Introduction

Investor Ready Energy Efficiency™ (IREE) certification designates that certified efficiency retrofit projects  have been developed by qualified project developers and conform to the requirements of the ICP Protocols as verified by independent ICP Quality Assurance Assessor.  

This workflow using qualified providers and third-party review ensures that projects leverage industry best practices and standards for baseline energy usage, savings calculations, commissioning, operations and maintenance, and measurement and verification, and that project documentation is standardized to streamline due diligence and underwriting, resulting in lower transaction costs.

IREE certification, like LEED certification, is part of the Green Business Certification Inc.'s portfolio of official certifications that symbolize quality projects in the building industry.  IREE certification denotes compliance with comprehensive technical standards, but the certification provides assurance to investors, owners, and other project participants that certified projects have been well engineered and that their savings projections are predictable.

 

1. TRAINING
​Take the Investor Ready Energy Efficiency Training. ​

2. DEVELOP PROJECT
Develop an energy efficiency project according to the requirements in the ICP Protocols. The development team must include a project engineer with a minimum of five years of relevant experience who is either a licensed Professional Engineer under a nationally recognized authority, an Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) Certified Energy Manager (CEM), or holds an equivalent license. Relevant experience includes building energy auditing, commissioning, energy simulation, and measurement and verification. ​

3. Register
Register your project and then a confirmation will be sent from GBCI with a request to submit registration payment.
Fee schedule: ​

Protocol	Registration Fee	Certification Fee	Total Fee	Project size
Basic / Targeted ​	$100	$225	$325	All
Standard	$250	$500	$750	$75k-$500K without model
Large/Standard	$500	$1,250	$1750	<$1M with model
Large	$750	$1,750	$2,500	>$1 Million with model

 

​4. CHOOSE AN ICP QUALITY ASSURANCE ASSESSOR
Select and contract with an independent third-party, approved Quality Assurance (QA) Assessor who will assess your project for compliance with ICP protocols.

5. APPLY
Submit project documentation for review by the Quality Assurance Assessor. ​

6. REVIEW
Quality Assurance Assessor reviews documentation for compliance with ICP Protocols and provides feedback to the project development team. ​

7. GBCI QUALITY ASSESSMENT AND CERTIFICATION
Your Quality Assurance Assessor provides the certification recommendation to GBCI; remember IREE certification fees must be remitted to GBCI before the project is submitted to GBCI for final certification. Once the project passes final GBCI quality assessment, congratulations it is Investor Ready Energy Efficiency™ certified! 

Stakeholders can now make investment decisions with increased confidence based on your project earning IREE certification. ​

8. POST CERTIFICATION AND PERFORMANCE REPORTING
After the project is certified and implemented, energy performance is measured and verified according to ICP protocols. Project teams and owners can continue to track and report your energy performance using the Yearly Performance Update form throughout the project's performance period.