Chris, I see you are taking the “tree by the branches” approach. That’s a great idea as well, especially when there aren’t decent options out there.

I don’t think there is much in the way of really sustainable hosting options in the market these days…there are some who get the green part (even fully solar powered) but suck at the service part. Then there are a lot who buy energy offset / green credits, which is great, but is sustainability “light” imho. (Our version is to do carbon offsetting for the company, including hosting operations, by planting trees – with the help of our clients. It makes for a fun and rewarding education + environmentally friendly activity. I think we have planted about 120 trees so far…and gearing up for a new round this fall! http://www.ifpeople.net/sustainability/carbon ).

Anyway, if you want to get inspired about green data centers…check this out: RMI did a charrette on this…The result of this charrette was a data center design concept that reduces energy demand by an order of magnitude (89 percent) compared to today’s standard designs, while providing equivalent computing power and greater reliability. I have a hard copy of the study if you ever come through Atlanta (on your favorite form of carbon neutral travel, of course;).

Cheers,
Chris

I posted a response to plone-users before reading your request to respond to your blog. Rackspace, a managed hosting provider who leases dedicated / managed servers, has undertaken some greenification efforts, and our non-profit hosting co-operative is working to move our shared plone cluster to the Rack. This is one of the reasons. We’d be more than happy to work with your needs, we are a group of professionals cooperatively maintaining the resources our clients depend on to lower costs and raise the quality of service for all involved.

Cheers!