# PERFORM Program Guide

<details>

<summary>Copyright &#x26; Disclaimer</summary>

**COPYRIGHT**

© 2024 by the [U.S. Green Building Council](https://www.usgbc.org/). All rights reserved.

**DISCLAIMER**

None of the parties involved in the funding or creation of this document, including the USGBC, its members, its contractors, or the United States government, assume any liability or responsibility to the user or any third parties for the accuracy, completeness, or use of or reliance on any information contained in this document, or for any injuries, losses, or damages (including, without limitation, equitable relief ) arising from such use or reliance. Although the information contained in this document is believed to be reliable and accurate, all materials set forth within are provided without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in the training or the suitability of the information for any particular purpose.

As a condition of use, the user covenants not to sue and agrees to waive and release the U.S. Green Building Council, its members, its contractors, and the United States government from any and all claims, demands, and causes of action for any injuries, losses, or damages (including, without limitation, equitable relief ) that the user may now or hereafter have a right to assert against such parties as a result of the use of, or reliance on, this document.

[U.S. Green Building Council](https://www.usgbc.org/)\
2101 L Street, NW Suite 600\
Washington, DC 20036

</details>

## Introduction

[PERFORM](https://www.usgbc.org/perform) helps organizations manage and enhance the sustainability of their real estate portfolios. Organizations can set goals, measure progress against defined targets, and receive third-party verification from [Green Business Certification Inc. ](http://www.gbci.org)(GBCI) for demonstrating improvement and achieving targets. The program supports a range of portfolio-level metrics across the following categories: emissions, energy, water, waste, health, resilience, biodiversity and social impact.

This Program Guide defines the eligibility requirements, a portfolio and its scope, and the various steps of the engagement process: enrolling the portfolio, setting performance goals, tracking progress and submitting for verification. This document should be consulted in conjunction with [PERFORM Performance Metrics ](perform-performance-metrics)which describes the various performance metrics available for tracking and verification.

If you need assistance at any time, please [contact us](https://usgbc.org/contactus).

## Eligibility <a href="#toc180582714" id="toc180582714"></a>

The program is available to any organization with operational real estate assets. Organizations can be a non-profit entity, a government agency, a listed or unlisted company, a fund, a direct investment portfolio, a joint venture, or a special purpose vehicle or similar. To participate, the organization must own, manage, or control the real estate assets in the defined portfolio and have more than one property in the portfolio.

## Portfolio Definition and Scope

For the purposes of this progra&#x6D;**,** a portfolio is defined as a collection of real estate assets (properties) owned, managed and/or controlled by the legal entity (organization) participating in the program. Note the properties should include both the building(s) and any land associated with the building(s). The defined portfolio must include all underlying properties associated with the performance goals, claims or targets being verifie&#x64;**.**

Organizations may group their properties into portfolios based on characteristics that reasonably represent the performance goal being tracked and/or verified. The following are examples of ways a portfolio may be defined.

* **Whole portfolio**: Includes all the properties owned, managed and/or controlled by the organization enrolled in the program.
* **Aligned with reporting frameworks**: Includes all properties for which performance is being reported in other frameworks (e.g., World Resources Institute Greenhouse Gas Protocol, GRESB, etc.).
* **By region**: Includes all properties associated with a specific geographic area or location.
* **By business unit**: Includes all properties associated with a specific business unit or division within an organization where the unit is responsible for the management, maintenance, and administration of specific functions and is responsible for its own profit and loss.
* **By property type**: Includes all properties associated with a specific type or function of a property (e.g., retail, office, data centers, etc.).
* **By owned properties**: Includes all properties an organization owns, manages and/or controls. The organization may choose to exclude properties for which they have limited or no operational control (e.g. properties with tenants) based on the organization’s goals and targets. If this is done, then these properties should be excluded consistently across the whole portfolio.
* **By leased properties**: Includes all properties where an organization has a lease agreement as a tenant or has properties occupied by tenants.

#### _Portfolio Considerations_

_Adding/Removing Properties in Portfolio_

Organizations may add or remove properties in the portfolio to accurately reflect the organization’s inventory of properties that are defined in the portfolio. If pursuing verification, the portfolio should be current and updated before submitting for verification.

_Portfolio Population_

Portfolios should only include existing and operational properties. Properties under construction or major renovation should not be included.

_Remote Employees_

While the physical spaces where remote employees work are excluded from the portfolio scope, any policies applicable to remote employees may be included in the portfolio performance tracking and verification scope.

_Communicating Portfolio Scope_

The organization must communicate the scope of the portfolio, aligned with the defined portfolio and performance claim, and the verification received, including metrics and dates of verification, accurately in all promotional or third-party reporting materials following the guidelines provided in the [USGBC Marketing and Branding Guidelines](https://support.usgbc.org/hc/en-us/articles/34919034273043-PERFORM).

## Roles and Responsibilities <a href="#toc180582716" id="toc180582716"></a>

#### Participant Team  <a href="#toc180582717" id="toc180582717"></a>

* **Owner:** The Owner of the portfolio is the person (or entity) who has the authority to hold and control the real and personal property and accepts, or authorizes the acceptance of, the legal agreement. While there may be multiple owners for a particular portfolio, a single individual to administer the verification process should be identified as the Owner.
* **Agent:** The agent is the person (or entity) who is granted actual authority by the owner to enroll the portfolio and accept the legal agreement.
* **Portfolio Administrator:** The participating organization must designate an individual as the Portfolio Administrator to manage the portfolio performance tracking and verification process with the [U.S. Green Building Council](http://www.usgbc.org) (USGBC). This team member acts as a project manager, overseeing the portfolio project and which participant team members are responsible for certain tasks, or metrics. The Portfolio Administrator plays a key quality assurance role by checking that the verification application is complete and accurate before submitting it to GBCI for review and accepting the review results once the review is complete. The individual who initially enrolls the portfolio project will automatically be granted the role of the portfolio administrator but the owner may transfer this role to another team member at any time.

#### USGBC <a href="#toc180582718" id="toc180582718"></a>

* **Customer Support:** Organizations will have access to introductory calls, ongoing customer support sessions and other educational resources throughout their engagement with PERFORM. Participants may reach out to USGBC for any questions, support, or feedback during their engagement with the program by using our [Contact Us form](https://support.usgbc.org/hc/en-us/requests/new).

#### GBCI <a href="#toc180582719" id="toc180582719"></a>

* **Verification Review:** After an organization submits a performance metric for verification, GBCI will assign a review team to verify the metric. The review team is responsible for reviewing the documentation submitted and completing an assessment of the metric. In some cases, more than one reviewer may be assigned to a verification review for quality control purposes.

## Engagement Process

PERFORM’s engagement cycle includes the following steps:

1. **Enroll** in the program by creating your portfolio and selecting performance criteria.
2. **Track progress** against selected performance criteria.
3. **Verify performance** by submitting for review and receive verification.
4. **Continuously improve** a portfolio's performance by adding additional performance metrics and/or creating new targets for previously verified metrics.

![](https://499883804-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FDzV1luoOcqzfid6knCl8%2Fuploads%2FdfWPv5FrEDc5xNmZ8eQo%2F1.png?alt=media)

Although receiving verification is encouraged, it is not essential for organizations to pursue verification to participate in the program. Organizations may enroll and start tracking progress against targets and elect to pursue verification when ready/desired.

### I. Enroll

The first step is to signal participation in the program by enrolling in a portfolio and defining performance goals.

#### 1. Create a Portfolio

[Enroll](https://www.usgbc.org/perform) in the program and create a portfolio by providing the requested information and paying the requisite fees. Visit [the PERFORM webpage](https://usgbc.org/perform) for pricing information. An organization may enroll a single portfolio or multiple portfolios based on the goals of the organization.

Enrolling will unlock a series of benefits and access to tools in support of the organization’s portfolio performance improvement journey.

#### 2. Select Performance Criteria

Identify the desired performance criteria for the portfolio:

* Select one or more performance categories. The categories available for performance tracking across a portfolio include the following:
  * [Emissions](perform-performance-metrics/emissions)
  * [Energy](perform-performance-metrics/energy)
  * [Water](perform-performance-metrics/water)
  * [Waste](perform-performance-metrics/waste)
  * [Health](perform-performance-metrics/health)
  * [Biodiversity](perform-performance-metrics/biodiversity)
  * [Resilience](perform-performance-metrics/resilience)
  * [Social Impact](perform-performance-metrics/social-impact)
* Choose performance metrics for selected categories from the available metrics under each category, and set goals – interim or final targets – for each metric. Refer to the [PERFORM Performance Metrics](perform-performance-metrics) for a complete list of available performance metrics.

_Enrollment Considerations_

During enrollment, you will be asked whether your portfolio should be considered public or private. You may change the privacy designation for your portfolio(s) at any time.

* **Public**: A public portfolio will be listed among public portfolios where GBCI lists its Portfolio members, such as a Participant Directory on the website. Inclusion in the Participant Directory allows the general public and members of the media to look up details such as the name of the portfolio, the portfolio’s owner, the portfolio’s scope (e.g., whole portfolio, region-based or business unit), space type of properties (e.g., office portfolio, retail, etc.), a portfolio’s area (i.e., square footage), engagement step, performance metrics and goals, and status of verification, if completed.
* **Private**: If you elect to be a private portfolio, any information that is likely to identify your Portfolio will not appear within the Participant Directory or similar recognition postings. However, certain other non-portfolio identifying information may be disclosed, including but not limited to portfolio size such as overall square footage and/or number of individual properties within the portfolio.

### **II. Track Progress**&#x20;

Start gathering and tracking data for the selected performance metrics. Two types of data may be provided.

1. **Portfolio-Level Data**: This includes data for all the properties in the defined portfolio as an aggregate number. This data should be entered into the platform directly as part of the target creation process.
2. **Property-Level Data**: If pursuing verification, property-level data is requested to support the portfolio-level aggregated data. This includes providing data for each individual property in the portfolio through a property-level data form provided by USGBC for download and upload back to the system. If this data is being tracked in a different format, software platform or system, an alternative upload can be provided in lieu of USGBC’s form.

Portfolio performance outcomes and progress will be measured with one of two approaches.

1. **Performance Approach A (absolute performance)**: A single value of performance that an organization would like to track and verify (e.g., “75% total waste diversion was achieved”).
2. **Performance Approach B (performance change)**: Change in performance over an organization-defined baseline year (e.g., “a 10% reduction in water usage was achieved this year as compared to last year”).

### III. Verify Performance&#x20;

Once performance data for the portfolio has been entered, performance targets can be verified.

#### 1. Apply for Verification

Apply for verification by providing the required data and documents to support the performance metric being verified. A rigorous quality check of the entire application should be completed before submitting for review.

USGBC and GBCI staff can help answer technical questions that might arise during the application preparation process. Please [contact us](https://support.usgbc.org/hc/en-us/requests/new) if you have any questions. A pre-submission phone call with GBCI staff may also be requested prior to submission.

_Application Considerations_

* [PERFORM Performance Metrics](perform-performance-metrics) provides guidance on the documentation required to support each performance metric.
* Ensure only documentation that is relevant to the performance claim is provided.
* Ensure hyperlinks are active and lead to appropriate information.
* Supporting documents in languages other than English may be submitted if the portions relevant to the verification claim are highlighted and translated into English and/or a document summary in English is provided.
* Portions of supporting documents may be redacted to omit sensitive or confidential information as long as sufficient information to support the review remains visible.
* Ensure file attachments are clearly and intuitively labeled.
* Ensure the documentation provided clearly represents the reporting period being verified. If performance is being verified for improvement from the previous year, as an example, ensure supporting documentation is provided for the 12 months in between.

#### 2. Submit for Verification Review

The GBCI reviewer will initiate a technical review once the application is received and the verification fee has been paid.

_Preliminary Review_

* GBCI will check for application completeness and accuracy of the supporting data and documentation.
* GBCI will respond with a Preliminary Review Report within 20-25 business days, indicating a verification status for the submitted performance metrics and/or request for additional information if needed.
* The preliminary review results can be accepted by the participant team as final if the results are satisfactory or if no additional information is requested by GBCI. If additional information is required by GBCI, submit new or revised documentation for final review.

_Final Review_

* Submit any additional information requested by the reviewer during the preliminary review. GBCI suggests submitting clarifications within 25 business days after receiving the preliminary review results.
* GBCI will then review revised or newly submitted information and respond with a Final Review Report within 20-25 business days with the final verification status for each performance metric.
* If the results are satisfactory, accept the review results as final, or revise the application and resubmit for a supplemental review.

_Supplemental Review_

* The Supplemental Review, also known as an appeal, is optional and requires additional fee payments.
* The Supplemental Review provides an additional opportunity for the organization to submit information and amend the application. The GBCI reviewer will consider the additional information and reconsider the verification statuses of applicable metrics.
* The GBCI reviewer will provide an updated Review Report within 20-25 business days, indicating the verification status of the performance metrics.
* The Supplemental Review results can be accepted by the organization as final, or the organization can submit for additional Supplemental Reviews. There is no cap on the number of Supplemental Reviews.

_Submission Considerations_

* GBCI may, at its discretion, request calls and/or site visits (virtual or in-person) to ask for clarifications of provided information. If this is done, sufficient notice will be provided to the team.
* GBCI conducts the PERFORM verification reviews with procedures and protocols informed by ISO/IEC 17029:2019 Conformity assessment — General principles and requirements for validation and verification bodies. Refer to [GBCI Verification Protocols](https://www.gbci.org/sites/default/files/GBCI-Verification-Protocol-Document.pdf) for further details.

#### 3. Receive Final Review Reports and Verification Letter

Once the Final Review Report has been accepted, GBCI will provide a Verification Letter as a formal statement confirming the verification status of the performance metrics submitted by the organization. The Review Report and Verification Letter will include the portfolio name, performance category and specific performance metric and claim being verified along with the year of verification. This status will also be updated in the Participant Directory for public portfolios.

Organizations are encouraged to promote their verification achievements using USGBC promotional resources and in adherence with [USGBC Trademark Policy and Branding Guidelines](https://support.usgbc.org/hc/en-us/articles/11941118063891-USGBC-Trademark-Policy-and-Branding-Guidelines).

GBCI’s Review Report and Verification Letter may also be used for other regulatory or voluntary disclosure frameworks that require third-party verification of performance claims. Customized documentation, beyond what GBCI typically yields, may be available upon request.

### IV. Continuously Improve

PERFORM allows participant teams to continuously track and monitor progress toward their long-term goals. After organizations achieve a verification for the first time, they can choose to add performance metrics and/or verify previously verified metrics.

* **Adding Performance Metrics**: Organizations are encouraged to add new performance metrics and targets and track progress against them, submitting for verification at any time and following the steps noted above.
* **Verifying previously verified metrics**: The Verification Letter will clearly articulate the performance category, performance metric and target being verified along with the year it was verified. Participants may add additional targets for the same metrics to receive a new verification based on any progress made. The process and fees will be similar to the steps 1 through 4 mentioned above.

## How USGBC Handles Your Data <a href="#toc180582725" id="toc180582725"></a>

**Portfolio and Property Information**

Your work toward improving your real estate portfolio’s performance is important and worth communicating to the world at large. Your engagement with this program gives you the opportunity to share your strategies, photos, and insight, and play a pivotal role in educating other organizations. We use your data for the greater good: to educate and provide resources for other organizations and others around the world, showcase your strategies, and share the size and power of the green building movement. Please refer to the Arc Platform Use Agreement, PERFORM Enrollment Agreement and PERFORM Verification Agreement on the [USGBC Legal Policies page](https://www.usgbc.org/policies) for details on how information entered for PERFORM will be used by USGBC.

**Data Security and GDPR Compliance**

USGBC and GBCI employ an enterprise-wide policy to ensure GDPR compliance. This policy applies to Arc. Please refer to our [Privacy Policy](https://www.usgbc.org/resources/usgbc-privacy-notice) and the frequently asked questions about [Arc data security and privacy](https://support.usgbc.org/hc/en-us/articles/4425385154579-Arc-data-security-and-privacy) for more details.

***

**COPYRIGHT**

Copyright © 2024 by the [U.S. Green Building Council](https://www.usgbc.org/). All rights reserved.

**DISCLAIMER**

None of the parties involved in the funding or creation of this document, including the USGBC, its members, its contractors, or the United States government, assume any liability or responsibility to the user or any third parties for the accuracy, completeness, or use of or reliance on any information contained in this document, or for any injuries, losses, or damages (including, without limitation, equitable relief ) arising from such use or reliance. Although the information contained in this document is believed to be reliable and accurate, all materials set forth within are provided without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in the training or the suitability of the information for any particular purpose.

As a condition of use, the user covenants not to sue and agrees to waive and release the U.S. Green Building Council, its members, its contractors, and the United States government from any and all claims, demands, and causes of action for any injuries, losses, or damages (including, without limitation, equitable relief ) that the user may now or hereafter have a right to assert against such parties as a result of the use of, or reliance on, this document.

[U.S. Green Building Council](https://www.usgbc.org/)\
2101 L Street, NW Suite 600\
Washington, DC 20036
