JTC 1/SC 39
Sustainability, IT & Data Centres
September 2025
JTC 1/SC 39 was established during the November 2011 Plenary of JTC 1 in Resolution 27, New JTC 1 Subcommittee on Sustainability for and by Information Technology. Resolution 27 also approved the United States to serve as Secretariat for the committee, and Mr John Calhoon, US, to serve as acting chairman. At the inception of the Committee, Ms Sally Seitz, ANSI, had served as JTC 1/SC 39 Secretary. Mr. David Reiner currently serves as the Subcommittee Chair and Mr. Bill Ash serves as the Committee Manager. The establishment was based on the report with recommendations made by the Study Group on Energy Efficiency of Data Centers. In accordance with the 2009 JTC1 Tel Aviv Resolution 24.
JTC1 SC 39 Meetings
JTC 1/SC 39 held its first meeting 12-14 June 2012 in Redwood Shores, California. The meeting resolutions are available in document JTC 1 N 11145. At that meeting, JTC 1/SC 39 members approved the following scope of the committee (Resolution 1):
“Standardization related to the intersection of resource efficiency and IT which supports environmentally and economically viable development, application, operation and management aspects.
JTC 1/SC 39 also confirmed the US nomination of Mr Jay Taylor, US, to serve as the Chairman of the committee (Resolution 17).
JTC 1/SC 39 held its second meeting 23-24 May 2013 in Dublin, Ireland.
JTC 1/SC 39 held its third meeting 15-16 May 2014 in Busan, Republic of Korea
JTC 1/SC 39 held its fourth meeting 24-25 June 2015 in Bagnolet, France
JTC 1/SC 39 held its fifth meeting 23-24 June 2016 in Frankfurt, Germany
JTC 1/SC 39 held its sixth meeting 17-18 May 2017 in Sunnyvale, California, US
JTC 1/SC 39 held its seventh meeting 18 May 2018 in Delft, Netherlands
JTC 1/SC 39 held its eighth meeting 13 May 2019 in Yokohama, Japan
JTC 1/SC 39 held its ninth meeting 22 May 2020 Virtual
JTC 1/SC 39 held its tenth meeting 21 May 2021 Virtual
JTC 1/SC 39 held its eleventh meeting 20 May 2022 Virtual
JTC 1/SC 39 held its twelfth meeting 26 May 2023 in Offenbach, Germany
JTC 1/SC 39 held its thirteenth meeting 26 April 2024 in Paris, France
JTC 1/SC 39 held its fourteenth meeting 23 May 2025 in Seoul, Korea
JTC1 SC 39 Liaisons:
Category A
CENELEC TC 215, Electrotechnical aspects of telecommunications equipment
ECMA International
ETSI
European Commission
ITU-T SG 5, Environment and climate change
Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC)
The Green Grid
At the first Plenary, JTC 1/SC 39 established the following two Working Groups, and a third working group was established in 2016:
JTC 1/SC 39/WG 1 – Resource Efficient Data
Terms of Reference:
- Development of a data centre resource efficiency taxonomy, vocabulary, and maturity model;
- Development of a holistic suite of metrics and Key Performance Indicators for data centres;
- Development of guidance for resource efficient data centres; and
- Development of an energy management system standard specifically tailored for data centres.
Projects Assigned:
- ISO/IEC 30131, Information technology – Data Centres – Taxonomy and Maturity Model
- ISO/IEC TR 30133, Best Practices for Green Data Centres
- ISO/IEC 23544, Information Technology — Data Centres — Application Platform Energy Effectiveness (APEE)
- ISO/IEC 30134 Series, Information technology – Data Centres – Key Performance Indicatory
- ISO/IEC 21836 Information technology — Data centres — Server energy effectiveness metric
- ISO/IEC TS 8236-1, Information technology – Provisioning, forecasting & management – Part 1: Data centre IT equipment
Convenor: Niek van der Pas, NL
JTC 1/SC 39/WG 2 – Green ICT (Disbanded Resolution 83 – Sunnyvale, CA, USA)
Terms of Reference:
Prepare guidance for the development of energy efficient ICT excluding the scope of JTC 1/SC 39/WG 1, Resource Efficient Data Centres.
Project Assigned:
- ISO/IEC 30132, Information technology – IT Sustainability – Guidance for the Development of Energy Efficient ICT Products
Convenor: Mr Yong-Woon Kim, KR
JTC 1/SC 39/WG 3 – Sustainable facilities and infrastructures
Terms of Reference:
To develop documents (International Standards and other documents) for sustainable ICT facilities and infrastructures, such as data centres. Standards and best practices in the development, modifications and operation of sustainable facilities and infrastructures
Project Assigned:
ISO/IEC TS 22237 series, Information technology – Data centre facilities and infrastructures
ISO/IEC TS 8236-2, Information technology – Provisioning, forecasting & management – Part 2: Data centre facility infrastructure
Convenor Mr Jens Dittrich
JTC 1/SC 39/WG 4 – Eco-design of digital services
Terms of Reference:
….
Project Assigned:
ISO/IEC AWI TS 20125 Digital Services Ecodesign
Convenor: Mr Pierre Decrocq
JTC 1/SC 39 National Membership
Click here to see the membership of SC 39
The JTC 1/SC 39 Working Groups have met in conjunction with the Plenary meeting, and also hold additional face to face meetings and teleconferences in between.