogpower.caYou're</a><!-- w --> not the only one with a conscience
So by that logic, we'll all be fine if the level of CO2 keeps increasing? There's a flaw in that, as the level of CO2 increases, the temperature increases, which causes sea levels to rise and lowlands to flood and desert to spread - meaning less suitable land for plants to be grown on, especially as people have to be rehomed on to what land is left available, very flawed.When you convert from kWh used into tons of CO2, the numbers start to look scary - Even more so when you convert that in to trees that would have ot be planted and then look at the rates of de-forrestation that are going on.
There are other studies which suggest those theories are overdramatic. Anything that is slated to happen in the future is only theory, however, i've seen pretty solid data suggesting that CO2 emissions over the past 100 years have been positive to the environment.I don't know if anyone saw it but there was an interesting article about "green" issues in Information Age. The article is on their website and is titled Right On? (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.information-age.com/article/2007/january_2007/right_on">http://www.information-age.com/article/ ... 7/right_on</a><!-- m -->)Anything that is slated to happen in the future is only theory,
Heh, another one of these "everything is theory" thinkers. Well, most of what we live, breath and function with TODAY was just theory YESTERDAY. Not sure what it takes for people to wake up, but I think some people actually know the impacts, however choose to clout for the other side of the fence in an effort to ignore it for the time being.
however, i've seen pretty solid data suggesting that CO2 emissions over the past 100 years have been positive to the environment.
Oh sweet, then when you start your car in the mornings make sure you remain inside the garage with teh doors closed while it warms up. Come back to me and tell me how much of a "positive" effect this has had on your health in 10 years from now
Seriously Jeff, if you believe that rot then you really are reading the wrong cartoons in the paper. I come from a family that has done extensive commercial research in these areas, and speaking with many people who are qualified on such topics all agree that we are coming closer to a time where we will not be able to reverse, but rather nurture a permanently scarred planet.
Regards,
Joelonce read an article concerning diesel generator at data centre... and thats a huge megawatt plant. basically, i support green hosting.
we actually have a division which offers entirely carbon offset hosting which i have to say is proving very popular. So much so that we are thinking of moving it into the mainstream for all products we do. However as has been said, it is not the solution to the problem. WHat we really need is to have the juice generated greenly in the first place. Having said that, this is an area which we have little control over.It seems that the green campaign is starting to have real effects on companies in the hosting business, and this can only be a good thing for long term benefits to the environment. I just noticed the news that Rackspace will be opening a new data centre (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.rackspace.co.uk/default.asp?docId=15765">http://www.rackspace.co.uk/default.asp?docId=15765</a><!-- m -->) in the UK, which will run on environmentally friendly energy. As more companies join this search for ways to reduce their impact on the environment, then it will be harder for old style fossil fuel energy users to ignore the growing awareness of the damage they cause.