I've blogged in the past about green certification labels such as Energy Star, EPEAT, and LEED. Some of these certifications have commercial value as customers express a preference for doing business with green certified companies or products even if costs may be higher. Some have commercial value by virtue of government requirements for purchasing green-certified products, such as EPEAT. This trend of touting green credentials is bound to grow, and now it's grown to website hosting.

At first, I admit I was puzzled by this concept. I can understand picking up a piece of paper and wanting to know if it's certified paper, from sustainable forests and printed with soy ink, etc. But how can a website claim it's green?

1&1 Internet, which claims to be the "world's largest web host by known servers," is now allowing its customers to use a "green logo" on their website that says "Website powered by 1&1 Green Hosting." Curious about this claim, especially in light of pretty tough UK laws on false advertising, I dug deeper. It turns out that since December 2007, 1&1 supplies ALL its European data centers with electrical power from renewable sources like wind, water, or solar. It has a data center in Kansas that is also "fully green-certified." The company claims to be the first globally green Web host on the planet, and that its efforts will offset emission of over 30,000 tons of CO2 per year.

I'll confess that my skepticism surrounding these green certifications and labels is still there. It is impressive, though, that a webhosting company has gone to completely renewable power in all its data centers. I wish them well, and I'll be curious to see if the green hosting labels begin to turn some commercial profit for their customers.