 |
Performance Contracting: Green Building Guarantees We Can All Believe In
Posted by johnsoncontrols on January 19, 2009 04:49 AM
By Steve Truebner, Johnson Controls
Who thinks global climate change is going to take a nap while world financial markets hibernate? What about the urgent need to reduce our dependence on unreliable foreign energy sources. Think that’s moving to the back burner as the global economy recovers?
Not hardly. Greening existing and new buildings through energy efficiency and on-site renewable energy remains an imperative despite the economic downturn. But for many organizations the challenge is how to fund these projects in the face of declining capital budgets.
Here’s an idea: our old and trusted friend performance contracting. For years, the ongoing need to be good stewards of taxpayers’ dollars has led government agencies and departments at all levels – federal, state and local – to use performance contracting to lower their energy bills and generate their own power without committing capital or exhausting their borrowing ability. Schools, universities, hospitals and companies in virtually every industry have done the same.
Let’s face it: there’s a lot to like about a funding mechanism that absolutely guarantees reductions in energy usage and then uses cost savings from those reductions to fund the energy efficiency and renewable energy measures implemented. Just ask the people of Lafayette, Colorado.
Johnson Controls just completed a $1.2 million project in Lafayette –a city of about 26,000 situated at the base of the Rockies just east of Boulder. The project entailed improvements to nine city facilities including a fire house, senior center and City Hall. Throughout the facilities lighting, HVAC equipment, computer monitors, weather stripping and building automation systems were upgraded. Solar electric and solar thermal systems were added to the recreation center. At the wastewater treatment plant we installed a system to burn waste methane gas to generate heat to help run the facility. Traffic lights around town were replaced with high-efficiency LED fixtures. All in all the improvements help the city avoid generating more than 959 tons of carbon dioxide every year. And that’s not the only “green” benefit.
This project was one of the first in Colorado to be funded through the energy performance contracting program administered by the Governor’s Energy Office. The facility improvements will save more than $100,000 in annual utility and maintenance costs – money that will pay back the cost of the improvements in ten years. And that’s not just a promise; it’s a guarantee. Periodically, we will measure the performance of the energy efficiency measures and report to the city on whether the objectives are being met or not. If they aren’t met, we’ll cut the people of Lafayette a check for the difference.
That’s the level of accountability you get with performance contracting – a level of accountability that the incoming Obama administration should seriously consider as it doles out billions in economic stimulus dollars.
Inheriting a deficit that has already ballooned to $1.2 trillion, the President-Elect said the other day that even after the economy begins to recover, “trillion dollar deficits will be a reality for years to come. But as I said yesterday,” Obama went on to say, “Our problem is not just a deficit of dollars. It’s a deficit of accountability.”
Obama promised that, “Part of our stimulus package is going to involve revamping all federal buildings so that they’re energy efficient.” And he’s appointed a Chief Performance Officer to work with the Cabinet and others to “discuss how they can run their agencies with greater efficiency, transparency and accountability.”
Luckily, that is exactly what performance contracting delivers – efficiency, transparency and accountability to guarantee that the dollars spent actually produce results. And best of all, there’s no waiting, because performance contracting is a tool any organization can use right now.
Click here to learn more.
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://yourenergyforum.com/blog-mt/mt-tb.fcgi/67
Sounds like a good plan to redo federal buildings so they are energy efficient-- Washington needs to set an example for the rest of us.
Posted by:
housieg |
January 22, 2009 08:02 AM
|
 |
|
|
|
|
