Some people call green web hosting a fashion. I believe it´s the future. What´s wrong with achieving the same by using less resources? That´s what productivity is about. One day in the not so far future renewable energy will be so much a normality that no web hosting company will make that a unique selling point anymore.
These days, some green hosting providers are rightfully very passionate and vocal about this matter and do not just run on renewable energy thus reducing their carbon footprint, but really try to lower their environmental impact, which includes the way their offices are run and the waste management, for example. The positive atmosphere some of these corporations are based on shines often through their site design, general ease of use and friendliness of the customer service they provide. They do seem to target and attract more conscious customers and don´t treat them like idiots. That alone may make it worth hosting with them.
On the other hand, not all effectively green web hosting companies make much of a fuss about it. One of my web hosting providers changed to running on 100 percent renewable energy without even sending a newsletter or an email out in this matter. I just found a statement by chance the other day at the bottom of their website. In terms of service or price, nothing has changed since this move, if any, their felt uptime has improved.
Some people are concerned about paying extra for it. As far I can see, green web hosting plans generally don´t cost more than conventional web hosting plans with comparable features. (Indeed, several of the web hosts we are using went GREEN, but none of them changed the price, at least not for this reason.)
Even if the pure technology offered matters most to you, there´s no reason anymore not to take green hosting companies into consideration when choosing a web hosting plan.
