• Electricity is inextricably linked with our lives. It connects people and families, fuels economies, supports our safety and security, and is a mark of progress and innovation. 
• Emerging technologies combined with our increasing demand for better, faster and more reliable power means we must find new ways to modernize our systems. This growing demand is an opportunity to create a more sustainable future. 
• Businesses, communities and homes cannot thrive in today’s world without access to power and while we are more connected today than ever before, there are still too many communities without access to basic power. The decision to modernize our current systems means we have an opportunity to find ways to provide access to those without. Every person on earth deserves access to resilient, reliable and sustainable power.
• The U.S. Energy Information Administration says world energy consumption will grow 28 percent by 2040.
• In 2017, the global energy growth rate was twice what it was in 2016 (IEA). More importantly, fossil fuels met over 70 percent of that growth. The domination of fossil fuels in our energy mix hasn’t changed in more than three decades and improvements in global energy efficiency have slowed down.

• Our current energy systems are harming our planet, and there are better choices we can make. According to the IEA, CO2 emissions grew in 2017 after three years of remaining flat, despite the warnings of so many scientists.
• The latest report on climate change from the IPCC reinforces the call to limit global warming and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and by doing so we can create a healthier, more sustainable and equitable world.
• Electricity production is a major source of today’s carbon emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates the electricity, or power, sector generates the second highest amount of greenhouse gas emissions, primarily because of the burning of fossil fuels.
• India’s Central Electricity Authority (CEA) projects a coal capacity addition of 41 gigawatts by 2027 that leads to a CO2 emission of 1173 million tons, which may cause an adverse impact on the environment.
• The effects of not making a change are already being felt through more severe and historic weather events, including drought, flooding, storms and wildfires, costing individuals, businesses and governments billions of dollars. Businesses, cities and communities are faced with a decision of how best to endure.
• In order to support and protect our cities and the billions of people around the world, our energy systems must prioritize more sustainable energy that helps mitigate the impact of climate change.

• During the last 10 years, the relationship between buildings and the energy grid has gotten significantly more complex and continues to evolve. Traditionally, electricity for buildings was generated in a power station, sent along transmission lines to a substation, continued along distribution lines to an electricity meter and then made available to the building. Simply put, electricity traveled from point A to point B. 
• Today’s growing demand for electricity coupled with new technologies and innovation has brought more choices to the marketplace and more options for buying and using power. No longer is electricity flowing in one direction. Now because of distributed energy resources (DER), buildings can be designed to generate their own electricity, store it, and send it to other buildings or even back to grid. It’s a new energy paradigm and it’s giving designers, facility managers and owners an opportunity to decarbonize their buildings.
• A building is not entirely green until the power that goes into it becomes greener too. 
• In addition to the changing dynamic between buildings and the grid, buildings generate a high amount of greenhouse-gas emissions and consume 70 percent of all electricity in the U.S., so PEER presents building owners and the sector with an opportunity to significantly mitigate their contribution to climate change.

• According to an independent survey by ITIC, 98 percent of large enterprises with more than 1,000 employees say that on average a single hour of downtime per year costs over USD $100,000, while 81 percent say costs exceed USD $300,000.
• During the past 10 years, Eaton, an energy management company based in Dublin, has been tracking blackouts in the U.S. and its latest report showed a slight decline in the number of outages, but that the people affected by those outages more than doubled.
• PEER demonstrates value to investors and other stakeholders. PEER identifies opportunities for improvement and drives larger market change. It’s global application means companies and businesses can address large-scale challenges at the project level. 
• In India, PEER has helped the Delhi Metro’s Blue line to operate efficiently and provide reliable service to 1 million riders everyday by assessing their power system performance data for traction and non-traction electrical systems.
• The City of Naperville, Illinois sees a savings of $17 million annually from their PEER certification.

• GBCI provides support to project teams pursuing PEER certification throughout the process— from pre-design through post-certification—using a variety of tools and project-specific one-on-one support, with access to a technical solution team thrice during the project phase or once per month.
• Our team will work with you to help identify local resources, answer questions about eligibility and prerequisite requirements and field technical questions. At each stage of review, project teams have the opportunity to speak directly with their reviewer. Post certification, GBCI provides a PEER certification along with review comments and will introduce you to our marketing team to speak with you about celebrating your successes.

To get started, download and review these important resources:

• PEER Guide to Certification will walk you through the certification process, including current policies and procedures. (PDF, available online)
• PEER Rating System includes the complete set of prerequisites and credits, including point values and corresponding scorecard. (PDF)
• Technical reports, study resources and project profiles and case studies for better understanding the program’s benefits. (Online resources and project profiles)
• Your next step will be to email peer@gbci.org and request the program questionnaire to ensure your system is ready to pursue certification.

• Projects that are still at design stage or under construction stage can also get involved. PEER offers Precertification for design projects and projects that are under construction. Precertification can serve as an important signal to stakeholders and investors about your intentions and progress. 

• Yes, a LEED project can be PEER certified. Ascendas IT Park and University of Texas, Austin are few examples of LEED projects that are also PEER certified.

• GBCI administers both LEED for Transit certification and PEER for Transit certification. The difference is – LEED for Transit is an adaptation of the LEED BD+C and O+M rating systems for individual transit stations, and evaluates projects on strategies that come from LEED rating systems. LEED for Transit projects are evaluated across standard LEED credit categories including Integrative Process, Sustainable Sites, Energy & Atmosphere, and more.
• PEER for Transit looks at transit systems beyond the building-level, including monorail, metro rail and inter or intra rail projects that include a minimum of three adjacent stations. PEER for Transit focuses on the provision of reliable, resilient, and efficient power to transit systems, including energy efficiency measures in both station loads and traction loads. Additionally, PEER tracks transit system emissions right from its source of power generation to the site where power is consumed through the EE (energy efficiency and environmental) performance index.

• Projects outside the U.S. or India can apply for PEER certification. But GBCI does not provide the benchmark EE index values (Energy efficiency and environmental index values for SEI, CO2 intensity, SOx intensity, NOx intensity, water consumption intensity, solid waste recycled) for locations outside the U.S. or India currently. Therefore, the project must calculate the values accordingly as described in the PEER Reference Guide based on the available data or use GBCI default values for calculations.

• The current PEER system can only certify the renewable energy systems that are on-site within the boundary of a Campus/City and Utility/Transit. Utility scale or off site renewable energy systems or farms cannot be certified.

• The timeframe ranges from two to 36 months depending on the availability of data from the project team and their target date to complete the project.

• No, PEER does not have a site audit. But PEER reviewers retain the right to visit the project site if necessary for verification. 

• PEER periodically hosts online webinars about a variety of topics. To receive information on upcoming webinars, sign up to receive PEER emails. 
• For PEER workshops, please contact PEER. Workshops are currently conducted on a case-by- case basis. There are two types of workshops available upon request for Universities and industry stakeholders: Basic Workshop (half-day) and (2) Master Class Workshop (two days). 

• Projects are required to pay a USD $1,200 registration fee. Once you are ready to submit for certification, all projects must pay a certification fee of USD $8,000. If you are pursuing recertification there is no registration fee, but a recertification cost of USD $8,000 would be applicable. For base pricing, contact GBCI for details.

• We have many resources available to you to help tell your PEER story. Many companies opt to put out a press release, promote on social media or hold a certification ceremony for their community and stakeholders to demonstrate their market value and provide guidance.
• We’d love to coordinate with you on your promotion plans. Your PEER contact will introduce you to our marketing team once you’re certified.