The Green Grid and the U.S. 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 centre 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 U.S. data center facilities. The MOU was signed 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", stated 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 centre."

The Green Grid also has formed two new working groups designed to extend the organisation's presence in Europe and ensure that efforts are inclusive of regionally-unique issues regarding data centre 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 centre energy efficiencies. The group will also collaborate with existing local organisations 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 organisations 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", stated 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."