Green Solutions
Evolved Solutions; expand, adapt, change, now powered on 130% renewable energy!

Here’s something you may not know: the IT sector has a huge climate impact. At present, between 3 and 4 percent of all electricity (and the associated carbon emissions) used in the world goes to running data centers. If you’re one of the four and a half million registered users of Second Life, consider this: the average Second Life avatar consumes 1,752 kWh of electricity per year, or about two thirds that of an actual person (globally averaged). One server alone has roughly the same climate impact as a 15mpg SUV!

Climate change is real, it’s happening now, and we as a planet desperately need to reduce our IT emissions. And if we wait for the government to solve the problem, we’ll be waiting for a long, long, LONG time.

Evolved Solutions has joined the ranks of many progressive companies including: Starbucks, IBM, and UPS to take action on addressing climate change right now.

What makes Evolved Solution's program so special?
Green CertifiedIf you’re thinking about switching to green hosting, good for you! Green hosting is an important step in dealing with climate change. But be aware- once you start asking some questions you’ll find that not all of the “green” hosting options out there are nearly as green as they claim to be. Evolved Solution’s program stands out from the pack for a number of reasons.

One, Evolved Solutions is using renewable energy to both power and cool their servers, whereas a number of green hosts only offset the electricity used to power their servers. That represents a big difference, because servers generate a lot of heat. For every watt of electricity that a server uses, 1-2 watts of electricity are typically required to cool it. What that means is that Evolved Solutions is investing in about twice as much renewable energy, on a per server basis, as those green hosts only using renewable energy to power their servers.

Two, Evolved Solutions has invested in Green-e certified Renewable Energy Credits (RECs). Green-e is run by the Center for Resource Solutions, and both sets standards for US renewable energy project and verifies those projects. Green-e certified RECs are verified, tracked and monitored. Sure, there are cheaper carbon credits out there, but Evolved Solutions wanted to go green the right way.

What is a REC?
Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) are tradeable credits representing all the environmental benefits of 1 megawatt hour of renewable energy. So when datacenter provider purchases wind RECs, it’s basically paying a windfarm to generate renewable energy on Evolved Solution’s behalf. Evolved Solutions doesn’t own the windfarm, but for every REC purchased by Evolved Solutions, that windfarm generates 1 megawatt of wind power and puts it into the grid. When Evolved Solutions draws power from the grid, it can then claim credit for that wind power generated on its behalf.

Three, Evolved Solutions has purchased RECs for 130% of the electricity used to power and cool its shared and reseller servers. Good luck finding another green host that has gone this far.

Four, Evolved Solutions has invested entirely in wind RECs generated locally. Even those green hosts that have opted for Green-e certified RECs are generally sourcing them from wherever is cheapest.

Green REC Diagram

So how did we develop and implement the greening program?
First, we calculated the total amount of electricity used by our datacenter shared & dedicated servers. Based on the total number of servers and the average amount of electricity used in a year to power and cool them, we estimated that our datacenter would need 4,009 MWh of electricity to offset 130% of the electricity used to power and cool all of Evolved Solution’s shared and dedicated servers.

Second, we looked at Evolved Solution’s carbon offsetting options. We considered RECs, Certified Emission Reductions and Verified Emission reductions, as well as a number of offset providers. Ultimately, Evolved Solutions chose to go with RECs, and to purchase them from one of the best REC providers around: 3Degrees.

RECs and CERs and VERs.
RECs aren’t the only offsetting option out there, there is also Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) and Voluntary/Verified Emission Reductions (VERs). The main difference between the three is this: each REC represents 1 additional megawatt of North American wind power, whereas each CER or VER represents one metric ton of reduced or avoided carbon dioxide emissions. CERs and VERs can be generated from a whole range of projects (fuel switching, forestry, changes in industrial processes, etc.), but RECs can only be created by the production of renewable energy.

So why do RECs make the most sense for Evolved Solutions? RECs enable Evolved Solutions to green its energy right at the source and support the development of clean power, rather than simply paying another company to not pollute.

Finally, we should emphasize that the purchase of Renewable Energy Credits only represents Evolved Solution’s most recent step toward sustainability. Prior to the REC purchase, Evolved Solutions had already begun the process of reducing their environmental impact by recently switching to higher efficiency servers.

Going Green - WebhostingWhat can you do to minimize your impact on the climate?
Well, for one thing you can switch your hosting company to Evolved Solutions, if you’re not already a customer of ours! You can choose from one of their great shared or dedicated plans.

Beyond that, there are myriad ways to go green in your personal life. Most of them are totally painless, for example turning off your computer at night, rather than leaving it in sleep mode. Many of them will save you money in the long run, for example using compact fluorescent bulbs instead of incandescents.

For a quick start, check out CarbonTracker.com’s list of 11 simple steps you can take to minimize your impact on the climate. For even more information, the Environmental Protection Agency has a ton of info on the subject: (EPA) and last if your local in the Tidewater area check out (Tidewater Climate Action Network)