It wasn’t so long ago that the biggest concern for webmasters was simply keeping their sites online and running properly. But with the double-whammy of rapidly-accelerating web hosting demands and climate change, a growing number of site operators are looking for ways to not only stay online but to stay online sustainably.

If you’ve never given much thought to the amount of energy it takes to power the Internet and all its sites and services, consider this: so many new Web servers went into operation between 2000 and 2005 that global data center energy consumption doubled during that time period. (While the growing popularity of lower-end servers increased per-unit energy consumption, most of the increased power demand came from a sheer growth in numbers of servers
— a study put the two growth rates at 5 to 8 percent and 90 percent, respectively.)

Fortunately, eco-minded webmasters are finding more hosting companies that are trying to do something to reduce their energy appetites, or at least offset the emissions their operations produce. VirtualHosting.com, an online resource for comparison-shopping virtual (shared-server) Web hosting providers, recently published a guide to hosts working to shrink their environmental footprints. "Green Hosting: 11 Carbon-Neutral Hosting Alternatives" provides a good overview to some green Web hosts in the U.S., U.K and Australia.

While some of the hosting companies (Rackspace or WebHostingBuzz, for example) plant trees or take other conservation measures to reduce their overall environmental impact, others are partially (Sustainable Hosting) or fully (Iron Mountain) powered by renewable sources. It’s interesting to see the different approaches taken by different companies, and encouraging to see that a growing number are at least trying to do something.

Another good starting point for those shopping for Earth-friendly Web services is Co-op America’s National Green Pages. A click on the Internet > Consulting/Services option takes you to information about 31 different green Internet service providers. You’ll find some of the same names described in the VirtualHosting.com article, but many others as well, including ThinkHost, which is fully powered by a mix of solar and wind energy.

It’s reassuring to know that, while the Internet and all its virtual bells and whistles require real-world energy, some Web companies are trying to lighten the load.