DrakNet's Green Policies

In 2007, DrakNet became a 100% renewable energy company.

We had a real struggle on our hands regarding pricing and service - those hosting companies that were in renewable energy data centers offered far, far less than our customers were used to, and we love our data center - but we felt strongly that to truly live our progressive mission, we needed to be completely carbon neutral.

Thanks to Renewable Energy Certificates (aka Green Tags), we were able to purchase solar energy certificates that would feed clean energy back into the grid to cover what our servers use in the data center that we house them in, as well as normal day to day electricity usage. After factoring everything in, not just the server, we were able to purchase not just what we used (and send it back to the grid clean), but to buy extra certificates (just in case our estimations were off).

We are aware of the arguments that this is akin to buying "indulgences" for "sins".

Though we pay this premium rate so that every bit of our electricity is technically renewable, are we guaranteed that the specific zaps coming into our house are the particular renewable energy that we paid for and not dirty energy?

Well... no. Energy delivery is communal - we're all in this together.

What we do know is that because we volunteered to pay more, there is more renewable energy coming into the grid that's clean. If more people pay for green energy coming into the grid, ANY grid - even though you don't get quite the same ego boost as having solar panels on your roof - it would still, slowly, move the earth away from the tipping point as more and more renewable energy plants pump more and more clean energy into the grid, benefiting everyone. If more people did it, there would be more renewable energy, and the costs for renewable energy would come down.

Renewable Energy Certificates are the exact same concept - they are not "indulgences" for "sins". They are voluntary, active ways to slow the devastation we have had a hand in. They are a way to buy renewable energy even if it's not directly available to you at this time. They are small steps in the right direction - though there are more, many more, to be taken.

They are not a way to simply assuage a corporate guilty conscience. Hopefully, they are the beginning wave in a tide that will sweep across all corporations, because if everybody did it, it would eventually mean that everyone HAS renewable energy, because everyone has volunteered to pay for it.

We also chose solar power only despite the fact that it costs significantly more (2 to 3 times as much) as much as wind power, as solar power has the absolute least impact on the environment. DrakNet does not purchase any wind energy. While wind energy is clean, it does have an impact on wildlife, as wind turbines have been called "the cuisinarts of the sky" and have had some negative impact on both birds and bats. While solar is more expensive, it seemed to us to be the most environmentally positive - and it doesn't accidentally chop up bats or birds.

We only purchase tags that have been certified by Green-e, and we overbuy to ensure that we are 110% carbon neutral in our operations. (See our certificate here.)

Telecommuting. With the advent of the Internet, everyone should do it.

Why work at home?

DrakNet has made attempts to take alternative approaches whenever possible, and telecommuting is one of them. Not only do we and our staff not use fossil fuels to come to work, waste time sitting in traffic, put miles and wear and tear on our cars, we also don't have any overheard other than investing in technology that facilitates communication via the Internet. Because of this, we are able to hire staff locally (our programmer lives three blocks away) or from anywhere in the country (we have a tech from Denver, a Tech from Florida...) or from anywhere in the world (our MySQl Admin is in England).

No rent overhead, no fancy executive chairs needed, no electricity to run it 24 hours a day, no double computer purchases, no paper, copiers, phones, no long ride to work and long ride home, no limit to the pool of applicants. No paper means no dead trees, nothing to throw away, no business trash, no nothing. Currently the only paper waste that DrakNet produces are the envelopes sent to us by customers which contain checks, and we actually shred it and use it to start our fireplace in the winter.

We work very hard to ensure that when your web site has a blog essay on the environment, you can rest assured that your hosting company is doing absolutely everything it can to ensure your voice isn't undermined by the way you published your words.