FatCow.com Now Munching On Green Energy Certificates

President Obama’s plans for a green economy have been discussed at length in the main stream US media, with renewable energy sources being an important part of the program.

Naturally (pun intended!), Big Business and Government are going to play a major role in how this all shakes out.

But don’t underestimate the actions of individual ‘consumers’ and small businesses in bringing grass roots demand for ‘green energy’ into the minds of the energy producers and politicians.

This is already happening in the web hosting industry, as providers realize there are both environmental and marketing advantages in going green.

Take FatCow.com’s July 25th press release http://www.prweb.com/releases/fat/cow/prweb2673464.htm, where they announced that its “offices and data centers are now 100 percent powered by wind energy.”

Good job!

Just for a minute or two, I’d visions of the moo-crew (their words!) lassoing a windmill or two and hooking it up to their server farms!

Humor aside, FatCow.com are to be applauded for making their business more environmentally friendly. And they’re not shy about displaying their new earth-friendly credentials on the homepage. (This is smart marketing 101 – if you’re a FatCow customer you clearly want them to stay in business.)

“We’re offsetting all of our electricity use by purchasing wind-generated Renewable Energy Certificates,” explains Paul Bukhovko, FatCow’s Marketing Manager, “providing our customers with an environmentally preferable Web hosting solution.”

The Press Release details how the REC purchase is equal to offsetting approximately 2,260 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, the impact of which is equivalent to planting about 2,390 acres of trees each year or not driving 6.1 million miles.

By now, perhaps you’re wondering what’s a wind-generated Renewable Energy Certificates? (REC.)

The answer can be found in FatCow’s relationship with ‘Community Energy Inc. ‘ http://www.newwindenergy.com/ whose mission is to supply the demand for fuel-free energy through the construction of new wind farms.

Look closer and you’ll see that CEI’s parent company is one of the world’s biggest wind power generation companies.

What RECs help do is make it more economical for energy providers to generate renewable energy and add it to the US electricity grid. Every unit of renewable energy added to the grid implies a non-renewable energy unit was not required.

For more information on RECs, there is a useful Flash presentation and also a white paper on the CEI website: http://www.newwindenergy.com/businesses/get-started/ (You have to register for free to get the info.)

FatCow have made a clear commitment to wind generated RECs. It will be fascinating to watch how the adoption of RECs by the web hosting industry reflects their customers’ demands for ‘green hosting’.

So if you’re looking for a reliable web hosting company while helping the environment, visit FatCow.

Links

• FatCow Review
• FatCow Coupon Code