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'LEED for Data Centers' Draft Released

A coalition of data center industry groups has been developing a draft framework for an energy-efficiency standard to create a "LEED for Data Centers" standard for green facilities.

greendcA coalition of data center industry groups has released a draft of an energy-efficiency standard for data centers to expand the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program for certifying "green" buildings. The LEED standard, which is maintained by the U.S. Green Buildings Council (USGBC), was designed for commercial office buildings. A handful of data centers have been LEED certified under the current standard (see our list), but many have preferred an expanded standard that addresses the specialized nature of data centers.

The project brought together most of the major players in data center energy efficiency. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory developed the draft with input from The Green Grid, ASHRAE, 7x24 Exchange, Uptime Institute, Silicon Valley Leadership Group and Critical Facilities Roundtable. The project was guided by Ray Pfeifer of SynapSense, who was also a key organizer of last year's Silicon Valley Leadership Group data center summit.

"By working together collaboratively, the key stakeholders in the data center industry will provide a common voice to encourage the USGBC to move forward with a data center specific LEED NC standard in 2009," the group writes in its introduction. The draft is designed as a guide for new data centers, but many of the ideas are also applicable to existing facilities.

The draft has been submitted to the USGBC for consideration. The EPA, which offers an ENERGY STAR certification program for commercial building, is also working on a building-level standard specific to data centers.

What are your impressions of the proposal? Add your perspective in the comments.

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