For several years, Site Street has been a subscriber of Austin Energy's GreenChoice program. This program means that the electricity that powers my data center comes from renewable sources... specifically wind turbines and biogas. I subscribed almost immediately after they started the program. I'm sure partly because Austin is such a environmentally-conscious city, the Austin Energy GreenChoice program is the #1 program in the nation and has been for years.
Recently, I'm sure because of rising oil prices, other hosting companies are jumping on the green energy bandwagon. In fact, one company right here in Austin recently put out a press release claiming to be the first web hosting company in Austin to do so. Congratulations for joining the party. I suppose it's my fault for not putting out my own press release... but it just tweaks me that they're getting credit for something they should have been doing from the beginning.
Then I read this article on C|Net's blog about a hosting company in Portland subscribing to wind and solar power. Their program is different than the one in Austin but has the same effect. It's not that the power from green sources flows directly into the servers... but that for the amount of power used in the data center, that much less is generated by non-renewable sources.
What is interesting about that host is that they really flaunt the "greenness" of their service... to the point that they encourage their clients to do so as well. I wonder if there is value in creating an icon or something for clients to place on their websites that not only boasts to the environmentally friendly nature of the site but also sends a little marketing my way.