What Makes Taproot a Green Web Host?

The answer to that question is, quite delightfully - lots of stuff!


Wind-Powered Hosting

First and foremost, our servers, and thusly your websites, are 100% Clean Wind Powered. Clean Wind is 100 percent new wind power. This carbon-free power comes from wind farms here in the Northwest and is endorsed by such groups as the Renewable Northwest Project, Northwest Energy Coalition and Natural Resources Defense Council.

No Commuting = No Fossil Fuels!

In addition, we do not have a physical location. All of our employees telecommute. This means we're not requiring folks to use fossil fuels to transport themselves to our office, nor are we using extra energy for the maintenance and powering of an office space.

Offsetting Employee Footprints

As well, to offset the carbon emissions of our employees at home, each of our employees has enrolled in 100% Renewable Energy plans with their local Power Companies. The cost of this is offset through Taproot Hosting as a benefit of employment. We do this in lieu of buying carbon offset certificates, which attempt to 'make up for' using fossil fuels *after* the fact.

We'll Plant You a Tree!

In addition to lightening the footprint of the folks we employ, and helping you lighten your footprint by providing you with an eco-friendly web solution, we will plant a tree for every new customer with the Plant a Billion Trees project.

Get One, Give One Non-Profit Plan

Here at Taproot, we're all about giving you ways to give back -- so for the next year, for every pre-paid annual "The Works" sign-up we get, we will give a Non-Profit organization a full FREE year of web hosting! We reserve the right to choose the organizations we offer this to, but welcome your suggestions!

No "Greenwashing"

Here at Taproot, we only claim to be as green as we actually are. We find Carbon Offsetting to be only nominally better than nothing, and a vaguely questionable practice. Rather than throwing money at the Carbon Offset industry to ease our conscience for doing nothing about our use of fossil fuels, Taproot has chosen to actively reduce its own consumption of power and use clean energy to run our business wherever possible. We will only be more green as we grow, and you along with us.

Sustainable Growth

One very important thing -- Our business model as a whole is based on reasonable, ethical and sustainable growth. We do not believe in progress for the sake of progress. Our goals are simple: To sustain a comfortable but not excessive lifestyle for a small and loyal staff in a way that contributes to the betterment of the lives of our customers and the planet. We fully intend to slow and cap our growth when the above goal is successfully achieved. We aspire to being a small hosting boutique with an eternally personal touch and a joyful and well-served clientèle. This hilarious video of Louis CK's "Everything is Amazing, No one is Happy" monologue pretty much sums up how we feel.

Supporting Local Economy

While we welcome clients from anywhere, our focus for marketing and giving will be local to Portland, Oregon. We believe in supporting local economy first. We also know that purchasing as many goods and services locally as possible means that those goods have to travel less to get to us, which means a reduction in the impact to the environment.

Paperless Business

We are a paperless office, save for our business cards, which are 100% post-consumer waste recycled chipboard, printed with biodegradable inks.

Location, Location, Location

We are in Portland, Oregon -- recently voted #1 Greenest City by SustainLane.Com.

Future Planning

As we grow, we will be further-greening our individual home offices (Solar power for electricity and hot water, rainwater collection, etc.) to further reduce our footprint.