At a Glance
RDS, or Remote Desktop Services, helps your remote and hybrid teams stay connected and in sync with business operations from any part of the world. Explore how this technology can do more for the environment, lowering emissions, helping your business meet ESG goals, and more.
Flexible working has had an undeniable influence on the way businesses operate. When your business supports remote or hybrid working, remote teams working from different parts of the world collaborate and contribute to your goals without the need to be present in person at all times.
In addition to the flexibility and ease of working remotely, it’s also worth considering the environmental benefits of your business’ remote and hybrid arrangements, like remote desktops. But do remote desktop hosting solutions cut down your carbon emissions?
In this blog, we explore the various ways in which remote desktop services can reduce the carbon footprint of your distributed teams.
What Is Remote Desktop Technology? How Does It Work?
In Remote Desktop Services, or RDS, end users access virtual desktops via the internet through the secure Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and manage sessions on high-efficiency servers.
While your IT team manages its control, your employees can access their desktops from anywhere and on any device, including laptops, tablets, and other devices. All the backend upkeep, software upgrades, and security procedures are managed by RDS providers like BlackBox Hosting.
When you allow your hybrid or remote teams to use RDS or virtual desktops, you reduce the carbon output from emissions generated from commuting, which is among the key contributors to workplace-related emissions.
How Virtual Desktop Hosting Cuts Carbon for Your Remote Working Teams
A study by Cornell University and Microsoft shows a startling correlation between remote work and carbon footprint reduction. One day of remote work per week leads to a 2% reduction in carbon emissions, while 2 to 4 days cuts emissions by 11 to 29%. Full-time remote working teams can contribute to a whopping 54% reduction in emissions.
This significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions is primarily achieved by avoiding daily commutes to the workplace (the top contributor to workplace emissions) and downsized office infrastructure.
While home offices might appear more efficient, their Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) can be worse. Heating and devices often run for hours, even when not in use, meaning carbon emissions when working from home may not be as low as you’d expect. Data centres in the UK consume approximately 2.5% of the nation’s electricity and contribute only 1% of all energy-related greenhouse gases.
By using remote desktop hosting, businesses can reduce their carbon footprint further by consolidating user sessions on high-performance servers that run virtualised environments with load balancing.
What this means for your business:
- Fewer physical devices are required in homes and offices
- Shared computing resources reduce energy usage per user
- Lower local hardware use, lowered energy demand for running monitors, fans, and workstations
The Eco-Friendly Benefits of BlackBox Hosting’s Remote Desktop Hosting Solutions
Maximise your carbon reduction initiatives further by using BlackBox Hosting’s Remote Desktop Hosting solutions, which help organisations centralise user sessions on high-efficiency servers.
You gain multiple carbon-cutting advantages:
Reduced Energy Usage
The average desktop computer uses between 60 and 300 watts per hour, but laptops and tablets using RDP only need 5-15 watts per hour; this translates to 90% lower power usage per user. Connecting thin clients securely to our centralised cloud servers by implementing a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy is far more energy-efficient than installing hundreds or thousands of individual desktop computers or workstations on your premises.
Decreased Device Dependency
Our infrastructure supports your remote team to work more efficiently on lightweight devices like laptops, which extends hardware lifecycles and also reduces e-waste.
Remote Work-Friendly
Your remotely working teams can gain secure access from any location with the help of Microsoft Terminal Services. This significantly reduces emissions from daily commuting.
Meet Your ESG Goals
As sustainable web hosting providers, we operate from data centres that are certified carbon-neutral and powered by renewable energy. Partnering with us means partnering with a service provider that’s committed to supporting your ESG objectives while building resilience in your business operations.
How to Choose a Carbon-Conscious Remote Desktop Host
Data centres may seem like they drain power, however they can be far more energy-efficient than decentralised offices. To ensure you choose a partner that follows green hosting practices, make sure to check for:
- Low PUE-certified data centres (1.2–1.5 is excellent). PUE or Power Usage Effectiveness is a key metric that checks for the energy efficiency of the IT equipment used, with the total energy consumed by the data centre.
- Carbon offset programmes or direct green energy purchasing
- Transparency in reporting, including ISO 14001
Contact BlackBox Hosting for Eco-Friendly Remote Desktop Hosting Services
Whether you’re an SME or a multinational enterprise, BlackBox Hosting’s scalable RDS solutions make it easy for your business to reduce carbon emissions while adapting to your team’s needs without increasing infrastructure. Our RDS services support over 10,000 daily RDP users, making us the UK’s largest managed Remote Desktop Service provider.
Experience seamless operations no matter where your team is based, on our high-performance, low-latency, and highly secure RDS platform.
What makes us a standout choice for environmentally conscious businesses:
- We’re certified carbon neutral; our data centres are powered by 100% carbon-neutral energy
- We are ISO 14001:2015 certified
- We’re fully committed to carbon neutrality. Our emissions report and offsetting have been fully audited and verified by BSI to the ISO 14068 standard
- UK-based, green-certified data centres
- We’re committed to measuring, offsetting, and reducing future carbon emissions
- We have white-label partnerships with some of the largest software companies
Are you ready to move to a more sustainable web hosting solution? Contact us today to experience green hosting solutions with a difference.
