More and more web hosting services are “going green”, so to speak. What is the secret behind this new trend? It may be darker than you know. In fact, it may have all been the idea of one company who intended to get paid handsome consulting fees with the promise to many web hosting services of providing a profitable “environmental” solution.

So what is this environmental solution, exactly? Most of it involves the web hosting company paying a form of tribute to their energy companies in the form of RECs, or “Renewable Energy Credits”. These credits can be purchase quite cheaply for any web host. A typical mid-sized web hosting company will generate millions in revenue, but the cost of the RECs for their servers is at most the same cost as say, buying a company car for the employees.

To keep it all in perspective, first Yahoo, which runs web hosting services, announced the move to become “carbon neutral”. In a bit of irony, within the article announcing that move, Yahoo linked to a website mentioning how carbon credits may be a scam on par with paying Papal “indulgences” to forgive sins, in the same way allowing polluters to pay for “carbon credits” to allow people to feel environmental while still polluting. All the while, the carbon credit companies themselves, run by opportunists such as Al Gore who could make billions off of the invisible carbon credits his company sells, look to make a profitable enterprise out of thin air.

The key word being profitable. So who is this profit-minded company that got the smaller web hosting companies to go “green”? Integrated Ecosystem Market Services.  In fact, this company is behind multiple web hosts “going green” such as the web hosting giants Hostgator, whom they wrote the entire article announcing the move to green for, as well as possibly DreamHost, who does not mention the specific company who proposed the switch for them, which seems most certainly to be Integrated Ecosystem Market Services. Even the logos that were designed for Hostgator and Dreamhost almost seem duplicate.

This IEMS’ stated mission is to “provide clients with comprehensive carbon solutions that yield high rates of return and global environmental benefits”. High rates of return? Pay close attention to that. How can it be profitable to go green? Because the tribute expected to claim “carbon neutrality” is tiny, while what is earned from marketing their businesses as “green” is a massive public image boost and subsequent sales boost.