What is green web hosting?

Green web hosting means the servers running your website are powered by renewable electricity, or the host buys renewable energy on your behalf. In practice providers achieve this in different ways: directly powering data centres with renewables, signing long-term power purchase agreements, or buying renewable energy certificates such as REGOs in the UK. All three are commonly marketed as green hosting, but they are not equivalent.

Does green hosting reduce my website's carbon footprint?

It reduces one part of it. Estimated website emissions come from the data centre, the networks that carry the data and the visitor's own device. Renewable-powered hosting lowers the data-centre share, which is typically the smaller portion. The page itself — its images, scripts and total weight — drives the rest, which is why we treat hosting as one lever alongside performance work.

How do I check whether my web host is green?

Ask the host directly for their energy source and any supporting documentation: renewable supply contracts, certificates, data-centre PUE figures and which specific facility your site sits in. Third-party directories such as the Green Web Foundation list self-declared and evidenced green hosts. Treat a marketing page as a claim, not proof.

Is eco friendly hosting more expensive?

Usually not by much. Green and eco friendly web hosting plans sit in the same price range as mainstream shared, VPS and managed WordPress hosting. Cost differences tend to come from the performance tier, support level and location of the data centre rather than the energy source.

What should I look for in green WordPress hosting?

The same things that make any WordPress host good — server-level caching, a recent PHP version, HTTP/2 or HTTP/3, image optimisation support, a CDN and servers near your audience — plus evidence for the energy claims. Faster infrastructure moves fewer bytes and holds connections open for less time, so performance and lower estimated emissions tend to arrive together.

Is carbon neutral hosting the same as green hosting?

No, and the distinction matters. Providers describing hosting as carbon neutral or net zero are usually combining their energy mix with purchased offsets. Offsets are outside the scope of what CarbonVerified assesses. We report estimated emissions from your website's data transfer and recognise reductions you can evidence, and we never state that a website is carbon neutral.

Will switching to a green host improve my Google PageSpeed score?

Only if the new host is faster. Green energy on its own does not change your Lighthouse score. Server response time, time to first byte and caching do, so a move is worth making when it improves both the energy source and the infrastructure.

Does CarbonVerified sell or recommend hosting?

No. We are not a hosting provider and we take no affiliate commission from hosts. We assess the website in front of us, report estimated emissions and Lighthouse performance, and verify improvements against evidence you supply — including hosting changes you have made.

Guide

Green web hosting

Green web hosting means running your site on renewable electricity — but the claims behind it vary a lot, and your host only controls part of your website's estimated carbon footprint. Here is what eco friendly and sustainable hosting actually proves, how to verify a provider's claim, and where the rest of your footprint comes from.

Check estimated CO2 per pageview, page weight and Lighthouse PageSpeed scores. Free with a trial account. No account needed.

The short version

Worth doing. Renewable-powered hosting genuinely lowers the data-centre part of your estimate.
Not the whole picture. Network transfer and visitor devices are driven by page weight, which hosting does not fix.
Ask for evidence. Direct renewable supply, power purchase agreements and certificates are not equivalent.
Watch the wording. Carbon neutral hosting usually means offsets, which we do not count as reduction.

These figures are modelled estimates and should not be interpreted as direct measurements of electricity use or greenhouse gas emissions.

Definitions

What eco friendly and sustainable web hosting actually means

Green hosting, eco hosting, eco friendly hosting and sustainable web hosting are used interchangeably by providers, and none of them is a regulated term. What separates them is the evidence underneath. These are the four claim types you will encounter, strongest first.

Directly powered by renewables

The data centre draws its electricity from on-site or contracted renewable generation. This is the strongest form of green hosting and the easiest to evidence with supply contracts.

Power purchase agreements

The host commits to buying a fixed volume of renewable generation over several years. Credible, and it funds new capacity, but the electrons reaching the rack still come from the grid mix.

Renewable energy certificates

The host buys certificates such as UK REGOs or international RECs to match its consumption. Widely used and legitimate accounting, but it says little about the physical grid supplying the facility.

Offsets and carbon neutral claims

Emissions are calculated then compensated through offset purchases. This is outside the scope of what CarbonVerified assesses, and it is not the same as running on renewable electricity.

Scope

How much of your carbon footprint does hosting control?

Every estimate of website emissions splits across three places. Your host owns one of them. That is why we lead with performance work: shrinking the page reduces all three at once, while switching host only addresses the first.

Data centre

The share your host controls. Green hosting reduces it, and a well-run facility with a low PUE reduces it further.

Network transfer

The energy used moving your page across the internet. Determined by how many bytes you send, not by who hosts them.

Visitor devices

Phones and laptops rendering your page. Heavy JavaScript and oversized images push this up regardless of hosting.

How we model website emissions

WordPress

What to look for in green WordPress hosting

For WordPress specifically, the energy source and the infrastructure quality should be judged together. A renewable-powered host on old PHP with no caching will still make your site slower and heavier than a well-tuned alternative.

Server-level caching beats plugin caching

Hosts that cache at the edge or in NGINX serve WordPress pages without invoking PHP at all. Fewer server cycles, faster responses, lower estimated emissions per pageview.

A current PHP version and tuned database

Older PHP releases and unoptimised queries make every uncached request more expensive. Green WordPress hosting that runs behind on PHP is doing more work than it needs to.

Image handling at the host or CDN

Automatic WebP or AVIF conversion and correctly sized delivery usually cuts more page weight than any hosting switch, because images dominate most WordPress pages.

Servers near your audience

A UK audience served from a UK or European region moves data over shorter paths. Combine that with a CDN and both your Core Web Vitals and your transfer estimate improve.

Due diligence

Six questions for a green hosting provider

Send these before you migrate. A provider with a real renewable position answers all six without hesitation, and the answers double as evidence if you later apply for verification.

01Which data centre is my site physically in, and what is its PUE?
02Is the renewable claim based on direct supply, a power purchase agreement, or certificates?
03Can you send the supporting contracts or certificates, and for which year?
04Are offsets included in the claim, and if so for which emissions?
05What is typical time to first byte for a site on my plan?
06Is server-level caching, HTTP/3 and a CDN included, or an add-on?

Credibility

Hosting claims we will not repeat about your website

A green host is a legitimate improvement and good evidence for a verification application. It is not a licence for these statements, and our badge never makes them.

That green hosting makes a website carbon neutral, net zero or zero carbon
That renewable energy certificates measure the electricity your servers consumed
That offsets bought by a host cancel out your website's estimated emissions
That switching host alone improves your Lighthouse or Core Web Vitals scores

Common questions

Green web hosting FAQs

See what your current setup scores

Before you change host, check the page itself. You will usually find more saving in images and scripts than in the data centre.

Check a website How verification works