In response to strong demand from the business computing industry, The Green Grid has announced new membership opportunities for individuals to join and contribute to The Green Grid. As the global IT industry's leading voice for advancing resource efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems, The Green Grid now welcomes individuals to become members at a reduced rate and without requiring affiliation with an organization.

The individual membership level lowers the financial threshold for membership, which was previously reserved for companies, organizations and associations. Now, individuals can join The Green Grid for an annual fee of USD$400 and can access proprietary, members-only content, take advantage of members-only activities, influence The Green Grid's technical workgroups, and participate in regional workgroups. In addition, individual membership includes complimentary registration for The Green Grid's Annual Forum and Members Meeting, a USD$250 value.

"The Green Grid recognizes that there is a growing population of consultants, analysts and professionals who are as passionate about IT resource efficiency as we are, but do not always have the resources to become members on their own," said Jack Pouchet, Emerson representative and Board member, The Green Grid. "Not only will this new membership model give these interested individuals access to many of the benefits that come with membership, but it will allow The Green Grid to broaden its base of input and incorporate more perspective and expertise into our ongoing efforts to promote resource efficient IT."

Multiple individuals from the same company can join The Green Grid with individual memberships, but a company must join at the general or contributor level in order for it to be considered a member company, regardless of how many of its employees have individual memberships. Employees within a member company cannot join as individual members, since all employees of a member company are eligible for member benefits.  

With all membership levels, participation in The Green Grid offers members the chance to collaborate with fellow industry stakeholders in the quest to improve IT resource efficiency. Contributing to The Green Grid, members help influence product developers and end-users of data center technology to use more efficient practices, increase sustainability and positively impact the bottom line.

For more information on member benefits or to join The Green Grid, visit: http://www.thegreengrid.org/become-a-member.aspx.

Register for The Green Grid Forum 2012:

Included in the Individual membership is complimentary registration to The Green Grid Forum 2012, The Green Grid's fifth annual forum and member's meeting. This year's event, titled "Moving to Resource Efficient IT: Achieving Greater Productivity and Environmental Sustainability," will be held March 6-7, 2012 at the DoubleTree Hotel in San Jose, Calif. The event will showcase emerging tools, metrics, best practices and case studies to help technical, sustainability and business decision makers understand how to improve resource efficiency without sacrificing performance. Register today: http://www.thegreengrid.org/events/TGGforum-2012.aspx.

You can also find information about Forum 2012 on LinkedIn (http://linkd.in/roI3cu), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Green-Grid/112345132111805) or join the conversation on Twitter by using the hashtag #TGGForum12.