Web Hosts, Digital Efficiency and Sustainability

Ethical MarketsResource Efficiency

By Rosalinda Sanquiche
Executive Director
May 23, 2008

Ethical Markets Media LLC makes every endeavor to be sustainable. We use recycled paper, and we recycle our toner cartridges. We monitor the thermostat and ride our bikes to work. And, we make a concerted effort to promote and APPLY digital efficiency. We’re hosted on the most digitally efficient service we could find.

AISO.net has provided environmentally conscious web hosting since 1997. Featured in Inc. Magazines’ Top 50 Green Companies, in the Wall Street Journal, Wired Magazine

 

, ComputerWorld, PC World, the Environmental Defense Fund and many others, AISO.net is the first and currently the only public data center member of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Why the press? AISO owns and operates its own data center and network that is 100% powered by solar panels.

The 120 solar panels feeding AISO.net are impressive, but AISO didn’t stop there. The data center is steel framed with no wood except for interior door frames. Their 12-inch thick walls are filled with insulation made from recycled content. Their data center, network and servers were designed to use the lowest amount of energy possible using the latest green design techniques. In addition to windows, solar tubes bring in natural sunlight, eliminating the use of conventional lighting during the day. Cooling systems are water cooled, a method which reduces the amount of electricity needed. They are in the process of designing a green roof for the data center – 3 to 4 inches of dirt supporting drought resistant plants – which they expect will reduce cooling & heating requirements by over 50%.

Sustainability is thinking beyond today or tomorrow. It’s paying the extra dollar for a far future benefit. It’s being a role model. Retreating to simple measures – a natural roof – or applying the most efficient technology available, perhaps the query to what is sustainability is better answered by addressing what it isn’t. It isn’t wasteful or conformist. It isn’t stagnant or one-size. It doesn’t wait. We can’t wait.