As I always said in several of Noobpreneur.com blog posts, being an entrepreneur – both online and offline – is a privilege; as an entrepreneur, you are pioneering things and making a difference; many people look up to you, wanting to know how you would respond to issues, and this includes those related to the environment.
Here are some reasons why you should start doing something to the environment. As an online business owner, you, like it or not, are hosting your site files on web servers. A couple of facts you need to know:
“The average server produces the same emissions as a 15 mpg SUV, let alone the data center where the server is located which consumes on average as much electricity as 30,000 households.” – Super Green Hosting
“Data centers produce higher gas emissions than the countries of Argentina and the Netherlands and are projected to surpass the airline industry as carbon emitters by 2020.” – Web Host Industry Review
There you go – the multitude of the issues requires online entrepreneurs to take responsibility and start doing the best practices in keeping their sites greener.
Now what to do to support the go green campaign throughout your web properties?
What should online entrepreneurs do to go green
There are many things webpreneurs can do. Here are some suggestions:
1. Host your sites on eco-friendly web hosting servers
Your sites are hosted on web servers, and web servers use energy. There are web hosting providers incorporating green practices on their business, ranging from using direct renewable energy or buying REC (renewable energy credit) to carbon neturalise their servers to implementing telecommuting work and paperless office as company green policies.
Some web hosting providers, such as Super Green Hosting, plant a tree for each new customer.
Before you decide to sign up or move your sites to green hosting, be sure to check out their offers and how they green their business operations.
2. Carbon-neutralise your sites, including your sites’ visitors
As a site owner, you can also carbon-neutralise your sites. Every time you visit a site, you use resources, such as energy to power your PC/laptop/smartphones and energy to power the site you visit.
You can green your site by either carbon-neutralise the energy related to your sites’ operational or modifying your site’s layout so it becomes greener (i.e. using a dark background on your site.)
If you choose the carbon-neutralising venue, there is one I recommend: CO2stats. CO2stats calculates your site’s environmental “footprint” and automatically purchases renewable energy on your behalf to neutralise your carbon footprint. You can show CO2stats badge to let your visitors know that your site and their visit is carbon-neutral.
3. Green your office and business operations
Whether you work on an office or at home, you can do more to make your office more eco-friendly.
You can use eco-friendly office supplies to reduce environmental impact on your site. There are many online retail stores selling green office supplies and products, ranging from eco-friendly papers to energy-saving equipments. You can visit The Green Office to see how green you can be when it comes to office supplies.
You can also implement paperless office principles by limiting or even better, eliminating the use of papers for your day-to-day business operations. You could also arrange your workspace, in such a way that it gets as much natural lighting as possible to reduce the need for lighting during office hours.
Working at home has its own benefits, too – you reduce fuel usage to traveling from and to your office; this will reduce your carbon footprint and your fuel expenses, too.
4. Plant a tree
You can also involve in the “grassroot” campaign: Plant a tree. You can plant more trees on your premise, or, for a greater impact, donate to a tree planting campaign, such as Plant a Billion Trees non-profit organisation.
Your can also “embed” this tree-planting activities on your web properties. For example, HiveThrive.com directory will plant a tree for each approved listing; the opportunities are limitless.
So, yes – as an online entrepreneur you can get involve in going green as much as you want – every go green activity counts. I urge you to start turning your online business into a greener business. You are a role model and I suggest you to do what a role model should do: Lead by example.
Ivan Widjaya
Go green