These organisations are informing government organisations across the world in the formation of standards and benchmarks for energy efficiency and are well placed with leading industry experts from their respective fields.
Building
US - Green Building Council - The US GBC have defined and continually update the standard for efficient and sustainable building through the LEED certification.
BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) - The UK developed standard which describe best practice in sustainable design for a building's environmental performance.
Data Centre
EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres - The EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres was developed in 2007 by the global data centre community. The code is voluntary and provides a guide on the principles of best practices to design, operate and monitor a data centre. An excellent document which is updated every year. I have been involved in the development of the code since it started.
The Green Grid - The Green Grid is an industry organisation which is defining the definition of energy efficient data centres - I have been part of the organisation since it's inception and I currently serve as the EMEA Vice Chair and part of the Advisory Council. The Green Grid provide guidance on metrics, technology, strategy, best practices, etc. There are a lot of benefits of being part of The Green Grid - I have found significant value in working with global experts and going through the process of creating standards, metrics and best practices. Whilst getting early access to the content I also get the benefit of learning about how to adapt concepts to add true business value.
The Uptime Institute/The 451 Group - The Uptime Institute is historically and best known for the Tier standard which looks to define availability for data centres. The organisation is well known and brings together many if not all of the industry experts globally for data centres. A great event and resource for content and learning from other leading organisations.
ASHRAE - The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers define the international standard for thermal and environmental conditions for mission critical facilities. Technical Committee 9.9 define the standards for data centre environments. This organisation and committee provides guidance for a key area within improving data centre efficiency.
Data Centre Pulse - a group of global data centre owners, operators and users who are working together to advance improvements in the data centre world - one strong part of that is energy efficiency and sustainability.
IT - Server
US EPA Energy Star for Enterprise Servers - The US Environmental Protection Agency has taken up the challenge to define energy efficient servers - the specification has taken the first big step forward to improve the efficiency of enterprise servers. The specification is a great start and provides a solid foundation for organisation to move forward from.
SPEC Power 2008 benchmarks - the SPEC Power 2008 benchmark is a great graphical benchmark which shows the energy consumed against utilisation (in 10% increments) with an output in transaction using a java workload (see HP DL385 G7 - graph also below).
It is a great tool to show the scalability of the power consumption of the server against utilisation (and to be honest it tends to show many servers consume between 40 - 60% of their max power when they are doing nothing - idle). Server manufacturers provide this data voluntarily - therefore they tend to only put forward the servers which perform well. Therefore if your servers are not on the list they are likely to be even worse than some of the performances disclosed (many of which are not great). Please bear in mind the results would vary depending on configuration, application characteristics, different environmental conditions, etc. and the benchmark also does not measure the efficiency of the NIC, Memory and Disk I/O components.
SERT - Server Efficiency Rating Tool - the tool aims to measure the overall efficiency of the server while is it performing actual computing work via an Active Model Efficiency Rating Tool. This rating tool is currently being developed and will likely be part of the updated Energy Star specification for Enterprise Servers.
80 Plus - 80 Plus is an initiative which is driving the adoption of more efficient Power Supply Units. It certified products with energy efficiency above 80% using a tiered bronze, silver, gold, platinum rating. The efficiency is reviewed at 20%, 50% and 100% of the rated load and the product must have a power factor of 0.9 or greater at 100% load. Therefore a 80 plus certified energy supply has PSU's that waste 20% or less energy as heat at a certain load - therefore reducing energy use and reducing costs.
Climate Savers - Climate Savers is a consortium started by Google and Intel. Their goal is to promote the development and deployment of smart technologies to improve the efficiency of a computer's power delivery and reduce the energy consumed in an inactive state. Members commit to purchasing energy efficiency computing products and meet power efficiency targets. Helping to define the 80 Plus program falls into the Climate Savers remit.
Storage
SNIA - Green Storage Initiative - SNIA GSI are dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in the networked storage technologies space. They define and look at the energy efficiency of storage from a product, component, configuration, use and delivery perspective. They inform the US EPA as part of the Energy Star specification for Enterprise Storage.
US EPA Energy Star for Enterprise Storage - The US EPA are defining the specification for energy efficient storage. The specification is currently being developed.
Network
ETSI & NEBS standard - the standard defines amongst other things the environmental parameters for networking equipment in Europe and the US respectively. They allow equipment to run reliably within wider temperature and humidity conditions. So much so that the equipment can be cooled by external air without the need for Mechanical cooling.
Desktop
Energy Star for Computers - The standard specification which outlines energy efficient desktops.
EPEAT - EPEAT is a system that helps customers evaluate, compare and select products on 23 environmental attributes. Registered products are rated Gold, Silver or Bronze depending on their evaluation. The systems covers desktops, laptops, thin clients, workstations and computer monitors.
EU Code of Conduct on efficiency of External Power Supplies - suppliers agreeing to efficiency targets for single voltage external ac-dc/ac power supplies for electronics, including AC adapters, battery chargers for mobile phones, domestic appliances, power tools and IT equipment in the output range of 0.3W to 250W.
Suppliers
External Network
EU Code of Conduct on Energy Consumption of Broadband Communication Equipment - suppliers agreeing to efficiency targets to reduce the energy consumption of broadband communication equipment.
Utility Provider
US EPA Green Power Partnership - use the US EPA's guide to renewables, renewable energy certificates and on site generation to help move your organisation and the country to a greener future. Participants are recognised by the US EPA as a participant on the website.
