As we live more and more of our lives online, it’s easy to forget that every byte we store, every page we serve, and every cron job we schedule has a real-world energy cost. The internet feels virtual, but its infrastructure—data centers, networking gear, and servers—runs on electricity, much of which still comes from fossil fuels. For LowEndBox readers, who often self-host or use budget-friendly VPS providers, it’s worth asking: what can you do to reduce your carbon footprint?

Choose Green Providers

Some providers offer “green hosting” or otherwise advertise their hosting solutions as carbon-free.  This is accomplished by either using renewable energy sources or buying carbon offset credits.

Green hosting has not taken off since it began to be touted 15 or so years ago.  But that doesn’t mean it’s nonexistent, and if more users request it, it’ll grow in market offerings.

Go Local

A VM in Amsterdam consumes the same electricity as a VM in Los Angeles.  But if you live in San Francisco, it’s not quite apples-to-apples because you’re using more network infrastructure to talk to Amsterdam.  As with many things, your personal impact might be slight – I mean, an ssh session in Europe is not going to warm the planet noticeably.  But the combined impact of many millions of users will.

Configure Your Servers Properly

Consider BIOS or OS-level power management settings, especially when using bare metal or dedicated servers. Enabling CPU scaling or power-saving states in the BIOS, or configuring your Linux OS to scale down CPU frequency during idle times (cpufreq, TLP, etc.), can reduce energy usage with zero impact on light workloads.

Choose Your Software Stack With Care

One powerful way to make your usage more efficient is to optimize your software stack. Lightweight content management systems (CMS), static site generators, and caching tools reduce the server load per visitor. A lean site doesn’t just perform better—it also uses less energy. If your WordPress blog uses three dozen plugins, consider trimming the fat or switching to something like Hugo or Eleventy.

Don’t Mine!

Nothing burns juice like driving the CPU 24×7.  Is the small economic value you extract from this operation worth the social cost?  Remember the Chia craze a few years back?  People pounded provider hard drives literally into destruction in search of meagre compensation.  Perhaps foregoing the next trendy coin is a small sacrifice you could make.

Hey Providers, Want To Be Featured on Earth Day?

April 22nd is coming, and if you have an environmentally conscious approach to hosting, we’d love to feature you!  Just drop us a ticket and we’ll be in touch.

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raindog308

Dread Lord of LowEnd Content at LowEndBox

I'm raindog308, techno polymath and long-time LowEndTalk community Administrator. My technical interests include all things Unix, perl, python, golang, shell scripting, vintage operating systems such as MVS, and relational database systems such as Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

I also enjoy using LEBs! I have an empire of little guys for VPNs, larger guys for apps, and big guys for databases and storage. When I'm not in front a screen I'm into German Shepherd dogs, quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop roleplaying games, and forest hiking.

I enjoy writing technical articles here on LowEndBox to help people get more out of their systems. You can find me on LowEndTalk @raindog308

Latest posts by raindog308 (see all)

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• Go Green in 2025: 5 Things You Can Do To Reduce Your Hosting Carbon Footprint - March 24, 2025