Hong Kong’s government is considering setting up its own data center standards to control carbon emissions and energy efficiency, according to Initiator and Founding Chairman of the Stearing Committee of the Green ICT Consortium of Hong Kong Dr Elizabeth Quat.

 

Quat said the consortium, made up of a group of organizations concerned with green IT, is carrying out a pilot study on a carbon audit and efficiency measures with government agencies, including the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer.

 

The Futuregov website said Quat spoke of the developments at a recent FutureGov Forum held in Hong Kong.

 

"Hopefully, we can come up with guidelines to train ICT practitioners to do their own carbon audit for their own data centers," Quat said.

 

She said the standard would be specific to Hong Kong, removing the need for data center operators to rely on standards from outside of the country.

 

Land in Hong Kong is at a premium, which brings a different set of concerns for data centers there which can only be built on industrial parks earmarked for data center development.

 

According to Quat, a survey conducted by the consortium in 2009 showed that approximately 42% of 303 respondent organizations in Hong Kong had no green IT strategy in place, and had no plans to develop one in future.

 

Following the global recession, data center expansion in Hong Kong was expected to be slow but the Hong Kong government has put aside space in industrial parks for future data center development. 

 

Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Rita Lau, in the Hong Kong Legislative Council on 23 June 2010, said the government’s Digital 21 Strategy Advisory Committee said it saw Hong Kong as a desirable location for high-end data centers.

 

She called for "comprehensive and proactive policy" on any new developments in the data center space.