We've been investigating exactly how the new ENERGY STAR for Data Centers works and sharing what we've learned. A look the first ENERGY STAR data centers reveals an interesting pattern: a foucs on reducing energy by tackling cooling, not ICT equipment and use.

We'll be using this post to track notable entities who are buying green ICT gear.

There appears to be little consistent information for evaluating manufacturer claims about green phones and other mobile devices and much of that is dated. We've added newer rankings, but left the original ones here for those looking at older phones.

As we learn that most ICT impact occurs outside of the data center, understanding the the impact of "CT" becomes as important as that of "IT". GÉANT, the multi-gigabit pan-European research and education (R&E) network, has completed an GHG audit of its network backbone using the ISO 14063 standard. Its report both offers insights and raises questions.

Pike Research's Green Data Centers report finds that "the investment in greener data centers will experience rapid growth over the next five years, increasing from $7.5 billion in global revenue to $41.4 billion by 2015, representing 28% of the total data center market...power and cooling infrastructure solutions will be the largest portion of the green data center market opportunity, representing 46% of revenue over the next five years.

Recent posts about "green" cloud computing generated lots of response. The issue: what is "green" and "clean" energy?

Intel, Dell, and Cisco were the only ICT companies among the top 20 Fortune 500 companies participating in the 2009 EPA Green Power Partnership program. (Compare this with Newsweek's Green Rankings 2009, in which tech dominated all of the Fortune 500 by capturing 11 of the top 20 positions.) In the 2010 Green Power Partnership, these three are still tops but are joined by by Motorola, Sprint, and AMD. Fortune 500 participation in the program was 64, up from 60 last year.

Vertatique includes GreenICT progress and issues from outside the United States. Here are some updates from this region. Click here for more Green ICT news and analysis from this and all the regions around the world.

German software giant SAP announced continued progress toward its goal "to reduce its total carbon emissions to the year-2000 emissions level". Key is "significant progress in improving energy efficiencies in data centers through the use of data center design, virtualization technology and efficient hardware. The company’s largest data centers have been certified as “energy efficient” by the German standards organization TÜV Rheinland."

The European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics' October 2009 issue of ERCIM News has a Green ICT theme. It contains articles on energy-efficient networking and storage, data center operations, and other Green ICT topics.

Most Green ICT attention focuses on the data center, but there is growing evidence that the data center represents a minority of total ICT energy consumption and carbon emissions. The latest supporting data comes from Australia .

Few state recycling laws address consumer media devices other than TVs. Here are the states that do.