Green Grid Introduces New Metrics for Data Center Sustainability

New Tips to Improve Energy Management

Ways software can be used to improve overall data center energy use.

The Green Grid announced the creation of two 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. The new metrics, called the Carbon Usage Effectiveness (CUE) and Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE), join The Green Grid's widely used Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) metric.

A consortium largely made up of IT vendors and a few end user companies will convene in March at The Green Grid's Technical Forum, where the new metrics will be discussed, Computerworld reports. In a statement, Jack Pouchet, Emerson Network Power representative and board member of The Green Grid said:

Using a sound set of metrics like PUE, CUE, and WUE will lead to better managing of natural resources, and can potentially reduce consumption. Our members firmly believe that decision-makers need the right tools to design, build, and operate their data centers in a sustainable way as they plan for increased computing, networking, and storage demands.

A whitepaper outlining the new CUE metric is available at The Green Grid's website. A whitepaper for the WUE metric will be available in the first quarter of next year.