5 Ways to Make Your Website Green

1. Choose or Switch to Green Web Hosting
   Many web hosting companies have started to offer their clients green hosting options. Green web hosts have a number of options including using natural energy sources, generating their own renewable energy, using energy efficient hardware, operating an eco-friendly office, purchasing energy credits to offset their use of dirty power, planting a tree for every new client and so on.
   • See a list of green web hosting companies
     
2. Green Advertising & Green Internet Marketing
   Consider how you can green your website and business advertising and marketing. If you’re purchasing ads in print publications, consider greener solutions such as green internet marketing – where you actively pursue cutting down on dirty-energy-using and pollution generating  advertising mediums such as newspaper, magazines, billboards, business cards, gift cards, coupons, flyers etc to replace as many of them as possible with cleaner digital / internet based advertising & marketing.  Green Internet marketing might not be able to replace all of your present website advertising, but it might include replacing 10-25% of your annual marketing budget. Green Internet marketing is a strategy to reduce reliance upon non-earth-friendly marketing & advertising and replace it profitably with online marketing strategies includinig  organic marketing, pay per click search engine marketing, social media marketing, mobile marketing. These digital, online marketing efforts we can hope will be a more earth friendly than printing on ink and paper.
   • Eleven Marketing offers Green Internet Marketing
     
3. Green Your Content
   Consider how content is generated for your website. Could your website’s writers work from home (telecommute) for part of their work week? Do they print out all website content in hard copy for approval before it’s posted to the web? Meet with your website content team and brainstorm how you can green your efforts.
4. Buy Carbon Credits
   If you can’t run your website on clean energy, consider purchasing carbon credits to offset your website’s energy use. Websites with info about how to buy carbon credits
   • http://www.ehow.com/how_2170138_buy-carbon-credits.html
   • http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/03/survey_of_carbo.php
5. Add a Printer Friendly Option to Your Website
   You could add a printer friendly version of downloadable documents and/or all pages on your website. These could be in black and white (as opposed to color) and could be more concise, resulting in less paper use when they’re printed. Encourage your website users to “hit print responsibly!”

We’d love to hear your ideas and feedback about how to make a website green.