When a user searches for a website in our Green Web Checker, we will show it as either green (the ideal) or grey (not ideal). There are a number of reasons why a site might be shown as grey and these are explained below.
1. Your hosting provider is not registered in the Green Web Database.
We can only mark a provider as green, if we can point to evidence that they have taken steps to avoid, reduce, or offset the emissions caused by the digital infrastructure they rely on, or they themselves are using known green providers where we can point to this happening.
Sometimes a hosting provider might be meeting the necessary conditions to be marked as green, but have not submitted that information to us. The solution is that the hosting provider must submit a verification request to us so we can add them to our dataset of verified green hosting providers.
Read more about what you need to get verified
Find sample emails to send to providers when your site is not showing as green
2. You are using a cloud provider
If you are using a cloud provider like Amazon (AWS), Google or Microsoft Azure, as an intermediate provider for your site(s), this can be the reason why your site shows as grey in the Green Web Checker.
We explain this in more detail on this page: I’m using a cloud provider, why is my site showing as grey?
3. Your hosting provider is registered in the Green Web Database, but we can’t link your site to them.
When hosting providers register with us, they upload the ranges of IP addresses that they use for the sites they host. We check a site against this list of green IP addresses to establish a link between a site and the underlying provider.
Sometimes if a provider is using new IP addresses, and the list we have isn’t updated, your site will show as grey until your provider updates it. You can ask them to make an update directly, or let us know via the support form. We’ll pass along your message, and let you know when the update has been made.
4. The information we have about the hosting provider is out of date, and needs updating.
If we have evidence from a provider that is valid until 2019, we can’t use it to support claims they make in 2022 to avoid, reduce, or offset the emissions caused. While we do try to keep information up to date ourselves, ultimately the organisations providing the hosting services are responsible for sharing this information. You can ask them to make an update directly, or let us know via this support form, We’ll pass along your request, and notify you when the information has been updated.