The European Union wants to reduce its carbon footprint and look after the environment, and it has a penchant for regulations. We have the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive and many more.

Environmental groups have become increasingly aware of the energy used by data centers, and the emissions that result, so earlier this year, the European Commission - the European Union's executive arm, started to consider the possibility of drafting regulations.

Now, this option is not going to be popular with everyone. Generally speaking, the data center industry would far rather regulate itself. But government regulations - if they mandate the right things - can provide a useful incentive to get better technology into production, and they can ensure that best practices don't get ignored.

But the idea got off to a somewhat bumpy start: In April, DG Connect, the EC directorate responsible for the Digital Agenda, called industry bodies to a Brussels meeting and suggested the industry might be required to meet suitable metrics of efficiency.

Remember the Code!
What metrics? Well, DG Connect was apparently not aware that it actually had sponsored a powerful and well-regarded tool for getting data centers up to best practices. The representatives from the data center industry had to politely point them to the EU Code of Conduct, produced by the EC's own Joint Research Center.

Though it's published by the JRC, the Code of Conduct is really a grass-roots effort, supported by practitioners and continually updated. It's well-supported and has influenced many international standards. Data centers routinely refer to it in their design goals.

But not everyone acknowledges its role so it is perhaps not surprising that DG Connect had to be reminded of its own work.

This week has seen a further meeting in Brussels, this time hosted by the Digital Europe industry body, with DG Connect in attendance. This meeting was designed to highlight the success of the Code, and consider ways it could be used.

For the Brussels regulators to accept it as a useful tool to cut data center energy use, the industry will have to find ways to measure and report on the results the Code is producing. How many data centers use it? If it is effective in cutting energy, how much energy does it save?

Regulations might generate this kind of data, but at a possible cost: a Code of Conduct enshrined in rules, would be one which could not change and develop as rapidly as it currently does.

It's not clear what sort of regulations the EC will recommend. It may recommend no regulations at all, and have the industry police itself.

But whatever happens, there needs to be a more visible role for the Code of Conduct.