The Green Grid, a non-profit consortium dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems, has announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the US Department of Energy (DOE), the formation of two European-based working groups and the addition of more than fifty new members since April. The activities announced highlight The Green Grid's growth as well as the organization's interest in working with governmental and non-governmental agencies worldwide to help address data center and business computing ecosystems' energy use.
The Green Grid and the US Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) will collaborate to improve energy efficiency by educating IT managers on both the technical implementation of a greener data center and the associated financial benefits. As part of the memorandum, The Green Grid and Department of Energy will develop a common set of best practice information, terminology and tools to promote increased energy efficiency in US data center facilities. The MOU was signed today at an industry roundtable forum held in Manhattan which included participants from the financial services and entertainment industries with large New York-based data centers, technology vendors, state government and non-governmental agencies and utilities.
"The memorandum of understanding with the Department of Energy signals an important step for The Green Grid, said Roger Tipley, director of The Green Grid. "This collaboration will provide IT managers with a jointly-developed set of guidelines to help improve their energy efficiency in their data center.
European Working Groups to Focus on Data Collection, Technical Analysis and Communications The Green Grid also announced the formation of two new working groups designed to extend the organization's presence in Europe and ensure that efforts are inclusive of regionally-unique issues regarding data center energy efficiency. The new groups include a technically-focused data collection and analysis working group as well as a working group focused on consortium communications within Europe.
The Data Collection and Analysis Working Group is chartered to collect data from European members to extend and support The Green Grid's goals of providing industry-wide recommendations on best practices, metrics and technologies that will improve overall data center energy efficiencies. The group will also collaborate with existing local organizations to gather technical data specific to each region. The Green Grid's existing global Technical Committee will oversee the group's activities.
The Communications Working Group will provide recommendations on regional communications activities and promote content and information developed by the Technical Committee to industry audiences based in Europe. The group will also serve as a point of engagement for European-based organizations interested in collaborating with The Green Grid.
"The formation of both European working groups will expand The Green Grid's global presence by providing a resource for European-based members to become actively involved in The Green Grid, said Tom Bradicich, director of The Green Grid. "We hope to get more European-based companies involved in this global effort and expect to see strong membership growth in these areas.