How to Spot the Cowboys
So many hosting companies claim to be green when they’re not. It’s like when someone says they’re on a diet but you catch them eating cake. Here’s the tricks they pull. It’s almost as bad as the labelling on Diet Coke, which claims to be a healthy product, when it’s not even close to healthy.
The Tree Planters:
These crooks have pictures of trees everywhere. “We plant trees!” they say. They sign up for schemes that pay people in other countries to plant trees, and you sign up. The BBC has repeatedly proved these to be complete disasters or scams. There were never any trees, or the ones that were planted all died, because they were planted in places where nothing grows. The money was wasted, and the pollution continues.
But their computers still use dirty electricity. It’s like flytipping, but claiming to be clean because your neighbour gets rid of their rubbish correctly.
The “We Pay Someone Else” Crowd:
They keep polluting, but then give money to someone else to clean it up. That’s like me throwing rubbish on the floor, then paying the cleaner extra. Still making a mess, aren’t I? Investing in cleanup schemes that only clean up the symptoms and effects of their polluting, but do nothing to tackle the cause of it.
Look at organisations like The Ocean Cleanup’s Partners, which have secured significant corporate sponsorships from heavily polluting industries. It’s shameful.
We’re huge fans of the work The Ocean Cleanup is doing, but sadly, nobody is tackling the causes of it all. It’s only treating the symtoms!
The Maybe People:
“We try to use green energy when we can.” What’s that supposed to mean? Either you do or you don’t. When people say “try” or “when we can,” they usually mean “we can’t be bothered.”
The Certificate Buyers:
Some buy a piece of paper (Carbon Credits) that claims to offset their pollution. Buying carbon credits is a total bullshit scheme where you pay money to pollute more, when in fact all you’re doing is buying other people’s right to pollute. So the problem is just shifted elsewhere as a fake solution. But they don’t use anything green. It’s like buying a swimming certificate without learning to swim.
How to Check if They’re Real…
Just ask them – where do you get your electricity from? If they can’t tell you or start waffling, they’re probably fibbing. We’ll let you know straight – our servers use SSE Green Energy at Pulsant, and our offices all use Octopus Energy, all sourced from green sources. Simple.
We also bulk-buy all of our office supplies in environmentally friendly packaging. Reducing packaging waste and courier visits.
The Point:
If they won’t give you a straight answer about being green, they probably aren’t. The real green companies love talking about it because they’re proud of what they do. For us, it’s just the norm.
