Web hosting providers consume a great amount of energy to power servers and data centre for providing 24/7 services. Other related facilities such as cooling controls and enhanced security setups also require a lot of electricity. Such a great amount of energy usage has a negative impact on the environment. Green web hosting, as the name implied, is the web hosting solution powered by environmental friendly resources such as renewable energy.

Renewable energy is generated through natural resources. It is naturally 're-usable'. Hydroelectricity and wind power are often the most common natural resources. In North America, electricity is mostly generated by renewable energy. For example, according to Wikipedia, Canada is the world's second largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world and one of few countries to generate the majority of its electricity from hydroelectricity (59% in 2006). In daily operations, a handful web hosting firms start taking proactive solutions such as using more efficient server hardware to reduce the electricity usage. All of these practices become very common in North American web hosting industry.