ICT Environmental impact (RP2023)

(A.) Policy and legislation

(A.1) Policy objectives

ICT is currently one of the fastest growing greenhouse gas-emitting and energy management sectors, however Digital transformation and Green transition have both synergies and conflicts:

• among the most important synergies:
  • Digital transformation for climate neutrality. It can reduce 15-20% of total GHG emissions
  • Green transition for sustainable financing and new jobs in green digital transformation
• among the most important conflicts:
  • ICT footprint: 2.1% to 3.9% of total emissions; eWaste- fastest growing waste category
  • Green transition may block certain digitalisation patterns (built in obsolescence, blockchain mining, single use electronics, etc).

More in general, ICT can support the achievement of several targets established under the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG) of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development ‘Responsible consumption and production.

At the level of ICT, multiple methodologies are available to assess the environmental impact of ICT itself, but they do not provide a consistent methodological framework for this assessment. A solution to this is the work developed in various European and International standardisation bodies such as ETSI, ITU-T, IEC, ISO and others, around methodologies to assess this environmental impact, currently focused on energy management including energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with the achievement of good consensus. This work is performed in collaboration with industry, standardisation bodies and public authorities. The criteria for measuring the impact of ICT on the environment will be extended to other environmental sectors, like water and raw materials.

A key challenge is achieving transparency around claims relating to the environmental performance of ICT products and services, and setting an effective basis to drive competition.

(A.2)   EC perspective and progress report

The Commission is looking at the environmental impact of ICT from various fronts:

• To analyse further the current situation of the ICT-sector and to consider possible options for future action, the Commission, DG CNECT, commissioned a study on the practical application of the new framework methodology for measuring the environmental impact of ICT (including a cost/benefit analysis for companies) and has organised, among other things, a workshop on policy measures, metrics, and methodologies in the context of environmentally-sound data centres.
• With CNECT playing the chief editor role under ITU-T the “ICT in Cities" methodology to assess the environmental impact of ICT at the city level is now finished (http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-L.1440-201510-P )
• With a life cycle approach (or cradle to grave), it provides:

1. a basis to help cities take the right decisions as regards their ICT infrastructure and the relevant energy costs/environmental effects;
2. a level playing field for industry to compete and innovate in providing the most sustainable solutions to cities. 

• DG ENV launched conducted a pilot on product environmental footprint on category rules. It is looking at various ICT products such as IT equipment, uninterruptible power sources (UPS) and batteries. https://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/smgp/PEFCR_OEFSR_en.htm
• DG GROW will start, in the course of 2022, the review of the Ecodesign Regulation 2019/424 on servers and data storage products (products that can be normally found in data centres or in server rooms). The timely delivery of the standards mandated under the standardisation request M/573 will be of great help in identifying the best regulatory solutions.  

(A.3) References 

• COM(2019) 64 The European Green New Deal
• COM/2020/80 Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL establishing the framework for achieving climate neutrality and amending Regulation (European Climate Law)
• First Circular Economy Action Plan
• Regulation (EU) 2019/424 laying down ecodesign requirements for servers and data storage products pursuant to Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and amending Commission Regulation (EU) No 617/2013
• COM(2015) 614: Closing the loop – An EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy
• COM(2010) 245: A Digital Agenda for Europe,  Key Action 12:

1. Assess whether the ICT sector has developed common measurement methodologies
2. Propose legal measures if appropriate

• Directive 2005/32/EC on eco-design of products
• Recommendation 2013/105/EC: Mobilising Information and Communications Technologies to facilitate the transition to an energy-efficient, low-carbon economy
• Directive 2012/27/EU on energy efficiency, amending Directives 2009/125/EC and 2010/30/EU and repealing Directives 2004/8/EC and 2006/32/EC
• Directive 2010/31/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on Energy Performance of Buildings
• Directive 2010/30/EU on Labelling and Information
• Regulation (EU) No. 347/2013 on guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructure
• COM(2009) 7604: Recommendation (9.10.2009) on mobilising Information and Communication Technologies to facilitate the transition to an energy-efficient, low-carbon economy
• COM(2009) 519 final: Investing in the Development of Low Carbon Technologies (SET Plan)
• COM(2008) 30 final: 20 20 by 2020, Europe's climate change opportunity
• COM(2008) 241: Addressing the challenge of energy efficiency through Information and Communication Technologies
• Directive 2003/96/EC of the Council on Energy Taxation
• M/462 Standardisation mandate addressed to CEN & CENELEC and ETSI in the field of ICT to enable efficient energy use in fixed and mobile information and communication networks
• Directive 2009/125/EC (Ecodesign) plus its Implementing Regulations and Standardisation Requests. Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for setting ecodesign requirements for sustainable products and repealing Directive 2009/125/EC
• Regulation (EU) 2017/1369 (Energy Consumption)
• M/543 Standardisation Request with regard to ecodesign requirements on material efficiency aspects for energy-related products

(B.) Requested actions

Action 1: Definition of Global KPIs for Energy Management of Fixed and Mobile access, and Core networks.

Action 2: Guidelines for the use of Global KPIs for Data Centres.

Action 3: Definition of Global KPIs for Data Services.

Action 4: Guidelines for the definition of Green Data Services.

Action 5: Definition and guidelines of KPIs for ICT networks.

Action 6: SDOs to identify needs and develop standards to support UN SDGs, in particular KPI for both synergies and conflicts in Digital transformation and Green transition projects.

Action 7: ETSI, in collaboration with the EGDC, to consider possible paths for ITU L.1480 and L.1333 to be made available for European standardisation to meet EU policy objectives.

C.) Activities and additional information 

(C.1) Related standardisation activities

ESOs

Standardisation request M/462 on efficient energy use within broadband deployment was accepted by the ESOs to provide standards for measurement and monitoring, including the definition of energy-efficient KPIs. This standardisation request is not only limited to networks, but extends as well to data centres and other ICT nodes associated with broadband deployment. It is currently in phase 2. 

Energy and more general resource management in data centres are addressed by a cross-ESO coordination group (Coordination Group Green Data Centres – CG-GDC). This group monitors European and international standardisation for data centre resource management (including energy) and maintains a live executive summary of that activity.

ftp://ftp.cencenelec.eu/EN/EuropeanStandardisation/HotTopics/ICT/GreenDataCentres/GDC_report_summary.pdf

 The CEN-CLC-ETSI CG-GDC encourages and coordinates standardisation activities to support Commission objectives.. Further to a recommendation of the CG-GDC, CENELEC continues to maintain CLC/TR 50600-99-1, which links the DG JRC Best Practice Guidelines for the Code of Conduct for Energy Efficient Data Centres into the EN 50600 series.

CENELEC

CLC/TC 215  is responsible for a holistic series of ENs for the design, operation and resource efficiency of data centres (including KPIs) from a system point of view. This work is undertaken in response to EC Mandate M/462. Several CENELEC Technical Committees are responsible for energy efficient products deployed in data centres.

CLC/TC 111X 'Environment'

CEN/CLC/JTC 10 Energy-related products - Material Efficiency Aspects for Ecodesign

ETSI

ETSI’s technical committees for Access, Terminals, Transmission and Multiplexing (TC ATTM), Cable (TC CABLE) and Environmental Engineering (TC EE), collaborate to develop standards in response to EC Mandate M/462 on enabling efficient energy management (efficient use of energy) in fixed and mobile information and communication networks and sites. The resulting standards cover global KPIs for energy management covering ICT sites (e.g. data centres, transmission nodes), mobile broadband access networks, fixed broadband access networks and cable access networks. These global KPIs are to support the deployment of eco-efficient networks and sites and to monitor the energy management of deployed broadband. These new KPIs, which will be used to define green sites and networks for all industrial and commercial users, are outlined in a series of ENs (EN 305 200 Series) based on ETSI’s existing KPIs and TSs for energy efficiency in broadband deployment. The KPIs will provide ICT users with tools to monitor the energy management of networks and sites in full compliance with the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. EN 305 174 Series defines the most efficient engineering of ICT networks and sites in order to support the efficient deployment of these networks and sites. Also available are a range of standards for measurement methods for energy efficiency of fixed and mobile networks.

Recent work includes new ENs for energy efficiency Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for servers and for Radio Access Network equipment, a focus on evaluating energy efficiency of future 5G networks, and work on multiservice street furniture, outlining processes to improve energy efficiency and to ease the deployment of smart new services in digital multiservice cities. EN 305 174-8 on broadband deployment and lifecycle resource management for the end of life of ICT equipment (efficient waste management) was also finalized. This EN will support future standards on field implementation of ICT waste management.

Furthermore, TC-EE is developing standards for the energy and material efficiency of ICT network equipment and this includes the standard for the implementing Regulations of the eco-design directive 2009/125/EC. In this contest, ETSI has already published the standard EN 303 423 “Environmental Engineering (EE); Electrical and electronic household and office equipment; Measurement of networked standby power consumption of Interconnecting equipment; Harmonised Standard covering the measurement method for EC Regulation 1275/2008 amended by EU Regulation 801/2013”

Based on the response to EC Mandate M/462, TC CABLE is extending the EN 305 200 series with a set of ENs standardizing an approach to energy efficiency in communication networks based on the assessment of network design and architecture. Taking into account current practices of the stakeholders represented in TC CABLE, this enables efficient design and operation of communications infrastructures end-to-end from the core network to the end user. Furthermore, the Industry Specification Group on NFV (ISG NFV) develops a report (GR NFV-EVE 021) on “green NFV” within the framework of NFV Release 5. The report aims at providing design and runtime operation guidelines for optimizing energy consumption and at identifying standards enhancements to enable NFV management and orchestration to operate according to power saving policies.

ITU and ETSI

Starting at the level of `good, networks and services´, they have approved methodologies for environmental impact assessment. These will make it possible to assess in a transparent, qualitative, accurate and consistent way the footprint and other aspects of various products and services that are part of everyday digital life, such as email, telephone services, laptops, broadband access. In addition, companies, public bodies and other organisations will be able to assess and report their ICT footprint based on ITU's "ICT in Organisation".

ITU and ETSI have also agreed a new standard to measure the energy efficiency of mobile radio access networks (RANs), the wireless networks that connect end-user equipment to the core network.

The standard (Recommendation ITU-T L.1330) is the first to define energy-efficiency metrics and measurement methods for live RANs, providing a common reference to evaluate their performance. Its application will build uniformity in the methodologies employed by such evaluations, in parallel establishing a common basis for the interpretation of the results.

ITU and ETSI has a close collaboration in the developing on standards related to Energy Efficiency, Data Centres, and circular economy.

some of the international standards developed are listed on this site:

https://www.itu.int/net/ITU-T/lists/standards.aspx?Group=5&Domain=28 

ITU

ITU-T SG5 is also developing a series of standards aimed at reducing electronic waste and transitioning to a circular economy (ITU-T L.1015, ITU-T L.1020, ITU-T L.1021, ITU-T L.1030, ITU-T L.1031, ITU-T L.1032, ITU-T L.1033, ITU-T L.1034, ITU-T L.1035, ITU-T L.1036, ITU-T L.1040, ITU-T L.1100, ITU-T L.1101, ITU-T L.1102, , ITU-T L.1022, ITU-T L.1023, ITU-T L.1024, ITU-T L.Suppl.4, ITU-TL.Suppl.5, ITU-T L.Suppl.20, ITU-T L.Suppl.27, ITU-T L.Suppl.28). Moreover, it is working to set the environmental requirements for 5G. There are four key aspects: Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC); Electromagnetic fields (EMF); Energy feeding and efficiency; and Resistibility. A series of standards on this topic have already been developed (ITU-T L.1220, ITU-T L.1221, ITU-T L.1222 , ITU-T K. Suppl.4, ITU-T K. Suppl.8, ITU-T K. Suppl.9, ITU-T K. Suppl.10, ITU-T K.Suppl.14, ITU-T K.Suppl.16, ITU-T K.Suppl.36).

ITU-T SG5 has also developed a series of standards on Universal Charger for mobile phones, stationary ICT devices and portable ICT devices (ITU-T L.1000, ITU-T L.1001, ITU-T L.1002, ITU-T L.1005, ITU-T L.1006, ITU-T L.1007).

In addition, ITU-T SG5 also develops standards that aim to assess the sustainability impacts of ICTs and adapt ICT infrastructure to the effects of climate change within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Recommendation ITU-T L.1440 - Methodology for environmental impact assessment of information and communication technologies at city level. The European Commission through CNECTH5 acted as chief editor.

A series of Green Efficiency KPIs has been developed by ITU-T SG5 including Recommendation ITU-T L.1333 “Carbon data intensity for network energy performance monitoring”.

ITU-T has developed Recommendations ITU-T L.1371 “A methodology for assessing and scoring the sustainability performance of office buildings, ITU-T L.1470 “Greenhouse gas emissions trajectories for the information and communication technology sector compatible with the UNFCCC Paris Agreement”, ITU-T L.1471 “Guidance and criteria for information and communication technology organisations on setting Net Zero targets and strategies”, ITU-T L.1480. “Enabling the Net Zero transition: Assessing how the use of ICT solutions impacts GHG emissions of other sectors” and ITU-T L.1481 “Guidance on how to address Connect2030 targets on net abatement”

Some of the international standards developed by ITU are listed on this site:

https://www.itu.int/net/ITU-T/lists/standards.aspx?Group=5&Domain=28 

For more standards developed by SG5 on related topics, see: https://www.itu.int/ITU-T/recommendations/index_sg.aspx?sg=5
More info: https://itu.int/go/tsg5

ITU developed two reports, entitled “Turning digital technology innovation into climate action” and “Frontier technologies to protect the environment & tackle climate change”, to highlight the emerging role of ICTs and digital technologies in accelerating climate actions.

ITU-T Focus Group “Environmental efficiency for artificial intelligence and frontier technologies” (FG-AI4EE) was created in May 2019 to identify the standardization gaps related to the environmental performance of AI and other emerging technologies including automation, augmented reality, virtual reality, extended reality, smart manufacturing, industry 5.0, cloud/edge computing, nanotechnology, 5G, among others. The Focus Group develops technical reports and specifications to address the environmental efficiency, as well as the water and energy consumption of emerging technologies. The focus group has already produced twelve deliverables available for download on FG-AI4EE homepage: https://itu.int/go/fgai4ee

IEC

IEC TC 111 'Environmental standardisation for electrical and electronic products and systems'

IEC TC23 WG9. This WG is responsible for a holistic view of energy efficiency within the scope of TC23.

ISO/IEC JTC 1

ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 39 'Sustainability, IT & Data Centres:

• has published International Standard ISO/IEC 21836 for Server Energy Effectiveness Metric (SEEM);
• has published International Standard ISO/IEC 23544 on Application Platform Energy Effectiveness (APEE);
• is working on further data centre KPIs (currently, ISO/IEC 30134-8 on Carbon Usage Effectiveness (CUE) and ISO/IEC 30134-9 on Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) are in their final development phase)

http://www.iso.org/iso/standards_development/technical_committees/list_of_iso_technical_committees/iso_technical_committee.htm?commid=654019

IEEE

Information about work being done by IEEE in areas of sustainability can be found here: https://standards.ieee.org/featured/sustainable-development/

The IEEE has created Planet Positive 2030, an output of The Sustainable Infrastructures and Community Development program (IEEE SICDP), that brings together a global, open community of experts to chart a path for all people to achieve a flourishing future for 2030 and beyond.  Planet Positive 2030’s current compendium document, Strong Sustainability by Design (available to the general public as a Request for Input document in early 2023) features multiple chapters on the circular economy.  

The program has also inspired a number of standards ideas, including the recently approved Standards Working Group: 

P7800 Recommended Practice for Addressing Sustainability, Environmental Stewardship and Climate Change Challenges in Professional Practice. 

IEEE also has standardisation activities that contribute to assessing and reducing the environmental impact of ICT such as the electronic product environmental assessment series, energy efficient Ethernet and a new “Green ICT” series of projects 

For more information, go to https://ieeesa.io/eu-rolling-plan

IETF

The ​​Energy Management (EMAN) Working Group has produced several specifications for an energy management framework, for power/energy monitoring and configuration. See ​http://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/eman/documents/ for the details. The framework focuses on energy management for IP-based network equipment (routers, switches, PCs, IP cameras, phones and the like).

A recently published standards track specification (​RFC7603) presents the applicability of the EMAN information model in a variety of scenarios with cases and target devices. These use cases are useful for identifying requirements for the framework and MIBs. Further, it describes the relationship of the EMAN framework to other relevant energy monitoring standards and architectures.

​https://trac.ietf.org/trac/iab/wiki/Multi-Stake-Holder-Platform#ICTenvironment

ECMA International

"ECMA-328 on determination of Chemical Emission Rates from Electronic Equipment and has been adopted by JTC 1 (ISO/IEC 28360). Ecma Technical Committee TC38 identifies and describes the environmental attributes related to ICT and CE (Consumer Electronics) products. TC38-TG1 specifically covers chemical emissions.

ECMA-74, the primary acoustic standard developed by Ecma Technical Committee TC26, defines ITTE and ICT product categories for noise measurements and specifies operating and mounting conditions for each product category. The methods and transition guidelines for the EU Regulation 617/2013 implementing the Energy Related Products (ErP) Directive 2009/125/EC include ECMA-74 and ECMA-109 for acoustic noise and ECMA-383 (EN Journal C110/113 11.04.2014, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:JOC_2014_110_R_0005&from=FR)."

Energy saving measures 

CENELEC

Other ongoing work includes EN50523:2009 Household appliances interworking.

ISO

Energy model terminology is specified in:

• ISO/IEC CD 13273 (Energy efficiency and renewable energy sources)
• ISO/DTR 16344 (Common terms, definitions and symbols for the overall energy performance rating and certification of buildings)
• ISO/CD 16346 (Assessment of overall energy performance of buildings)
• ISO/DIS 12655 (Presentation of real energy use of buildings)
• ISO/CD 16343 (Methods for expressing energy performance and for energy certification of buildings)
• ISO 50001:2011 (Energy management systems — Requirements with guidance for use).
• ISO/TC 257 General technical rules for determination of energy savings in renovation projects, industrial enterprises and regions` is currently working on a standard on "energy efficiency and savings calculation for countries, regions and cities” (ISO/CD 17742)

ITU-T

Report “Intelligent sustainable buildings for smart sustainable cities”, which provides technical guidance on environmentally-conscious design, maintenance, repair and operating principles and best practices from construction through to lifetime use and decommissioning http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/focusgroups/ssc/Documents/website/web-fg-ssc-0136-r6-smart-buildings.docx and other reports from the FG-SSC: http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/focusgroups/ssc/Pages/default.aspx

Data centres 

CEN-CENELEC-ETSI

Coordination Group Green Data Centres

CENELEC

CLC/TC 215 'Electrotechnical aspects of telecommunication equipment' continues to revise the EN 50600 series of standards 'Information technology - Data centre facilities and infrastructures'. The 2nd editions of EN 50600-2-1 (on building construction) and EN 50600-2-5 (on security systems) were published in 2021. Furthermore, new KPI standards EN 50600-4-6 (Energy Reuse Factor, ERF) and EN 50600‑4-7 (Cooling Efficiency Ratio, CER) have been published. Currently, the first edition for the „Data Centre Maturity Model for energy management and environmental sustainability” is under formal vote as CLC/TS 50600-5-1. This document uses the recommended practices of CLC/TR 50600-99-1 for energy management (based on JRC’s Best Practices document) and CLC/TR 50600-99-2 on environmental sustainability as a means to achieve defined maturity levels.  CLC/TC 215 intends to publish additional KPIs standards for water usage effectiveness and carbon usage effectiveness by the end of 2022.

ETSI

TC ATTM has developed Global KPIs for Energy Management of Data Centres.

ETSI's industrial specification group (ISG) operational energy efficiency for users (OEU) gathers ICT users from the whole industry (all sectors, e.g. aircraft factories, banks, insurances, energy providers) and communities (e.g. European metropolises) and issues position papers and referential specifications on global KPIs and implementation sustainable standardisation. These position papers are issued to support the development of needed standards by standardisation technical committees.

ISO/IEC JTC 1

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 39 'Sustainability,  IT & Data Centres' Working Group 1 deals with resource-efficient data centres, including the following tasks:

• Development of a data centre resource efficiency taxonomy, vocabulary and maturity model
• Development of a holistic suite of metrics and key performance indicators (KPI) for data centres
• Development of guidance for resource efficient data centres
• Development of an energy management system standard specifically tailored for data centres

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 39 Working Group 3 deals with the design and operation of sustainable data centre facilities and infrastructures.

https://www.iso.org/committee/654019.html 

The ongoing standardisation activities by CEN & CENELEC and ETSI on data centres and other ICT nodes may be referenced in possible future legislation.

 (C.2) Other activities related to standardisation

European Commission

With the support of ICT companies, concluding the piloting of various methodologies for goods, networks, services & organisations. Elements such as compatibility and the workability of different standards have been assessed with a positive outcome regarding these two elements. The results can serve as an example, for ITU & ETSI in their common work to further align their methodologies for "goods, networks and services".

The EC has funded two studies that analyse the issue of growing energy consumption due to the expansion of cloud services in Europe, and put forward measures towards achieving the Digital Strategy goal of “climate neutral and highly energy efficient data centres and electronic communication networks and services by 2030” respectively.

• Energy-efficient Cloud Computing Technologies and Policies for an Eco-friendly Cloud Market
• Study on Greening Cloud Computing and Electronic Communications Services and Networks: Towards Climate Neutrality by 2050

The guidebook “Stimulating industrial innovation in the construction sector through the smart use of ICT: connecting SMEs in digital value chains” (2012)

• provides a market analysis of the construction industry in terms of the current and foresight integration of ICT and eBusiness solutions and systems;
• develops a framework for digital value networks in the construction sector.

https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/digital-economy/ebsn_en

Cluster Collaboration FP7-SMARTCITIES-2013

Objective ICT-2013.6.2.

Data Centres in an energy-efficient and environmentally friendly Internet define common KPIs and ratios (metrics) and methodology for measuring them, to characterize the energy & environmental & economic behaviour of data centres. They disseminate the results and create a proper bidirectional communication channel between the Commission, the standardisation bodies and the cluster, to facilitate information sharing and to push a relevant shortlist of KPIs.

H2020 CITYKEYS

H2020 support action which coordinates projects in several cities piloting the L.Cities methodology (Recommendation ITU-T L.1440). Results of these pilots may provide feedback to improve the standard. The project piloted the L.Cities methodology (Recommendation ITU-T L.1440) in Tampere and Rotterdam. Results of these pilots can provide feedback to improve the standard. 

http://www.citykeys-project.eu/ 

H2020 COREALIS

COREALIS proposes a strategic, innovative framework, supported by disruptive technologies, including Internet of Things (IoT), data analytics, next generation traffic management and emerging 5G networks, for cargo ports to handle upcoming and future capacity, traffic, efficiency and environmental challenges. The proposed beyond state of the art innovations, target to increase efficiency and optimize land use, while being financially viable, respecting circular economy principles and being of service to the urban environment. The innovations will be implemented and tested in real operating conditions in 5 Living Labs, namely Piraeus port, Valencia port, Antwerp port, Livorno port and Haminakotka port.

https://www.corealis.eu/

SEMANCO

For the first time developing a Semantic Energy Information Framework (SEIF) to model the energy-related knowledge planners and decision makers need.

eeSemantics

Stakeholder group on Energy Efficient Buildings Data Models. Building on the standards promoted by Building Smart Alliance.

Working group on energy consumption

In the area of smart appliances (white goods, HVAC systems, lighting, etc.) a working group has been established bringing together energy consuming and producing products (EupP) manufacturers and stakeholders with the objective of creating a roadmap towards agreed solutions for interoperability. The focus is on communication with smart appliances at the information level in smart homes. The long-term perspective is M2M solutions in the context of IoT.

JRC

JRC - Best Environmental Management Practice

In Spetember 2020 a document on Best Environmental Management Practice (BEMPs) for the Telecommunications and ICT services sector was published, with references to various standards. https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-research-reports/best-environmental-management-practice-telecommunications-and-ict-services-sector

EURECA

EURECA project

The "Data Center EURECA project" provides valuable information on "resource efficient procurement" of data centers.

https://www.dceureca.eu/

European Green Digital Coalition (EGDC)

The European Green Digital Coalition (EGDC) is an initiative of companies, supported by the European Commission and the European Parliament, based on the request of the EU Council, which aims to harness the enabling emission-reducing potential of digital solutions to all other sectors. The EGDC is developing science-based methodologies to estimate the net environmental impact of real-life digital solutions, i.e. the positive impact as well as the solutions' own footprint. Link: https://www.greendigitalcoalition.eu

The impact will strongly depend on the uptake of these methodologies and associated regulation, if defined. Once this point is clarified the progress could be measured in, for instance, the number of companies reporting their footprint calculated using these methodologies.