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The Greening of IT
48 How Companies Can Make a Difference for the Environment

pressure on space in existing data centers and leading to increased
demand for energy. Without this research, New York State cannot com-
pete in an increasingly high-tech, computationally intensive world.

The Green Grid Collaboration Agreements

The Green Grid (mentioned at the beginning of this chapter and at
the end of Chapter 2) represents an excellent example of organizations
collaborating for energy efficiency. The Green Grid is a global consor-
tium dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers and busi-
ness computing ecosystems. In 2008, The Green Grid announced
Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) and the Storage Networking Industry
Association (SNIA). The Green Grid’s agreement with the EPA will first
promote energy efficiency in EPA computer facilities and then broadly
share results to impact change within both other governmental agencies
and the private sector. The alliance with SNIA, formally announced by
SNIA in mid-2008, is designed to further networked storage best prac- ptg
tices for energy efficiency.
The Green Grid’s MOU with the EPA and SNIA highlight the orga-
nization’s continuing efforts and progress in working with government
agencies and key industry players to define and promote the adoption of
standards, processes, measurements, and technologies for energy effi-
ciency in the data center.
The Green Grid’s collaboration with the EPA will accelerate the
adoption of best practices for energy efficiency in existing computer and
server rooms throughout the EPA. As an initial step, The Green Grid
and the EPA will identify an existing small EPA computer or server
room as a target for an energy-efficiency showcase and execute a public
project demonstrating the feasibility, approach, and benefits of opti-
mization. The results, best practices, and real-world takeaways from this
project will be shared with other governmental agencies, industry stake-
holders, and the private sector. As announced by The Green Grid, this
“…agreement between the EPA and The Green Grid will build further
collaboration between the private and public sectors, and to set an exam-
ple by improving energy efficiency in federal government computer
facilities. The Green Grid will play a key role in this project by provid-
ing a team of technical experts who will perform the assessment and
direct strategies and techniques for maximizing energy efficiency.”