Yesterday was Earth Day which reminded me to think about – and carry out – activities that help sustain our planet’s natural resources. Besides the obvious: reduce-reuse-recycle, turn off lights, lower the thermostat, drive slower (OK, I lied on that one), the work I do in the standards game actually contributes to the “green” movement we see all around us.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a website dedicated to green standards. The IEEE is specifically called out here as a standards organization that the EPA has worked with. This year, I’m a member of four of the IEEE Standards Association governing committees that oversee the process of IEEE standards development, so I realized that I’m an indirect contributor to the mission of the EPA.

Within the IEEE-SA there are many standards and projects underway for new standards that will address specific areas where energy usage and materials consumption can be reduced. For instance, a goal of the “Standard for Ubiquitous Green Community Control Network Protocol”, aka P1888, is to monitor and manage energy consumption in facilities and buildings. The 802.3 group is working on a lower-power Ethernet technology and investigating greener power adaptors. And, the 1801 standard supports modern practices for designing ICs that use less power.

These are but a fraction of the standards being developed and already deployed that can help our industry build more environmentally-friendly electronics for a greener future.
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