Under the EU taxonomy, data centre activities can be classified as contributing substantially to climate change mitigation if they have implemented the expected practices of European Code of Conduct for Energy Efficiency in Data Centres from the European Joint Research Centre (JRC). Compliance will have to be verified by an independent third party and audited at least every three years.
To help auditors verify whether data centres comply with the Code of Conduct’s best practices, the Commission has tasked the Testing Inspection and Certification Council (TIC Council) to draft a temporary assessment framework for data centre activities. Following an open call for experts, the TIC Council formed a drafting group to develop a first draft of the framework. A steering group convened by the JRC has closely followed the drafting process, commented on the framework, and advised the drafting group on its compatibility with the Code of Conduct.
The TIC Council has now published the draft assessment framework for public comments.
The call for comments is open until 16 November.
Comments and questions on the draft can be directed to data.centres@tic-council.org.