What does your online presence say about your business?

About your website While you may not be able to hold and feel, and therefore throw away a website, like paper, it too may consume it's share of natural resources on behalf of the business and or the visitor. What most people fail to realize is the amount of energy required to run the websites we visit everyday. Each website is hosted on a server. The server environment requires temperature control, backup energy sources, natural disaster resistant infrastructure, and security measures; all of this runs all day, every day. However, there are measures that many website hosts are taking today to decrease the amount of energy they are using. For example, some may use energy efficient hardware that may also decrease the space and resources needed to house the server. Other hosts might offset carbon emissions by purchasing carbon credits. Your business can also do this on its own, but there are arguments against the effectiveness of this measure. The actual facility your website is hosted in may also be powered with renewable energy methods such as solar or wind power. Apart from the energy your website is directly using every time called upon by a visitor, you must also consider the energy your visitor uses while viewing it. A visitor to a site using Flash, or Flash banner ads that scroll while you are viewing a website, will consume more energy than a static site would. Read more about how your visitors consume energy by viewing your website and others <a href="http://www.sectheory.com/browser-power-consumption.htm">here</a>. About selling your goods online The Green Design Institute at Carnegie Mellon this past December performed a study to compare the use of energy and carbon dioxide emissions used in traditional and e-commerce retail portals. Using buy.com as a case study, they found that e-commerce was in fact more Earth friendly. In more specific findings, e-commerce actually had an approximate 30% lower use of energy and carbon dioxide emissions. Find out more by <a href="http://www.ce.cmu.edu/~greendesign/research/Buy_com_report_final_030209.pdf&quot;&gt;reading the report.&lt;/a&gt;">reading the report</a>. About telecommuting and networking online A hot topic today among those who are looking for the 'work from wherever' lifestyle is cloud computing. Cloud computing is working with applications, or saved materials online and not from your desktop. Going online to find items you would otherwise find on your computer makes your business accessible from anywhere. You are now able to work from home, on the road, and in your office. Cloud computing, also known as Software as a Service (or SaaS), uses less energy and other natural resources, not to mention company money. This limits the need for laptops, and other pieces of hardware by allowing for documents to be accessed from any computer around the world. To read more about how cloud computing could aid in saving the planet and also more about its drawbacks go to <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090416105350.htm">ScienceDaily</a>. In terms of forgoing the commute to a networking event, or eliminating air travel to meet with colleagues, networking online may also have its downsides. When using a chat room, or viewing any type of news feed that keeps an open connection with servers you are consuming more energy than you are when simply browsing static pages. Many advances in technologies are being made to calm the increased energy usage from servers meeting the needs of Web 2.0. Read more about these new technologies at <a href="http://earth2tech.com/2009/04/15/twitters-an-energy-guzzler-other-hard-truths-for-web-20-app-addicts/">earth2tech</a>. About positive actions Last month, we celebrated Earth Day. The US Government website explains that Earth Day is “a time to celebrate gains we have made and create new visions to accelerate environmental progress… a time to unite around new actions… a time to act to protect our planet.” New technology is constantly being created that makes our lives more efficient and safe. The same can be said about their corresponding impact on the environment. What actions is your small business taking to protect the environment today? What big plans do you have for the future? We hope you take some time to explore the ways in which the added value you are providing your clientele can also help to save the value of our natural resources. 2009-05-08T22:33:37Z