Recently, web hosting provider Rackspace Managed Hosting (rackspace.com) conducted a survey which reveals that environmental responsibility is a growing concern for hosting customers. The survey shows 62 percent of respondents are concerned and either looking for ways to cut the impact their company has on the environment or actively addressing the issue.

Among the results were 52 percent of survey respondents stating that they are willing to pay five to 10 percent more for green products or service offerings rather than non-green options, while 51 percent are willing to trade five to 10 percent of server performance for lower carbon emissions.

"Although our customers responded that they would be willing to pay more and even trade some performance for lower carbon emissions, the good thing is that advances in technology seem to be filling the gap so that they shouldn't have to make major sacrifices to address these environmental concerns," said John Engates, CTO of Rackspace Managed Hosting. "Rackspace is taking full advantage of advances in green IT by implementing new technologies like AMD's new Quad-Core OpteronT processor and our new data center that will be powered by renewable energy."

Rackspace announced in June its GreenSpace initiative, which promotes energy conservation through customer offerings, company conservation and employee education on green living. Working with partners like NativeEnergy and The Green Grid consortium, Rackspace is working towards becoming a more environmentally responsible Web host.