EU label and performance value proposals move ahead

The European Commission has published the Assessment of next steps to promote the energy performance and sustainability of data centres in the EU, including the establishment of an EU-wide rating scheme — second technical report. Following the publication of the report, the Commission — working with representatives from the member states’ expert group — is developing a proposal for a data center label, planned for implementation in sometime between the second half of 2026 and mid-2027, and minimum performance standard (MPS) values, which will take until late 2027 to early 2028 to finalize.

EU data center label

The second technical report presented a draft label that was developed through to four consultation meetings and comment solicitations (see EU EED labeling scheme: Uptime feedback) held over the past 12 months (Figure 1). Several key changes to the label proposal increase the focus on operational data that explains data center efficiency, resource usage and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: