What’s a green Internet?

While many of us are aware that following a plant-based diet or reducing our reliance on cars and flights can significantly reduce our carbon footprint, many are blissfully unaware that the Internet we consume also causes major climate-damaging CO2e (Carbon Dioxide Equivalent). 

Thirty minutes of streaming videos emit between 28 and 57g of CO2e while binge-watching a 10-hour series on Netflix uses the same energy as charging a smartphone 145 times. 

So what does this mean? Should we stop using the Internet for the sake of a greener planet? 

While the answer to this is tricky and not exactly straightforward, it’s essential to explore the issue first. Only then can we discover the current solutions available, including what Namecheap is doing, to combat it.  

The environmental impact of datacenters

Why datacenters are the real culprit

Ultimately, it all comes down to data. Datacenters, to be exact.

This means that every webpage you open, song you download, or video you watch consists of data. Contrary to popular belief, this data doesn’t just exist on its own. It has to be produced, housed, and made available to everyone through something called a “datacenter” or “data processing unit.”

A data center simply refers to a large facility with dedicated space, data communication lines, power supplies, and backup systems. Studies show that some of the world’s largest data centers can each contain many tens of thousands of IT devices, requiring more than 100 megawatts (MW) of power capacity. This is enough to power around 80,000 households in the US. 

While most companies typically don’t reveal the locations of their data centers for privacy reasons, it’s become widely accepted that datacenters are responsible for almost 30% of the Internet’s energy requirements. And according to The New York Times, most datacenters consume incredible amounts of energy in very wasteful ways. This means companies continue to run their facilities at maximum capacity, no matter the demand or the time of day. This can result in data centers wasting 90% or more of the electricity they pull off the electrical grid.

The role of cloud computing and streaming services

The Internet and our use of it is always expanding and evolving, which means we’re always using more data. As data levels increase — with the rise of video streaming, online gaming, and Internet services that take up more space, it makes sense that the demand for storage, and datacenters, will be higher. 
This is added to by a greater reliance on cloud computing, which accounts for a large proportion of datacenter storage. With all this in mind, it’s about time we found some green data centers.   

Why do we need a green Internet?

Thanks to the bandwidth-heavy services of Netflix, Facebook, YouTube, and the gaming companies Activation Blizzard and Epic Games, the growth in Internet traffic is now off the charts, with as much as 80% of the data capacity going to these aforementioned players. 

In the case of YouTube, a 2016 study carried out by Bristol University calculated that streaming videos from 1.4 billion users produced CO2e of more than 11 million tonnes a year, similar to Frankfurt, Germany, or Glasgow, Scotland. And given how YouTube currently has more than 2.4 billion users globally, this carbon footprint is undoubtedly bigger.  
However, it is worth pointing out that the streaming and TV industries contribute far less than others. For example, microwaving a bag of popcorn for 4 minutes produces about 30% of the carbon emissions that watching an hour of streamed content does.

Environmental benefits of a green Internet

Just as every other industry is striving to reduce their carbon footprint, there are also ways for data storage to deliver eco-friendly Internet use. Some hosting providers are keen to make sure they are greening the Internet by following best environmental practices and keeping their energy use to 100% renewable sources. 

Corporate responsibility and consumer demand

As more people are becoming more aware of the ongoing damage caused by climate change, making concerted efforts to improve practices and reduce carbon footprints is a greater priority. And with consumers who are more mindful of environmental issues, businesses need to respond by taking more measures towards introducing eco-friendly practices. If a customer is looking at two different hosting providers with similar offerings, they are more likely to choose the one with green Internet usage through a sustainable datacenter.

For businesses, taking measures to implement greener practices is better for the world, but it’s also a major factor in improving the image or reputation of a company or brand.

Regulatory pressures and sustainability goals

There are various measures taken by governments, international organizations, and regulatory bodies to encourage commitment to sustainable practices. The European Union has recently introduced the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) which applies to mainly larger EU companies and non-EU companies working within the EU market. Companies and investors are required to assess environmental issues relating to their working practices.  

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has the Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct guidelines, which cover a range of issues, including sustainability and environmental protection in the countries they are applied. 
In the United States, climate reporting requirements were proposed in 2022, while similar measures have already gone into effect in countries including China, the UK, New Zealand, and Singapore. 

What can be done to make the Internet green

The desire to become a greener Internet isn’t anything new. 

In fact, from 2010 to 2013, the ECONET (low Energy COnsumption NETworks) project took place, which was co-funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme. This project aimed to study and exploit dynamic adaptive technologies for wired network devices that allowed for the saving of energy when a device (or part of it) was not being used. 

And now that the European Commission’s European Green Deal and several large international companies claim that their facilities and entire product portfolios will be climate neutral by 2050, this just shows how much companies believe in the need to step up their sustainability measures and actively engage in reducing their overall environmental impact.

Facebook and Google, for example, are two companies that supposedly already do this by using re-engineered software and cooling systems to decrease wasted power. Still, according to recent reports, Google’s data centers consume nearly 300 million watts and Facebook’s, about 60 million watts.

Transition to renewable energy sources

Compared to past decades and centuries, the energy sources we now have available are diverse. The costs of renewable energy are quickly falling, making it more accessible to companies in various industries, that just need to update their legacy processes.

Google is already on course to becoming completely carbon-free by 2030, and many other Internet companies are setting similar goals. 

Namecheap as a company is aware that the world is changing at a rapid pace, and sustainability should be a priority. This may be through donating previously-used dedicated servers to nonprofits or participating in green-based initiatives such as tree planting with Team Trees. 

This is also why Namecheap’s Shared Hosting plans now feature sustainable datacenters in the EU (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and Asia (Singapore) — both 100% powered by electricity from renewable resources. Not only are these datacenters ISO 140001 certified and ISO 50001 certified, but the suppliers are also part of The Climate Pledge™, which is committed to achieving Net Zero emissions by 2040. These particular plans also feature cloud storage, which offers zero downtime, true stability, and the highest performance. 
With sustainable datacenters you can get closer to audiences in Europe and Asia while enjoying the green Internet!

Improving datacenter efficiency

Some industry experts recommend using new, low-impact, direct liquid-cooling systems to limit the active movement of air over servers, which would eliminate the need to cool the entire data hall, which would, in turn, reduce energy consumption and costs. 

Traditional data centers also rely on incredible amounts of water. Did you know that a typical data center uses about 3-5 million gallons of water per day, equivalent to the water supply of a city with 30,000-50,000 people? Simply replacing these water evaporation cooling systems with innovative closed-loop systems that utilize recycled water rather than fresh water would help to lower this immense burden on local water systems. 

Others believe the greenest solution lies in the cloud, meaning centralized computing between data centers. This just means that data centers would rely on virtualization technology, which is when servers merge their identities into extensive, flexible computing resources that can be given out as needed to users, no matter where they’re located. To learn more about cloud computing, check out one of our in-depth articles on this very topic. 

Encouraging sustainable web design

There are various practices that web developers can follow to minimize the use of energy and reduce environmental impact. These include the following:

• Optimize images, videos, and other media by compressing them and using the correct file formats. This avoids slowing the website down and using more energy.
• Use more efficient coding practices by removing code that’s repetitive or not needed, to make things run more smoothly and use less power. 
• Introduce minimalist design by removing features that aren’t needed and may take up time and energy to create, as well as for the user navigating through the site. 
• Limit the number of fonts on your website and keep your media as low in file size as possible. 
• Try using dark mode as much as possible — this reduces the power used on the various devices used to access your website.

The role of users in supporting a green Internet

Other things that you can do to reduce your carbon footprint include: 

• Keep your website simple and functional to reduce time and energy, so it’s faster and easier to navigate. This could mean using static web pages instead of dynamic ones that may look more dazzling but are essentially wasteful.   
• Prioritize your SEO practices, as when your website is optimized and easy to access, you save power used in crawling and indexing processes. 
• Use a CDN to deliver content more directly to users based on their location, or a datacenter that’s closer to your main audience. These measures avoid redirecting data around the world. 
• Choose a hosting provider that offers eco-friendly practices.

Final thoughts

The Internet has undoubtedly enabled positive change and bettered the lives of many people around the world. But we can’t pretend that the future of our planet isn’t at risk if we don’t adopt greener, more sustainable systems. 

The good news? Many companies are committed to becoming 100% renewable energy-powered. Lots of data center operators and Internet companies are also actively exploring options to increase their renewable energy supply. 

Even if data is considered the fuel of the Internet, everything comes at a cost, so it’s time we, as consumers, start to ask critical questions about how the products and services we actively consume are produced and run. It’s only through a more conscious approach to connectivity that we’ll be able to meet our greener goals, which include green data. 
To learn more about how you can actively reduce your carbon footprint, follow Imperial College London’s 9 easy ways.