Brussels, 22 March 2011 - The European Commission's Code of Conduct (COC) on Data Centres' Energy Efficiency is a voluntary code that organisations can endorse, committing them to implement measures to reduce energy consumption. The code is now established as the definitive industry practice for reducing carbon emissions by Data Centres and has been widely adopted with more than 122 endorsers.

Special Awards will be announced at the Data Centres 2011 (www.datacentres.com/dc2011) international conference and exhibition which takes place in Nice, France 5-6 May 2011, for data centre operators who have demonstrated exceptional implementation of the code in their facilities.

The awards will be presented personally by a representative of the European Commission Directorate General Joint Research Centre, which is co-ordinating the Code of Conduct for Data Centre and many more European Energy efficiency initiatives.

Contributing to the EU climate targets for primary energy savings of 20% by 2020 the COC has been designed to address these objectives by raising awareness, producing a common set of principles and setting energy targets for the data centre sector. In announcing the COC awards, the JRC will give recognition to data centre operators who have implemented measures above and beyond those identified in the code of practice.

Data Centres 2011 is the seventh annual European conference for the data centre industry and the largest regional event. It attracts operators, end users and other companies engaged in the sector.

The event programme features energy management and innovative cooling technologies as well as commercial and technical panels, insight tracks, solution sessions, training, and workshops.