A high performing building includes these characteristics:

• Sustainable design with a proper balance of aesthetics, accessibility, cost-effectiveness, safety, and security
• Superior indoor air quality, based on the specific requirements of the space
• Energy efficient design and performance
• Reduced greenhouse gas emissions
• Optimal lighting and acoustics
• Thermal comfort and appropriate humidity levels

Energy leadership is important because saving energy is crucial to preserving our global environment and reducing energy bills. Saving energy has quickly become an imperative for students, teachers, parents, and taxpayer school communities.

Saving energy and reducing energy bills has an immediate and positive effect on individual institutions. Hard-pressed budgets have less outlay to find and financial resources can be diverted and re-applied to other critical areas (teacher salaries, new equipment, enhanced facilities, etc.). An energy conscious and efficient school enjoys a sustainable and valuable route to ongoing savings and a positive profile within the community.

Water management can offer many benefits to state and local government. Some of these benefits include:

1. Reduced water and sewer costs: Low flow water conservation devices reduce water usage and costs as well as sewer costs.
2. Weather-based irrigation controls: This type of control system saves water usage and cost especially during the hot summer months.
3. Reduced energy usage: Low flow water devices reduce the amount of hot water used which, in turn, reduces the amount of energy used to heat the water.
4. Reduction of unbilled water: Replacing old, inaccurate water meters and distribution piping can result in increased revenues for the water district.
5. Wastewater treatment energy usage: Wastewater treatment plants are one of the largest users of energy within a city. Plant upgrades and aeration optimization can dramatically reduce energy usage and save money.

Energy master planning is an important aspect of proactive facilities management, providing an expertly defined and practical road-map to a sustainable future and campus environment. Characteristics of a successful energy plan include:

• Input from administration, facility staff and faculty
• Not just an energy audit, but a specific implementation plan
• Includes both supply and demand-side requirements
• Builds upon a record of the past and a blueprint for the future
• Impact of behavior modification

ENERGY STAR^® certification is a strong and prestigious symbol of commitment to responsible resource usage and a caring approach to our environment.

Performance Services is a leading qualified guaranteed energy savings provider for ENERGY STAR^® labeled buildings with over 153 buildings certified to date. To help you achieve the ENERGY STAR^® label, we:

• Start by carrying out a preliminary energy analysis of your buildings so that we can give your current ENERGY STAR^® benchmark score
• Make specific recommendations on reducing of energy consumption while still maintaining an optimal environment
• Monitor 12 consecutive months of the utility data required for the EPA’s ENERGY STAR^® Portfolio Manager
• Support, if desired, promotional activity to showcase and celebrate your achievement when the ENERGY STAR label is awarded

Performance Services is proud to have supported our Clients to help them achieve the ENERGY STAR^® certification, a symbol of a high-performing building.

To reduce disruption to school time, Performance Services utilizes time efficient working practices, including:

• All trades work in parallel, not one after the other. This way, project lead time is reduced by doing as many jobs as possible simultaneously, rather than waiting for others to finish before beginning work.
• Project delivery is phased wherever possible, so specific project areas can be made available to the Client quickly, rather than waiting for the whole project to be completed before any occupation can begin.

All our Clients have the reassurance of a very simple promise. If we don’t deliver the energy savings we promise, and for the whole life of one of our guaranteed performance contracts, we will cut a check to cover any difference. That’s guaranteed.

With each contract, we actively monitor building performance and we support facilities teams to help make sure that each building and its spaces are functioning as efficiently as possible. In fact, we are so committed to ensuring ongoing delivery that we have our own dedicated Performance Assurance Group.

Today, Performance Services has more than 760 integrated design and delivery projects, utilizing both design-build and guaranteed energy savings contracts.