According to the recent announcement on ASHRAE's website, "the cooperative publication agreement between ASHRAE and The Green Grid encourages the sharing of technical information, particularly guidance regarding energy efficiency, between the two groups."

The Green Grid works to provide industry wide recommendations and best practices on metrics and technologies that will improve energy efficiency in data centers around the world.

The organization already has a growing database of white papers and this new collaborative effort with ASHRAE will help to expand The Green Grid's catalog of "green" information.

"This agreement raises our collaboration efforts in the electronics industry and enhances our efforts to provide data center operators with important information to improve the energy efficiency of data centers, paralleling the work already being done by ASHRAE to improve energy efficiency in all types of buildings," says Roger Schmidt, chair of ASHRAE's technical committee on mission critical facilities, technology spaces and electronic equipment. "ASHRAE's unique membership makeup of manufacturers, designers, facility managers, architects and code officials will go a long way in assisting the member companies of The Green Grid."

Although not quite to this capacity, it seems The Green Grid and ASHRAE have collaborated in the past when the organization held its First Annual Green Grid Technical Forum in January. ASHRAE's Schmidt was part of the speaker lineup for the two-day event.

ASHRAE was founded in 1894 and develops best practices for 50,000 professionals in HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning). According to reports on Data Center Knowledge, the organization "has issued recommendations for data center efficiency through its Technical Committee 9.9."