Each year, SIDN, the .nl registry, and Cleanbits, the organisation that works to promote a green internet, carry out a survey to find out how many .nl domain names have green hosts. The results of this yearâs survey show that half of .nlâs 4.5 million domain names are now hosted on a green or CO2-neutral basis. Green hosting is rapidly becoming the norm in the Netherlands.
Every other host is green
âWe investigate whether each individual .nl domain name is hosted by a âgreenâ or âgreyâ service provider. To be counted as green, a service provider has to use only green energy, or offset its CO2 emissions by, for example, afforestation,â explains René Post, Cleanbitsâ CEO. âTwelve months ago, nearly 30 per cent of .nl domain names had green hosts. Over the last year, the percentage has risen to 50 per cent, which is great news, of course.â
Insisting on green
From the survey findings, itâs clear that the green internet is gaining ground all the time in the Netherlands. Just a few years ago, it was a bonus if a hosting firm was green. Now, though, many clients and (sub) hosters insist that hosting service providers are green, and are willing to transfer if their current provider doesnât have the right ecological credentials. In the last year, Cleanbits has introduced its Green Web Add-ons (available for IE, FF, Safari and Chrome), which further increase transparency. These tools show internet users as they browse whether the sites they are visiting have green hosts.
Green zone
âEvery day, SIDN handles more than a billion queries from internet users who want to look at .nl websites and reach .nl mailboxes. Every query requires several web servers to respond. Whatâs more, partly because of the way the mobile internet is booming, people are using the net more intensively all the time. And that means more energy consumption. Every time we tap a search query into Google, for example, we use up about as much energy as by having an energy-saver lamp on for an hour,â says Roelof Meijer, SIDNâs CEO. âOur aim is to have all our servers running on green energy. We offset the CO2 emissions associated with our non-green energy use by working with Cleanbits to fund the planting of trees in the Groenlo Internet Wood. Whatâs more, the new premises that we plan to move into at the end of the year will feature all sorts of clever ideas for minimising CO2 emissions. The offices will have extra floor, wall and glazing insulation, a heat/cooling storage system and solar panels to cut our reliance on energy from fossil fuel.â
This SIDN news release was sourced from:
https://www.sidn.nl/en/news/news/article/strong-growth-in-green-hosting/
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