Is it possible to move my SquareSpace site to green hosting

Hi there,

I've just tested my new website https://www.meliora.be/ with these two carbon footprint tools:

https://ecograder.com/

https://www.websitecarbon.com/

The site ranks reasonably well, but the main problem is the hosting is not on the list of green hosting providers that are actively reducing their carbon footprint or offseting their carbon footprint.

Is it possible to move my site to one of the green hosting providers listed the resource below:

https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/directory/

I understand the SquareSpace is SaaS, but are the alternatives I can switch to?

Many thanks,

Porl

2 hours ago, Porl said:

Is it possible to move my site to one of the green hosting providers listed

Squarespace sites can only be hosted by Squarespace. You cannot host it elsewhere. 

But does SquareSpace offer green hosting as an option? If not, I will need to move my site to another provider. Is that an option do you know?

2 hours ago, Porl said:

does SquareSpace offer green hosting as an option?

No, but it very difficult to obtain detailed data that can confirm whether Squarespace hosting is green or not, because it has yet to be accurately measured and published. This means that the tools you mentioned above are unhelpful as they are unable to calculate the green credentials of Squarespace, good or bad. That said, Squarespace host their services with industry-leading cloud service providers including AWS and Google, both of whom have targets to reach 100% renewable energy.

I am also very curious about this. I’ve contacted Squarespace support a couple of times about policies around green hosting and their environmental policies in general. I’d love to see policies and targets that SS are working towards very clearly displayed on the Squarespace website. Many of my website clients are in the area of environmental advocacy and ethical business. They love SS but are starting to question areas such as carbon emissions. With little transparency from SS in this area, it’s hard to talk more with my clients about this. It would be wonderful to see SS start to take the lead in this area.

this: “Squarespace host their services with industry-leading cloud service providers including AWS and Google, both of whom have targets to reach 100% renewable energy.” 

Is a great start. But when are those targets aiming to be reached? How will they be reached etc? What are the steps being taken? 

Green hosting is also very important to me. I'm currently trying to calculate all carbon used by my business, and website hosting is something I'm struggling with. It seems like Squarespace should be addressing this better or I'm pretty sure they'll see a shift of users to other platforms. Certainly I'll be considering moving my website elsewhere, which isn't something I really want to do

On 3/27/2023 at 12:37 AM, Guest said:

But does SquareSpace offer green hosting as an option? If not, I will need to move my site to another provider. Is that an option do you know?

We are also very concerned about this.  Perhaps SQSP can at least post the Amazon/Google timeline here and let us know about their advocacy to them to move faster.