Dive Brief:
- School districts struggling to upgrade crumbling buildings and meet sustainability goals are turning to energy companies for solutions that don’t cost the school anything at first.
- In particular, schools are turning to performance contracts that require energy companies to guarantee that the energy savings from the improvements will cover the costs of the upgrades.
- California's Hacienda La Puenta Unified School District, for example, signed a five-year, $5.3 million contract with a company to complete tasks like improving exterior lighting and overhauling its temperature regulation system, both of which should address the district’s $4-million-a-year energy bill.
Dive Insight:
Many schools and districts have a long backlog of capital improvements that languish thanks to a lack of funding. Some states have begun to try and find ways to address the money deficit, even while school budgets shrink. Colorado, for example, has a matching grant program that requires the community to raise half the funds needed to build, often using a bond or mill levy, in return for a matching grant.
Performance contracting, which has been around for decades, offers a way for schools to begin projects that are often much-needed even if they lack the capital. “It’s such a change from the design-bid-build model,” Mark Hansberger, Hacienda La Puente’s director of facilities, Mark Hansberger, said.
