The rising cost of energy has replaced the computer hacker as public enemy number one for IT departments. Two green data center initiatives are developing standards for energy efficiency and prompting industry leaders to cooperate as never before.

Two new organizations joined the Green Grid consortium on Monday. Storage companies Overland Storage and Fujitsu are now part of the group dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers. Fujitsu is the first Japanese company to join the Green Grid.

The Green Grid's membership includes many of the leading IT companies including IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Sun, AMD and Dell computer among many others. Data centers are estimated to consume about 1.5 percent of all electricity in the U.S. and generate about 2 percent of all CO2 emissions. With the cost of electricity rising, data centers expanding, and new costs for emitting CO2 looming, IT companies are racing to enhance their energy efficiency.

The Green Grid is studying current data center energy requirements and is working in conjunction with an complimentary effort from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency program to measure and set ratings of data center energy consumption.

The DOE and EPA are combining resources to create a joint national data center energy-efficiency information program. The agencies will co-develop tools for saving energy, create benchmarks for measurement, and launch an Energy Star ratings system.

Data center developer and operator, 365 Main is now a partner in the EPA's Energy Star program, the first data hosting company to do so. The company will work with EPA to develop the Energy Star energy performance rating for data centers.

Green computing initiatives will be the focus of much of the Data Center World conference on March 31-April 3 in Las Vegas.