NEW YORK — ABM, a leading provider of facility solutions, announced its ABM Building Services business has been selected by Orange County (Va.) Public Schools to implement division-wide energy and infrastructure upgrades to its schools through ABM’s Bundled Energy Solutions Program. The project is expected to significantly improve the schools’ learning environment as a result of lighting, heating, cooling, and indoor air quality upgrades, while saving Orange County Public Schools an estimated $9.3 million in energy and operating costs over 15 years.

ABM’s Bundled Energy Solutions Program is designed as a financial solution to meet clients’ facility needs and sustainability goals. ABM said the goal is to drive costs out of a client’s operating budget to allow savings to be reallocated to fund mission critical facility needs.

“ABM’s Bundled Energy Solutions Program provides a long term and sustainable solution for Orange County Public Schools that will benefit the schools for several decades,” said Scott Giacobbe, president of ABM Building & Energy Solutions. “We understand the budgetary constraints schools are under, and our BES program has been able to help a number of our educational clients make critical infrastructure upgrades without burdening taxpayers.”

The project is expected to reduce the schools’ utility costs by 32 percent over 15 years. In addition, the project has no incremental capital cost and does not require any additional tax burden on the community. The improvements are 100 percent funded through the existing operating budget and the results are guaranteed.

“Raising revenue via increased taxes to fund lighting, heating, and air conditioning modernization projects up front in our schools was not an option in Orange County,” said Doug Arnold, coordinator of facilities and maintenance at Orange County Public Schools. “Without ABM’s solution, we would have been left continually patching our old inefficient lighting and unreliable, energy wasting HVAC equipment and controls for the foreseeable future. Energy performance contracting via ABM’s program allows us to perform $6.2 million worth of projects and be guaranteed enough energy savings to cover these costs, plus the financing costs, over a 15 year period.”

The improvements will be made across the division’s 10 schools and buildings. Energy-efficiency upgrades include: installing new high-efficiency LED lights, to considerably reduce energy usage; replacing heating and cooling systems, to improve comfort and indoor air quality and reduce humidity problems; and implementing an energy-efficient PC Power Management solution by putting unused computers in a low power state, to save energy and prolong the lifetime of the IT equipment.

ABM also identified opportunities for energy and operational savings in five different school buildings by implementing advanced fuel sourcing and fuel conversion strategies, including switching the heating fuel from fuel oil to propane. Propane is considerably less expensive and more environmentally friendly than fuel oil due to its lower carbon dioxide output. It is also approved as an alternative clean fuel, listed in the 1990 Clean Air Act and the National Energy Policy Act of 1992, and doesn’t contaminate soil or water if a leak occurs.

“School systems are under extreme financial pressures,” explained Jeffrey Buennemeyer, vice president of Mid-Atlantic for ABM Building Services. “While tax bases and capital resources are shrinking fast, students’ performance expectations are at an all-time high and a comfortable learning environment is a big part of that. The solutions developed in partnership with Orange County Public Schools will revitalize the schools’ infrastructure and significantly reduce costs, while being 100 percent funded through the client’s current operating budget. We are proud to partner with Orange County Public Schools on this solution.”

For more information, visit www.abm.com.

Publication date: 7/8/2013