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What disclosures do we accept for verification

This criteria is currently pending implementation.

This page is for data center operators and web hosting providers, who want to get verified as a verified green hosting provider. On this page you will find information about the kind of disclosures required in order to get verified, as well as additional information about the context of those disclosures and examples to use as a guide.

The founding mission of the Green Web Foundation is for a fossil-free internet by 2030. To track progress towards this we ask hosting companies and data center operators to complete a voluntary verification process where we ask for disclosures showing their organisation’s commitment and progress towards phasing out fossil fuels from their hosting infrastructure. 

Summary

For the purposes of being included in the Green Web Dataset, hosting providers and data center operators should share:

  • Documents that meet our verification disclosure requirements.
  • Disclosures should be credible, meaning that they are:
    • Timely: For the current or last calendar year
    • Granular: Atleast based on annual claims
    • Deliverable: Purchased in the same geographical region/market as it is being claimed
    • Exclusive: Dedicated solely to the organisation supplying the disclosure

For more details about credible claims, read the FAQ What is a credible claim for the purposes of verification?

Verification Scenarios

Use these links to quickly navigate this document based on your organisation’s circumstances.

The disclosure requirements for our verification have been chosen to align with existing standards such as the RE100 Technical Criteria and the 24-7 Carbon-Free Coalition (24-7 CFC) Technical Standard. Both are well established, agreed up standards to which many organisations (including data center operators and hosting companies) are parties to. Both require member organisations to report annually based on these criteria, and we hope this can provide a clear, repeatable disclosure pathway for providers going forwards.

Definition: Fossil-free energy

For the purposes of verification, we consider the following forms of energy to be fossil-free energy sources: Solar power (photovoltaic and solar thermal, wind power (onshore and offshore), geothermal energy, ocean energy (tidal, wave, and ocean thermal energy conversion), hydropower, and nuclear energy.

We have arrived at this list of energy sources after reviewing existing accepted clean energy standards in particular the 24-7 Carbon-Free Coalition (24-7 CFC) Technical Standard.

What disclosures are required for verification?

For the purposes of verification, we require that hosting providers and data center operators share each year:

  1. A public statement from your organisation stating your commitment to achieving 100% hourly fossil-free energy use by 2030, for every region in which you operate. This statement should also include information about the hosting infrastructure you currently use. We have prepared this template to help you get started.
  2. Disclosures from one or more of the basis for verification criteria below:
    1. Self generation – you generate your own fossil-free energy.
    2. Direct procurement – you buy directly from a fossil-free energy project via a dedicated power purchase agreement.
    3. Green tariffs – you actively procure a fossil-free energy tariff via electricity suppliers 
    4. Unbundled certificates – you buy certificates of fossil-free generation separate from the power you buy, when you or your supplier can’t use one of the 3 ways above.
    5. Passive procurement – you operate in a place where certificates for fossil-free generation are by default bundled with the power you buy, and not sold on. 

For providers unable to share disclosures in the aforementioned categories, we also accept third-party limited assurance report covering Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions for that organisation. This means that an independent auditor has obtained sufficient and appropriate disclosures that the organisation has used one/more of the mechanisms listed above to support claims of using 100% fossil-free energy from their hosting infrastructure.

Important note regarding carbon offsets

Carbon offsets cannot be used as a valid basis for verification. Our focus is on phasing out fossil fuels being used by hosting infrastructure, and carbon offsets do not achieve this.

For providers currently using offsets for verification, we provide guidance on alternatives in this FAQ: Are carbon offsets accepted as a form of disclosures for verification?

Granularity of disclosures

Disclosures should be supplied for each region where you are operating a data center or utilising hosting infrastructure. 

All disclosures provided can be either:

  • Annually matched: disclosures shown on a yearly timescale showing that a location is already using 100% fossil-free energy based on one of the basis for verification above.
  • Hourly matched: disclosures shown on a per-hour timescale showing progress towards your 2030 commitments based on the basis for verification above.

While we encourage providers to seek hourly matched commitments where possible, we will continue to accept annually matched disclosures under the updated criteria. While there is a growing number of providers offering this around the world, we acknowledge that at this time there are very few providers who could make hourly matched claims for a region.

We ask for disclosures to be shared for either the current calendar year to date, or the last full calendar year.

Important note

Please note that while we continue to accept annually matched disclosures at this time, we expect this to be phased out by the end of 2028 with a view to only accepting hourly matched disclosures. Should this occur, we will notify all impacted providers in our dataset well in advance of the changes taking place. Any future changes to not accepting annually matched disclosures will be communicated to providers well in advance of implementation.

Transparency of disclosures

We require all providers seeking verification to share a public statement regarding their commitment to achieving 100% hourly fossil-free energy use by 2030, for every region in which they operate. 

All other disclosures that are shared for the purposes of verification in the Green Web Dataset can be shared as either public or private items of disclosures.

  • Public disclosures – These disclosures are made available whenever a provider’s listing is queried through our Green Web Check, Hosting Directory and provider pages, or via our API.
  • Private disclosures – These disclosures are securely stored on our servers, and are not made available for public access. These items of disclosures can only be accessed from within Provider Portal by users with access to the specific provider for which the disclosures has been uploaded to, and by Green Web Foundation staff for the purposes of verification checks.

Our Privacy Policy contains details about how our data is stored and processed.

FAQs

What is a credible claim for the purposes of verification?

Any claims made must be credible, in that they are unique and exclusive to the organisation making those claims. They must also be timely and deliverable – (e.g. a renewable energy certificate from 2016 cannot be used to make claims for the 2025 calendar year; nor can a renewable energy certificate from Norway be used to make a claim for operations in the region of Singapore).

For a detailed explanation of what constitutes a Credible Claim, please refer to the Climate Group’s 24-7 CFC Technical Criteria Appendix A.

Please note that simply linking to a sustainability web page or marketing page is not sufficient disclosure for verification purposes.

Are carbon offsets accepted as a form of disclosures for verification?

No, our focus is on phasing out fossil fuels being used by hosting infrastructure.

Instead of offsets, providers can purchase unbundled Energy Attribution Certificates (EACs) or Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) that match the time and region for which they are making their claim.

For example, a provider making a claim for the 2025 calendar year should use a REC with a vintage from that year. Likewise, a provider making a claim for the region of Singapore can use an EAC that is issued from a recognised provider in that region.

See Appendix D in the 24-7 Carbon-Free Coalition (24-7 CFC) Technical Standard for accepted EACs by country.

Can my organisation be verified even if we currently do not have any regions that are fossil free?

Yes, we allow providers to be verified if they have no regions which are fossil free. These providers will still be required to share a 2030 fossil free statement as part of their verification request.

When a provider with no fossil free regions is reverified (after one year), we may ask them to share detailed evidence which shows that they are making progress towards reaching fossil free status in at least one of their regions.

Can ISO 14001 certification be used as disclosures for verification?

No, our focus is on phasing out fossil fuels being used by hosting infrastructure.

An ISO 14001 certification alone is not sufficient disclosures for verification. We require providers to share disclosures aligned with the forms listed in this document.

My organisation is a member of the Climate Neutral Data Center Pact (CNDCP). Can this be used as disclosures for verification?

No, our focus is on phasing out fossil fuels being used by hosting infrastructure.

Membership of the CNDCP alone is not sufficient disclosures for verification. We require providers to share disclosures aligned with the forms listed in this document.

What do we consider fossil free energy sources?

For the purposes of verification, we consider the following forms of energy to be fossil-free energy sources:

  • Solar power (photovoltaic and solar thermal)
  • Wind power (onshore and offshore)
  • Geothermal energy
  • Ocean energy (tidal, wave, and ocean thermal energy conversion)
  • Hydropower
  • Nuclear energy

We have arrived at this list of energy sources after reviewing existing accepted clean energy standards in particular the 24-7 Carbon-Free Coalition (24-7 CFC) Technical Standard.

Why call it fossil free?

We refer to it as fossil free, because for us, it names the problem to solve – to divest from fossil fuels, and phasing out fossil fuels from hosting infrastructure.

This is broadly in-line with our recent post, No Fossil Fuels in Our Tech Stacks, and previously, we’ve had a definition of green energy that was to some extent determined by a) what you could reasonably expect hosting providers to be able to meet and b) what various conflicting national standards could agree on.

We rely on an upstream provider who is not verified, but who themselves use a verified provider to deliver their services. How can we get verified?

To illustrate this situation, let us look at three organisations:

  • Provider A – your organisation (you want to get verified)
  • Provider B – the organisation you purchase hosting services from (they are not verified)
  • Provider C- an organisation which Provider B leases data center space from (they are verified)

In this scenario, we would need to see:

  1. Disclosures that allows us to verify your use of Provider B. This can be in the form of a recent invoice, contract, or similar documents. Sensitive information in these documents can be blacked out.
  2. Formal disclosures showing a Provider B’s use of Provider C’s facilities. This can be in the form of a company statement, press release, or other type of formal evidence linking the companies. This disclosure should clearly list the facilities and/or regions that are being used.