I see a lot of host are becoming more green which is awesome. But will that effect your decision to choose them?

It will for some and I applaud those providers who are going green. We all live on the same Earth.

it seems to me going green is a scam.

i mean, it's not like they are using green energy. they still use the same old dirty energy just "offset" by purchasing something i don't understand.

it's a scam.

There are some data centers that use wind power.
That is not a scam.

Hosts who buy energy offsets are not a scam. They are recognizing that they cannot directly affect the environment at the present so they are doing their part to offset it by buying carbon credits.

What exactly about this is a scam?

Perhaps you can explain in some detail?

i guess i don't know how carbon credits work and frankly it sounds too much of a buzz phrase to even attempt to look it up

I agree it can be for some host a marketing technique "called green washing" but for soem other it is a real effort.
It's like everything else in life.

Yes it affects my decision , I would choose them.

Going green doesn't simply involve buying carbon credits. There's a ton of ways you can go Green. For example, we're considering covering our entire roof in WestPort with solar panels - reducing our load on Ameren utility power.

I believe some companies are in it just for the hype because everyone else is doing it but some companies really are genuine about it.

And some companies plant a tree, others do various other things, such as the hosting for Haiti which I think is a good cause.

When someone says they are "Green" I always search for a technical details... What do they mean - a low voltage servers, or an infrastructure that reduces the carbon dioxide emissions?

So you have no clue how it works or what it is yet you have no problem claiming that it is a scam?

run this by copyscape or whatever and you'll see what i mean >> hxtp://www.hostpapa.ca/what-is-green-energy/

btw: hostpapa is one of the worst hosts on the planet and i'm only providing this link for argument's sake

What argument?
You are the one making the claim that Green Hosting is a scam.
You are the one making the claim that:

"they still use the same old dirty energy just "offset" by purchasing something i don't understand."

"i guess i don't know how carbon credits work"

If you don't understand something would it not be a little better position to educate yourself rather than make these wild claims of it being a scam?

i just keep seeing these pages (example above. didn't even have to dig deep. first stab in the dark) that seem to me more like bla bla give us more money bla bla bla.

if you find my posts uneducated, then why do you really want to hash them out word for word? i naturally feel there's an argument.

obviously there are some hosts out there doing a great job turning green via different methods. some methods are unique and just make you want to be a part of it.

for the most part, everywhere i see "green hosting" i see (obviously phrased better) "we are pigs but buy clean energy that we don't even use ourselves" in form of tags/coupons/offsets/other buzzwords here.

the whole thing smells of scam. and if it smells like scam, looks like scam, walks like scam, then it's scam.

Ignorance is bliss I guess.
Unfortunately some people's ignorance is very counter productive to what will eventually be necessary changes in the way we do business.
Keep your head in the sand but stop making ridiculous statements that you cannot back up with any fact.