The industry has been striving to green data centers for some time. Here are some of pioneers from 2002 through 2009.

Verne Global continues to publish useful information about why customers value green data centers. Automobile manufacturer BMW is the latest customer profiled by the company.

A Microsoft/Accenture/WSP report compared three applications used in-cloud and on-premises. A Google report takes a similar look at Google Apps. Both claim CO2e reductions ranging above 80%. Pike Research says the move to cloud computing will decrease overall data center GHG emissions by 28%. The most recent report, a WSP/NRDC study, reinforces these themes but offers balancing perspectives.

We're increasingly seeing data centers promote, and customers respond to, Green ICT features. Here are some customer perspectives and the results of a industry survey that reveals geographical differences.

A Pike Research report says that the trend to greener data centers will yield a significant GHG slowdown as well as drive a substantial market opportunity. Here are some of the top-line numbers from Pike.

Europe has a number of initiatives and conferences focused on the 'C' in "Green ICT'.

TREND is a Network of Excellence on energy-efficient networking funded by the European Commission within the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). TREND describes itself as "a new holistic approach to energy-efficient and sustainable networking."

The ECONET (low Energy COnsumption NETworks) project is a 3-year IP project (running from October 2010 to September 2013) is also funded under FP7, addresses Strategic Objective ICT-2009.1.1 The Network of the Future (Euro-NF). "The ECONET project aims at studying and exploiting dynamic adaptive technologies (based on standby and performance scaling capabilities) for wired network devices that allow saving energy when a device (or part of it) is not used…The overall idea is to introduce novel green network-specific paradigms and concepts enabling the reduction of energy requirements of wired network equipment by 50% in the short to mid-term (and by 80% in the long run)."

Conferences covering the topic of "green communications" are plentiful this year. Some have March 2012 submission deadlines.

Facebook mentions in passing that its highly efficient Prineville data center uses "Ethernet-powered LED lighting [to] reduce the total energy required to run the facility." Additional information about what exactly Facebook has done is hard to fine. What is Ethernet-powered LED lighting?

Photovoltaic (PV) solar is promising source of on-site renewable electricity generation for ICT infrastructures. Solar PV generates DC power; computers and other e-devices run on DC power. What are the challenges and opportunities?

Oracle's latest Next Generation Data Centre Index compares today's situation ("C2") with that of a year ago ("C1") for Europe and the Middle East. Findings are positive but mixed from a Green ICT perspective.