information for our energy future
information for our energy future
Are you are interested in offsetting the carbon emissions associated with your own website or blog? If you would like assistance let us know through the contact page and we can buy and acquit abatement certificates on your behalf.
Typically an abatement certificate will represent the offset of 1 tonne of CO2 emissions for one year. So each year you will need to buy more certificates to offset your annual emissions.
The number of certificates required will vary for different types of websites, the amount of traffic and the location of the server.
If you manage a medium-large or enterprise website with online transaction facilities we will need to determine the appropriate offset, but for most small-medium websites we are confident that 3 certificates would more than cover your annual emissions. For small static content websites a single certificate would normally be sufficient. If you wish, you can then add the W3Green logo to your site and play a small role in trying to manage your emissions footprint.
The carbon cost of a website includes the energy used by the servers hosting the website as well as all the associated office and staff energy consumption of the hosting company. For more details see how we calculate offsets for the Energy Today website.
The quantity of greenhouse gas emissions from your server also depends strongly on how the electricity is generated in the area where your server is located. For example, if your server is housed in Tasmania where most electricity is generated from hydro power the CO2 emissions are substantially less than those on the mainland (18 times less than in NSW and 22 times less than Victoria). There are difference between the states as well, so we will need to know where your hosting company locates its servers to calculate this factor. Details for each state are published by the Greenhouse Office and reproduced in Facts & figures in the table Electricity emission intensity by state.
We buy only Australian Government certified abatement credits, such as NSW NGACs (listed on the GGAS registry) and Australian Greenhouse Office Greenhouse Friendly certificates. Once purchased, these certificates are then acquitted (surrendered) on your behalf so they can only be used once. The surrender details are published on a list of W3Green carbon offset websites for transparency and to demonstrate your website's compliance.
Each certificate is equivalent to 1 tonne of CO2 abated. Certificates are traded on the open market and the cost varies depending on supply and demand as well as quantity purchased. We have bought a batch of certificates at the market price and the current charge is AU$18 each (ex GST) and a margin for administering the transfer and surrender.
As a guide, our estimates (ex GST) for websites hosted on servers located in mainland Australia are:
These are our best estimates at this stage. We have taken a conservative approach, but as more data becomes available through hosting companies the figures above may be revised. If you have any suggestions or would like to discuss offsetting your own website please contact Energy Today.