About PEER

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

PEER advances goal 3 by:

• Reducing hazardous chemicals and air, water, and soil pollution and contamination associated with energy generation, transmission, and distribution through local renewable energies and reduced fossil fuel consumption.
• Designing and building energy infrastructure that minimizes air pollution, which increases the likelihood of respiratory diseases, cancer and other illnesses.

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

PEER advances goal 4 by:

• Providing accessible, low-cost education courses about topics such as renewable energies, smart grid concepts, and system resilience for energy professionals, students, and others through the USGBC Education Portal.
• Teaching about energy-related topics to increase the number of people who have relevant technical, vocational, and marketable skills for employment.
• Utilizing universal design strategies to promote resilient academic facilities that ensure education is not disrupted by power outages.

Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

PEER advances goal 6 by:

• Reducing consumption of clean water through efficient technologies in electricity generation.

Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

PEER advances goal 7 by:

• Reducing user energy costs through strategies such as improving energy efficiency, lowering operating costs, and providing users with data and information on how to reduce energy consumption through smart grid technologies.
• Improving reliability of energy systems against environmental, economic, and social shocks through the creation of multiple distribution pathways and alternative electricity sources.
• Promoting local, renewable energies and reducing fossil fuel consumption through loss minimization associated with energy transmission and encouraging energy efficiency.

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

PEER advances goal 8 by:

• Generating job opportunities and economic growth through updates to aging energy infrastructure and promotion of modern, renewable energies.
• Quantifying the economic, social, and environmental benefits of high-performing electricity systems to identify future financially viable investment opportunities.
• Implementing financial incentives for residential, commercial, industrial, and other customer classes to pursue sustainability through financing that meets comprehensive criteria.
• Incorporating workplace safety principles into design and operating standards related to energy generation.

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

PEER advances goal 9 by:

• Helping utilities solve aging infrastructure, find cost savings and share best practices.
• Establishing effective grid management through advanced data collection, monitoring and reporting of power interruption and frequency.
• Ensuring power is maintained for critical loads and essential services through strategies such as supplying grid power via multiple pathways and providing alternative sources of electricity supply and transfer controls.
• Managing loads and investing in technologies that capture waste energy, improve efficiency, and lower operating costs, thereby reducing fossil fuel consumption and energy demand.
• Promoting market instruments such as carbon credits, renewable energy certificates, and energy efficiency incentives that foster innovation and growth.

Reduce inequality within and among countries.

PEER advances goal 10 by:

• Empowering customers to provide input into their energy systems through surveys and feedback forms that enable all energy users to communicate their needs.
• Allowing users to choose preferred generation sources and smart management strategies, fostering inclusion in efficient energy systems.

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

PEER advances goal 11 by:

• Protecting critical and essential infrastructure such as fire services, sewage, transportation, education, and medical care from climate-related threats and providing power, safety, and shelter to communities in emergencies.
• Installing distributed energy resources that reduce the environmental consequences of energy generation, transmission and distribution.

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

PEER advances goal 12 by:

• Disclosing environmental performance of energy systems and measures enacted to improve performance.
• Ensuring efficient demand-side management through metering infrastructure, load shifting, and peak demand period reduction.
• Providing customers with data and information on how to use smart grid technologies to reduce energy consumption.

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

PEER advances goal 13 by:

• Hardening power systems against flooding, storms, and other extreme climate events through the implementation of preventative measures and design considerations such as emergency response plans for short-term and extended power interruptions.
• Supporting carbon neutrality goals through scaleable renewable energy technology and clean energy policy and management.
• Inspiring engagement with certification programs of industry leading rating systems addressing sustainability, resilience, and reliability in communities and the built environment.

Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

PEER advances goal 14 by:

• Protecting water-related ecosystems from pollution, over-exploitation, degradation, and acidification through renewable energy technologies and improved source energy, air emissions, water use, and solid waste performance.

Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

PEER advances goal 15 by:

• Tracking, recording, and disclosing size and type of land used, trees cut or trimmed, and wildlife disturbed during project construction and operation.
• Determining maximum acceptable noise levels on the property and identifying strategies to reduce them.
• Implementing policies and programs to reduce pollution, harm, and degradation to the environment and to support the growth of pollinator populations onsite.

Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

PEER advances goal 16 by:

• Facilitating collaboration and inclusive development between decision-makers, stakeholders, and all those impacted by a project.
• Promoting participatory and representative decision-making by assessing customers’ attitudes about service quality, analyzing demand characteristics, and providing customers with data and information on how to reduce energy consumption.
• Providing reliable energy for cooking, air conditioning, heating, and other basic human needs, reducing conflict.
• Supporting and ensuring cybersecurity and data privacy policies applicable for all customers helping towards peace, safety and security.

Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

PEER advances goal 17 by:

• Establishing partnerships with public and private entities to encourage innovative technologies that support sustainable development around the globe.