162 Comments

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1. 1

   You’re not at all worried that all these carbon offset trusts are just someone’s bright idea how to make an awful lot of money very quickly, cashing in on globalwarming™, and in turn do absolutely nothing, well maybe donate some of the money, but how much do they take for themselves? I’m very sceptical, especially as you might as well be buying a product which you will never see, at least I haven’t seen any wind or solar plants popping up where I live.

   Governments should simply introduce voluntary green taxes and use the money to build renewable energy sources in those countries, at least then when the budget comes around everyone can see what is actually being done.

   I must be missing something?

   Comment by Nenad — April 20, 2007 #

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   I’m very impressed. Thank you for going carbon neutral, Dreamhost.

   Comment by Happy Dreamhost Customer — April 20, 2007 #

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   What do you mean

   “We’ve switched to using coffee cups made from fully renewable resources”

   Disposable cups?

   Get some mugs and wash the damn dishes.

   Comment by Nick — April 20, 2007 #

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   er….

   kudos to you on the rest of it though. Well done

   Comment by Nick — April 20, 2007 #

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   > Get some mugs and wash the damn dishes.

   This greatly overestimates the ability for DreamHost employees to wash dishes in a consistent and timely manner.

   We’ve tried that, before, but suffice to say while we’ve always been for introducing a diverse culture to our offices that’s not quite what we had in mind…

   - Jeff @ DreamHost

   Comment by Jeff @ DreamHost — April 20, 2007 #

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   It’s a catch-22.

   If you wash dishes you’re dirtying water that empties out into the ocean.

   Renewable coffee cups are compostable!

   Comment by Mike Frisco — April 20, 2007 #

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   Does this mean you are going to fix your down time issues?

   Comment by Dustin — April 20, 2007 #

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   Well, this is all nice to hear.

   But wouldn’t it be more effective to spend the money on redundancy and better infrastructure so as to reduce all the hot air released by customers who are having issues? Wouldn’t the hot air reduction count for something?

   :P

   Comment by Aj — April 20, 2007 #

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   Aj -

   We are continuously spending large amounts of money to improve redundancy and revising infrastructure.

   Doing one does not preclude the other.

   - Jeff @ DreamHost

   Comment by Jeff @ DreamHost — April 20, 2007 #

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    Why are you wasting the money I pay you on some pie in the sky fraud that does nothing toward providing the service I pay you to provide? All you are doing is making my bill higher than it would otherwise be, and giving your competitors a leg up on cost. This global warming scam is a ruse aimed at imposing world-wide socialism. Catch up with the truth, look through the hype. Take it straight from Al, the “inventor of the internet…”

    Comment by Skeptic — April 20, 2007 #

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    The idea that global warming is caused by carbon has been become one of the biggest political activist movements of our generation. Politicians pay scientists to give them the answers that they like, i.e. “global warming is caused by CO2.” Unfortunately, real science is inconclusive at best on the CO2 issue. It is much more likely that our climate cycle is driven largely by solar cycles, so maybe you should really look for some kind of solar offset credits to waste your money on!

    Al Gore and these so-called green-energy businesses are just laughing all the way to the bank while people who know no better buy into their fantasy world ideas about global warming.

    Comment by Mike — April 20, 2007 #

12. 12

    Oh.. I forgot to add… when called out on the issue, those who have “bought in” to this scam tend to weep, wail, gnash teeth, pull out hair, and of course call dissenters all kinds of nasty, insulting names… so before you decide to reply with those sorts of reactions, please know that I’m fine with that, I find it quite entertaining, and it clearly bolsters my opinion of the issue…

    Comment by Skeptic — April 20, 2007 #

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    Thanks for caring. Thanks for doing something positive, and doing it proudly in the face of declining yet persistent cynicism. Staying the course, you’ll find two things:

    1. that the only negative comments you’ll ever get are from people who mention money.

    and, logically

    2. a sustainable economy is the future. There’s simply no way to avoid it living on a planet with a finite amount of resources and a population growing at an exponential rate.

    Comment by Robert — April 20, 2007 #

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    @Skeptic:

    I agree that the crazy idea that ‘pollution is bad’ is a scam. As part of an effort to raise awareness about this incredible scam-o-rama, I have organized an internet protest and petition called ‘Tail Pipes Across America.’ All this week we will be taking signatures to send to capitol hill to tell the government and its cronies to get their noses out of our garages! Sunday will be the culminating event when we will all, from the privacy of our own garages, Suck A Tailpipe. Proving once and for all that pollution is awesome and a fundamental right.

    See ya there!

    Comment by Wondering — April 21, 2007 #

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    Let me ask first; Is the datacenter(s) recycling the excess heat?

    I am glad that environmental friendliness has come in vogue though, it actually pays off to be environmental friendly which makes industries to jump on the bandwagon. (not to mention the PR-value)

    However, China has made no efforts to become environmental friendly and nor did Indida. Why is this important? Well, they are two of the biggest industrial powers in the world and they are continuing to grow by the second. If these two (and a couple of other major players) aren’t implementing the Kyoto agreement, it is half-useless imo.

    The USA did refuse into the longest to sign the Kyoto agreement, which is quite a shame for the nation’s government. Though it is not too late to make amends. (And not only on the co2 issue)

    A long rant, but it is good news that Dreamhost is using this opportunity to both create more awareness of the issue, but also being able to get some publicity.

    Good work! :)

    Comment by Henrik — April 21, 2007 #

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    Skeptic -

    > …and of course call dissenters all kinds of nasty, insulting
    > names… so before you decide to reply with those sorts of
    > reactions, please know that I’m fine with that, I find

    While my guess is that you probably would be fine with that, we’re not going to call anyone any names. What would be the point of that?

    The nice part about this whole thing is that we’re doing it on a completely voluntary basis - entailing no Federal tax hikes, extra regulation, etc. aimed toward you or anyone else.

    While the costs to us are significant, they’re not so high that we’re going to raise our rates, either. At best, we do our own little part to leave a better environment for our children. At worst, we leave a somewhat smaller profit for ourselves every quarter. Either way, no skin off your nose.

    I’m actually a free market kind of guy, personally, and hardly a fan of socialism - so if more and more private companies do their part voluntarily, the socialist dystopia you refer to can be avoided. Free market economy FTW! :)

    Regards,

    - Jeff @ DreamHost

    Comment by Jeff @ DreamHost — April 21, 2007 #

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    I got “dragged” into the “Green Zone” last summer during one of my drunken Bar-B-Cue bashes; a party guest went through all my trash and extracted all the plastic utensils. Wow…just, wow!

    Comment by rlparker — April 21, 2007 #

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    Somewhere up in the heavens, P.T. Barnum is turning to Saint Peter and saying, “Told you so!”

    Comment by Mac — April 21, 2007 #

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    @rlparker

    Now we know why u do (used to) spend so much time on these foruns… lol
    You are afraid of organizing more BaC
    lol
    just kidding rlparker.

    Comment by BUGabundo — April 21, 2007 #

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    [...] this is quite cool. My awesome webhost, Dreamhost, is now Carbon Neutral. that means that the websites I run are carbon [...]

    Pingback by X-Tra Rant » I Run A Green Website — April 21, 2007 #

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    This post must be SCAM or JOKE take your pick! It ran on so long I didn’t have the patience to read it all. I am not sure which. However when anyone tells you they magically whisked away CO2 and can still power their business you know somewhere the math does not tally out correctly. Trees do not sequester CO2, they merely store it until they fall down and rot. Rot being a slow burn it re-releases the CO2. Thus any tree schemes are a scam. If this post is not a joke then its a sickening example of how people and businesses “go with the crowd think”. Only a sap believes the MMGW (man made global warming) story. Its the newest age religion of our day ( to be replaced soon by something else? ). These thing have such a tangible feel like the tattoo craze or disco in the 70’s. Only the technically untalented socially maladept fall for it. And thus it goes….another layer of phoniness gets painted over our culture taking it that many more steps towards completely OCD neurotic socialist behavior. I have to tell you having lived throught the 70’s this country gets less and less cool year that passes. But that is not due to CO2, its due to people who want to be “part of something”, even if that something is a sham.

    Comment by fred — April 21, 2007 #

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    BTW: Composting cups is equivalent to slowing burning the cup. Thus creating and equal amount of CO2. Bacteria and fungi involved in the biodegradation process eat energy bearing material and use it in their metabolism just like you and I do. Thus you can burn the cup or feed the cup to the bacteria, you are doing the same thing. To any who want to find out why the earth warms or cools over the ages watch THE GREAT GLOBAL WARMING SWINDLE. It becomes readily apparent that todays slight warming is due to increased solar activity.

    Comment by Fred — April 21, 2007 #

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    [...] This morning when I logged on to view stats I saw a note about dreamhost going green. [...]

    Pingback by » Internet Service Provider Snaps Fingers-Carbon Dioxide Magically Dissappears — April 21, 2007 #

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    Not so sure the Offset credit craze is really functional, and not just a bubble of ‘goldrush’ that will end up wasting money and causing more destructive ends than originally planned (thinking about the worts of things companies are doing to ‘offset’ the pollution doesn’t make me any more optimistic…dropping iron into the ocean to create coral reefs…sounds cool, but is it??? etc). However, it’s a start! And at least you’re moving in the green direction. Seriously! I would love to have a full article write up about this move. Could we do an interview? I’d like to know more of the why’s and future plans of DreamHost as far as greening the company is concerned.

    I’ve updated my dreamhost referral link images to Green! http://www.humanecologyforum.org

    Keep it up! Sersiouly, write me and let me know if a more formal/detailed piece could be made about the move to go green, and more on the future directions of Dreamhost and the greening process. I’d love to talk more directly with you, as a student of Human Ecology, i’m interested to hear you’re thoughts.

    Comment by Chris Ward — April 21, 2007 #

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    Why do you people come here to complain? No one wants to hear your conspiracy theory on how Global Warming is bullshit. Go make your own blog for this.

    To fred: Trees do release CO2 while decaying, but the rate of decay is significantly slower than the rate at which we, as a civilization, utilize and release the gas.

    I totally respect Dreamhost for going a little out of their way to make a big statement. Whether these so-called ‘Carbon Credits’ are real or not, it’s a step in the right direction and it’s making it TRENDY to be environmentally concerned. Big businesses that are not truly concerned, will join in just so they can make people feel warm and fuzzy too.

    If more and more companies jump on the bandwagon, it can only mean good things for the world we live in.

    Thanks Dreamhost.

    Comment by Chris — April 21, 2007 #

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    You’re not any greener than before you idiots, you just bought your way out of it, since it’s “cool” to be green these days.

    Comment by Armin — April 21, 2007 #

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    Good work Dreamhost. We at http://www.appropedia.org have been discussing how to get a greener host. Thank you for taking the first steps. The next step is to focus on efficiency and reduction. Most businesses can greatly reduce their impact by engaging in conservative efforts that often pay for themselves. Your local energy authority should be able to help you. In addition feel free to leave a message at http://www.appropedia.org/A:VP where our vibrant body of contributors can help to give you advice. Next we can start working on the tax rebated photovoltaic system. -Lonny

    Comment by Lonny — April 21, 2007 #

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    Good work Dreamhost. We at http://www.appropedia.org have been discussing how to get a greener host. Thank you for taking the first steps. The next step is to focus on efficiency and reduction. Most businesses can greatly reduce their impact by engaging in conservative efforts that often pay for themselves. Your local energy authority should be able to help you. In addition, feel free to leave a message at http://www.appropedia.org/A:VP where our vibrant body of contributors can help to give you advice. Next we can start working on the tax rebated photovoltaic system. -Lonny

    Comment by Lonny — April 21, 2007 #

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    If this worked out to about eighty thousand dollars per year you are better off purchasing windmill and solar generators. It’s much better than lining the pockets who intend to “work” on the problem. It’s just a pyramid scheme.

    Comment by Way to waste money — April 21, 2007 #

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    [...] company that I use to host this site, along with thinkerlabs and un’ed.i.ted spirituality has gone green. That’s right they are carbon-neutral… sort of. They are buying carbon credits to [...]

    Pingback by jeremyduncan.ca » Blog Archive » Random Musings — April 21, 2007 #

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    Anyone who is interested in really critically thinking about the issues involved should follow the links included here in the post and read the information provided. Your cynicism is understandable and everyone needs to make up their own mind about how to best manage their long-term impact on the Earth. You can and should direct questions you have about the viability of these ‘carbon offsets’ to those organizations. They are dedicated to their mission and are here to help everyone understand the situation more clearly.

    We’re not a company to blindly follow trends, but we’re also not so proud as to not jump on a bandwagon when it might help our own bottom line. We have done our own research and have determined that the impact of the step we have taken is significant and real. It is not the end-all be-all of environmental action but it is a step that is easily within the grasp of every American company doing business. We would love it if this action wasn’t PR-worthy at all because it would mean that our country and planet was just that much closer to realizing full energy sustainability.

    The concept of purchasing carbon offsets to make our own negative impact on the environment disappear in a puff of smoke is abstract and not immediately comprehendible. Generating our own clean power as companies like Google have started doing would definitely be better and an even more powerful statement, but that’s just not possible for us at the moment. Now that we have committed to expending money to offset our carbon emissions we have a financial interest in actively reducing our global impact and will be putting effort into figuring out how we can move towards actually using the clean power we are now paying for.

    While we are not blind to the potential marketing gains from this move, we don’t expect to actually make our money back directly. We mostly hope we may have some sort of small impact on other companies in our industry. Even if that doesn’t happen, perhaps we can at least spark a stimulating discussion.

    I think this blog post sums things up pretty well, but if anyone is interested in more details about our stance on this issue and the exact nature of the step we have taken we can do our best to provide that to you.

    Comment by Dallas — April 21, 2007 #

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    Yet another reason I love you guys. Keep up the great work - you guys rock!

    Comment by David — April 21, 2007 #

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    [...] Dreamhost went green! But what does it mean?… It means a few things, actually! [...]

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    [...] The fine folks at Dreamhost, who have been hosting this site for over a year now, have elected to become carbon neutral. [...]

    Pingback by Insane Yet? » Just a quick word of appreciation — April 21, 2007 #

35. 35

    props to the effort, but where exactly does all the money go?
    these offsets everyone’s talking about, there has to be someone pocketing some if not all of it. there’s no way to actaully “offset” carbon output is there?

    so now they’re going to go plant a few million trees with the money you’re using? i dont think so

    dont bother answering
    i’ve done my research

    Comment by Angelo — April 21, 2007 #

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    Regardless of what others say or think, dumping CO2 into the atmosphere at unnatural levels can never be seen as a good thing, and any effort to reduce that impact is noble and a step forward.

    Sure, you can pollute the atmosphere all you want, but just know you’re responsible for the unknowable consequences of messing with this extremely complex system that we’re breathing and living in. Could be nothing, could be pretty bad, the fact is that it’s safer to be neutral and alive than stupid and dead. Thank you Dreamhost.

    Comment by Tristan — April 21, 2007 #

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    Shared hosting is a good way to make the ‘carbon’ cost per site low. I used to have a dedicated server, and most of the resources simply weren’t used.

    MAGIC

    Comment by James Printer — April 21, 2007 #

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    RE: Angelo, the money’s used to support production of renewable energy. You’re essentially paying directly for the windmills and solar panels. The only reason it’s “offset” and not directly sourced is because the power grid is one big pool and they can’t run a line directly to you. Go figure. I don’t see what’s so hard to understand about that, or why you don’t want to believe it…

    And actually do your research next time if you don’t want people answering you.

    Comment by James — April 21, 2007 #

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    [...] View: Full post [...]

    Pingback by DreamHost Is Now Carbon Neutral » D’ Technology Weblog: Technology, Software, Hardware, Internet, Web, Google, AdSense, Microsoft, Yahoo, WordPress, Gadgets, Fashion — April 21, 2007 #

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    Thanks Dreamhost. I (a customer with several of my own customers using DH as well) am glad to see you take this step (without outside pressure! yay!) towards a greener future.

    Mike, you’re confused, but I don’t blame you. “Politicians pay scientists to give them the answers that they like, i.e. ‘global warming is caused by CO2.’”. Oil companies have, for several years, funded counter-science operations to spread lies and confusion. Nobody ‘likes’ the idea that CO2–>Global Warming, but that doesn’t make it less true.

    Don’t believe every…, er, ANYthing you hear from the liars at FOX News.

    Comment by Chris Murphy — April 21, 2007 #

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    we are so glad,

    thanks DREAMHOST

    GreenPeace

    Comment by tech — April 21, 2007 #

42. 42

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    Pingback by Buena variación “verde” del logo de Dreamhost | Blog Vecindad Gráfica Diseño Gráfico — April 21, 2007 #

43. 43

    Quoting Nick. The third reply.

    Disposable cups?
    Get some mugs and wash the damn dishes.

    It’s called corn starch cups. They use them on trains on cross country trips when they have no time to stop and no real trash cans. When they’re done with the cups, they throw them out the window and with in 2-3 days they are completely dissolved and they don’t hurt the environment because they are made from corn. before you get pissy try to find out what it is that someone is talking about. This is a great idea and I give them kudos for this idea.

    Comment by Shawn — April 21, 2007 #

44. 44

    So, I am a big Dreamhost fan. And, as it turns out, I am a big fan of our planet.

    But for some reason, I am NOT a big fan of this. Frankly, it rather irritates me, and I’ll try to explain why.

    Apart from all of the scientific debate (and there is quite a lot of it on this issue), the fact is that this does seem like a complete scam by just a different set of corporations trying to profit off of mindless hysteria.

    Regarding Jeff’s comment above:
    “At best, we do our own little part to leave a better environment for our children. At worst, we leave a somewhat smaller profit for ourselves every quarter.”

    Actually,you’re half right. At best, you will be doing something (marginally) good.
    At worst, however, you’re squandering money that could be more efficiently used elsewhere.

    I am all for efficiency. I think that the new buzzword in the next decade or so will be efficiency, and I think that we all have a moral obligation to be as efficient, and productive with whatever we’re given.

    I do, however, think that there is a moral hierarchy, and that some goods precede others.

    Here is the problem I have with wasting money on carbon credits:
    If you don’t pay them, and you’re less efficient, we MAY all see an effect in 2080, and some people MAY be affected.

    But, every day, there are thousands of people starving, many of them within a few blocks of your own datacenter. And yet, they’re forgotten, because your carbon footprint has shrunk.

    I’m not trying to tell you how to spend your money, and God knows that you’re entitled to giving to whatever cause you think worthy.

    I do think though, that as sensible people, you would prefer to do a good that has a definite impact now, rather than a possible good, that might have an impact 70+ years from now.

    I do realize that you would probably be criticized by someone no matter to what cause you gave, but I do think a good litmus test for giving would be on whether or not it actually has an impact, and in this case, it really is up in the air.

    Okay, enough griping from me :)

    Comment by Nate Cavanaugh — April 21, 2007 #

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46. 46

    [...] It’s not actually green. However, my lovely hosting provider, Dreamhost, has just recently announced that they are now a carbon-neutral company. I feel that this is great that a company takes a step [...]

    Pingback by This site is now green. at Tomato Fiction — April 21, 2007 #

47. 47

    Jeff @ DreamHost :

    I was making a joke, I tried to put “Open sharp bracket JOKE Close sharp bracket” followed by “Open sharp bracket slash JOKE Close sharp bracket”.

    Whatever filter you use seemed to have ate it up.

    Comment by AJ — April 21, 2007 #

48. 48

    I’ve read these responses and I think people tend to miss the obvious point. I would suspect that the money for this came out of the marketing budget. Obviously DH would not spend money marked for network expansion/growth on the envrionment (they are for profit after all), and look at the publicity they are landing (digg and their green gifs so far).

    This change doesn’t really impact me at all and I’m not getting into any of the arguments, but I think it is a great reason to keep an eye on DH. They are an extremely lean company able to create, implement, and execute briliant strategies to keep them pertinent to their target market.

    Keep up the alway-entertaining good work!

    Comment by Gary — April 21, 2007 #

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    [...] hosting service, DreamHost, just announced that they have gone green! They are now “carbon neutral,” which does not mean they are not producing carbon [...]

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    Dreamhost Goes Green…

    The webhost Dreamhost went green yesterday. A lively debate has started, but either way it is a step in the right direction. From their site:
    “Effective today, DreamHost is now a carbon-neutral company. Thats awesome! But what does it mean? It …

    Trackback by Anonymous — April 21, 2007 #

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