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ISO/IEC JTC 1 Subcommittee 39 on IT Sustainability Holds First Meeting in California

ISO/IEC JTC 1 Subcommittee 39 on IT Sustainability Holds First Plenary Meeting in California

New York  August 2, 2012


On June 12-14, Subcommittee (SC) 39, Sustainability for and by Information Technology, of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Joint Technical Committee (JTC) 1, Information Technology Standards, held its first plenary meeting in Redwood Shores, CA. The meeting was attended by 40 people, including representatives of eight of SC 39’s 13 participating national bodies and two of its six observing national bodies, as well as ISO/IEC JTC 1 chairperson Karen Higginbottom, director of standards at Hewlett Packard.

SC 39 was formed in November 2011 during the 26th plenary meeting of ISO/IEC JTC 1, which was hosted in San Diego by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) [see related news item]. ANSI has served as the Secretariat of ISO/IEC JTC 1 and SC 39 since the founding of both groups. The creation of SC 39 was preceded by ISO/IEC JTC 1’s previous work in connection with greening and energy efficiency issues.

During the plenary meeting, SC 39 affirmed that it would focus on standardization related to the efficient use of resources to power and sustain information technology (IT), with the goal of bolstering economically and environmentally viable development. In order to avoid conflicting or duplicative work, the subcommittee agreed to actively collaborate with other JTC 1 entities, relevant divisions of both ISO and IEC, and other standards organizations, including consortia and other external groups.

At the meeting, Jay Taylor, director of global standards, codes, and environment at Schneider Electric, was confirmed as SC 39 chairperson, for a term lasting through 2014. In addition, Henry Wong, senior staff technologist at Intel, was confirmed as the convenor of SC 39’s Working Group (WG) 1, Resource Efficient Data Centres, which was established during the meeting. SC 39 also established WG 2, Green ICT.

WG 1 was tasked with developing an energy management system standard designed specifically for data centers, among other goals, and is scheduled to hold its initial meeting August 28-30 in Frankfurt, Germany. WG 2 intends to provide guidance for the development of energy-efficient information and communication technology (ICT) for groups beyond the purview of WG 1; its first meeting is scheduled for October 31-November 2 in Jeju, South Korea. The subcommittee also formed a Study Group on Gap Analysis charged with developing guidelines for the use of IT to further the greening of other industries and creating assessment methodology to quantify green effects created using ICT.

SC 39’s next plenary meeting is expected to be held in May or June 2013.