Kermit the frog was right when he sang that statement during the first season of Sesame Street. In fact there are countless discussions going on about “Being Green” as we speak. Thousands are weighing the benefits, downsides and making an informed decision.

During a recent discussion on webhostingtalk (linked above) several statements were made about how “green datacenters” were the equivalent of fuel efficient dragsters. Rightly put — we’re not part of a very ecofriendly industry to begin with. In fact with all of the cooling, airflow and electricity needed to power the datacenters the shared, dedicated and backend (backup, monitoring, etc.) servers that your sites rely on this industry could be considered less than healthy for the environment.

The discussions however in my opinion didn’t hold much water. Sure, page-zone brought up that recycling wasn’t helping much (Kudos a’la Penn & Teller — careful there’s some choice language) but something we need to take into consideration is that first-phase stuff might not be all that helpful. Really, in actuality, we haven’t been properly recycling more than 15 years here in North America. What makes a difference isn’t necessarily the act of doing so (rather, according to the video it’s actually more harmful but I’ll leave that one for the management to clean up) but being more conscious of our eco-footprint.

Simply being more conscious of our eco-footprint will result in more ‘eco-friendly’ choices being made when it comes to conservation, waste and what we use to power our homes, work environments and sooner than later: even our servers. I’m not exactly Dr. Destruction when it comes to the environment myself. My Rollerblades and feet get more mileage per year than my car ever would. I skimp on the plastic bags, try to avoid packaging as often as possible and even make my purchases based on which products use less packaging!

Does it have any effect? I would hope so — even if my decisions are only impacting the immediate surroundings — in the end they’ll have an impact on companies, friends and family and maybe even neighboring countries as my (and your) purchasing decisions and living styles effect our consumption.

While according to Penn & Teller — I might just be wasting my time — or “feeling good” about it but in the end I may not be saving the environment now — but my offspring sure will be.