Number 17 of May 2010, GreenGeeks another greenwashed company. When I loaded this site the first thing I thought was that this company looked like another company I reviewed.
Side by side this company looks a lot like iPage. But from there I have a trouble finding any other similarities. They are owned by different entires on separate parts of the country. They are not even on the same network. Asides for the same chat program I am not sure if there is much else that would connect them. But I think there may be a connection, more then just a shared theme.
But the real problem is this is a greenwashed company, not a green host. Their big claim to being green is that they buy energy credits, but so does British Petroleum. At this point its hard to imagine BP having any positive environmental impact. There is not a lot of detail given by companies that offer green credits for sale.
Greengeeks have alot of links that are in reference to being a green host.
The first link is
http://www.greengeeks.com/going-green/new-earth-day.php
Here you find a link to this company,
I am not sure if I am correct in my assumption but it looks like you pay them per every page view you get or you are paying for traffic that you get from their site. That or you can buy traffic from them. But its unclear how this offsets carbon. Not to mention this site seems to have mostly .dk / Denmark domains, which may have to do with them being from Denmark. Not that I have a problem with doing business with a foreign company, but I like to know details. For an organization that does so much, there are so few webpages with data on how they do it. Not everyone sees the green movement as a way of life, some see it as something to capitalize on. There also those that see that they don’t have to be green to capitalize off of the green sector. Those are companies that are called greenwashed. Its not clear as to what Greengeeks gets from this company other then a fancy banner, and perhaps greengeeks gets traffic.
On the same page I find their reseller program GreenResellerWebHosting.com, where you can sell unlimited reseller accounts. I have a hard time believing that unlimited hosting can be associated with quality hosting, let alone a company claiming to be a green host. Green and efficient are two words that come to mind when being eco-friendly Effiecent technology is not cheap in the beginning, and for that matter technology thats not part of the main trend is not cheap. The cheaper the hosting cost, the more customers the company needs to pile in to make a profit.
http://www.greengeeks.com/why-us/wu-green.php
They have made the claim : “It is important that this industry becomes green and GreenGeeks is the world’s most eco-friendly web hosting company” Other then a lot of pages telling people what to do and how they can be green. There is nothing to show exactly how green they are, the biggest thing that is missing are the numbers. Numbers like the amount of electrify that they use per year. Details are also missing like what company is receiving money to run wind generators. I am looking at actual hosting companies that have their own data centers at buildings built from the ground up to be green. Which include solar power straight to the source. Not buying offsets. They can be claim to leaning towards green when they talk about rigorous recycling of paper, but nothing in regards to equipment. But clearly they a recycle text from their web pages.
The finale link I am going to review is http://www.greengeeks.com/going-green/epa-partner.php
From here I find a link to the EPA.
http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/partners/partners/greengeeksllc.htm
I decided to contact the EPA, because I wanted to know if you really had to provide any proof in order to be a member.
__________________________________________________
Email Exchange with the EPA
From: Benjamin
To: Matt Clouse/DC/USEPA/US@EPA, Blaine Collison/DC/USEPA/US@EPA,Allison Dennis/DC/USEPA/US@EPA
Date: 08/03/2010 05:18 PM
Subject: In regards to green power partnership
Hello Matt, Blaine, or Allison,
I was wonder what documentation I would have to provide to be part of the green power partnership.
Thank you for your assistance.
Benjamin
To: Benjamin
From: [email protected]
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2010 17:21:10 -0400
Subject: Re: In regards to green power partnership
Benjamin,
Thanks for your inquiry. The information requirements are included in
the Partnership Agreement here:
http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/documents/gpp_partnership_agreement.pdf
The program is designed to cover only commercial & institutional sector purchases. We’re not able to recognize residential partners at this time.
I hope this is helpful. Please let me know if you have additional questions.
Blaine
From: Benjamin
To: Blaine Collison/DC/USEPA/US@EPA
Date: 08/03/2010 06:35 PM
Subject: RE: In regards to green power patnership
Hello Blaine,
I am not seeing what the EPA requires an organization to submit as valid proof of participation. From what I see you merely take the word of the submitter as opposed to any documentation. Is this the case, or do you require copies of receipts and other valid documentation?
Regards,
Benjamin
Subject: RE: In regards to green power partnership
To: Benjamin
From: [email protected]
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2010 19:10:30 -0400
Ah. Right you are, Benjamin. We don’t require that partners submit proof of purchase. We do, however, check our lists partners with the listed providers once or twice/year: This is what we think we have, could you, the providers, please confirm our understanding of your clients’ numbers?
Hope that helps.
Blaine
RE: In regards to green power partnership
8/03/10
From: Benjamin
To: [email protected]
Hello Blaine,
I am actually contacting you for research in regards to green credits. So far I am not finding any information from the companies that provide credits and those using the credits. One of the companies that I am looking at is listed in your Green Power Partnership. But the only numbers that are given is 300%. There is no number telling me what their on the grid power consumption is. Or what companies the credit seller is getting the wind credit from.
I find it rather disturbing that the credit sellers, the companies that buy the credits, and the EPA are not disclosing numbers, facts. documentation and reasoning that a company is using renewable energy.
Benjamin
__________________________________________________
I never got a response back to my email from the EPA. But it clear you do not have to give them valid proof to be in their green power partnership. Without numbers and other data they can not prove that they are a green host. Other then a lot of pages GreenGeeks has no relevant proof they are green,
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