Data Center Sustainability Gets Focus at The Green Grid Technical Forum 2011

Source: BusinessWire

New Metrics Focus on Energy, Carbon, Water Use in Data Centers

The Green Grid Association, the IT industry’s leading voice for resource efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems, today announced that its upcoming Technical Forum and Members Meeting on March 1-2, 2011, in Santa Clara, CA, will focus on helping businesses become more efficient in using energy, carbon, and water in their data center facilities.

“This year’s technical forum and members meeting will feature content that speaks to a broad range of participants, including executives with responsibility for IT, corporate sustainability, and business operations”

The event’s theme, “Get Connected: Efficient IT for Business Advantage,” underscores the importance of data centers as key business differentiators, and sessions will help attendees understand how tools from The Green Grid can help them chart a path to make their facilities more energy efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective.

John A. “Skip” Laitner, Director of Economic and Social Analysis for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, will deliver the keynote address to members of The Green Grid on Tuesday, March 1. Mr. Laitner’s keynote will highlight the critical role of IT energy efficiency in maintaining a productive and more prosperous global economy.

Mr. Laitner has 40 years of involvement in the environmental and energy policy arenas. He previously served 10 years as a Senior Economist for Technology Policy for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but he chose to leave federal service in June 2006 to focus his research on developing a more robust technology and behavioral characterization of energy efficiency resources for use in energy and climate economic policy models. In 1998, Mr. Laitner was awarded EPA’s Gold Medal for his work with a team of EPA economists to evaluate the impact of different strategies that might assist in the implementation of greenhouse gas emissions reduction policies.

Dr. Robert Atkinson, founder and president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a Washington, D.C.-based technology policy think tank, will deliver the public keynote address on Wednesday, March 2. Dr. Atkinson’s keynote will focus on the upside for governments to incent and spur innovation in energy efficient IT, in contrast to the current legislative environment that fixates on regulating efficiency.

In addition to his role at ITIF, Dr. Atkinson is also author of the forthcoming book The Global Race for Innovation Advantage, and Why the U.S. is Falling Behind, the book, The Past And Future Of America’s Economy: Long Waves Of Innovation That Power Cycles Of Growth, and the State New Economy Index series. He has an extensive background in technology policy, he has conducted ground-breaking research projects on technology and innovation, and he is a valued adviser to state and national policy makers.

Conference attendees will have an opportunity to review new tools, processes, regional trends and best practices for managing data centers for resource effectiveness. Among these new tools are several new metrics designed to help improve the sustainability of data center facilities by measuring the effectiveness of carbon and water use tied specifically to the IT energy infrastructure they contain. These new metrics include Carbon Usage Effectiveness (CUE^TM) and Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE^TM), which join The Green Grid’s widely-adopted Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE^TM) metric.

Registration for The Green Grid Technical Forum 2011 is now open to members and non-members of The Green Grid, and the event will be held on March 1-2 in Santa Clara, CA. Attendance is open to members of The Green Grid on March 1, and then opens to the public and the media on March 2.

As a new feature this year, members of The Green Grid will be able to schedule one-on-one meetings with members of the organization’s Board of Directors. These meetings, which are being set on a first-come, first-serve basis, provide a unique opportunity to discuss The Green Grid’s strategy and direction directly with the leadership of the organization. The meetings also allow members the chance to provide feedback directly to Board members on the organization’s direction, technical activities, accomplishments, and future plans.

“This year’s technical forum and members meeting will feature content that speaks to a broad range of participants, including executives with responsibility for IT, corporate sustainability, and business operations,” said Jon Haas, Intel representative and Board member of The Green Grid. “The keynotes by Skip and Rob will provide perspective on how government policy is impacting global technology deployments. We look forward to interacting with members and non-members on a host of topics related to their data centers.”

About The Green Grid

The Green Grid is a global consortium of companies, government agencies and educational institutions dedicated to resource efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems. The Green Grid does not endorse vendor-specific products or solutions, and instead seeks to provide industry-wide recommendations on best practices, metrics and technologies that will improve overall data center energy efficiency. Membership is open to organizations interested in data center operational efficiency at the Contributor, General or Associate member level. Additional information is available at www.thegreengrid.org.