Johnson Controls, Inc. , a global diversified company in the building and automotive industries, applauded President Obama's plan to invest nearly $4 billion in energy efficiency upgrades to public- and private-sector buildings over the next two years. Improving the energy efficiency of public and private buildings is one of the key investments the country can make: it helps reduce energy costs and puts people in local communities to work right away. Johnson Controls has been a worldwide leader in building controls and energy efficiency for more than 125 years and has developed, installed and guaranteed the savings for more than 2,500 energy efficiency projects globally.

As part of today's news, the President announced nearly $2 billion in financial commitments and directed federal agencies to utilize performance-based contracting to undertake energy efficiency upgrades of their buildings.  Performance-based contracting allows federal agencies to make capital improvements that reduce energy consumption and improve energy security.  These projects use guaranteed utility and operational cost savings to pay for the improvements over time.

"The President is proposing to invest in two years approximately the same amount that has been invested in federal performance-based contracting projects over the past decade," said Dave Myers, president, Building Efficiency, Johnson Controls. "Performance-based contracting allows the federal government to make infrastructure investments today that are guaranteed to reduce their long-term energy and operating expenses without using taxpayer dollars."

Johnson Controls has saved more than $19 billion in energy costs for public- and private-sector customers since 2000.

Since the beginning of the federal Energy Savings Performance Contracting (ESPC) program, Johnson Controls has implemented more than 75 projects for various federal agencies, including the Army, Department of Energy, Air Force, Navy, General Services Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, Justice Department and Department of the Interior. For example, Johnson Controls is working with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tenn. on an $89 million energy savings performance contract with a guaranteed annual savings of $8.2 million.  The company is currently guaranteeing over $5 billion in energy and operational savings from its portfolio of performance-based contracts, including state and local government projects.

Johnson Controls also sees The White House's plan as a way of jump-starting energy efficiency upgrade activity in the private sector.  The combination of building owner commitments, availability of private-sector funding and improvements to the federal tax deduction for energy efficient commercial buildings addresses a number of the critical barriers to investment.

Results of Johnson Controls' 5th annual Energy Efficiency Indicator Survey, a global survey of nearly 4,000 private and public sector building owners, reinforces the importance of access to financing to enable energy efficiency improvements. More than a third (38%) of the respondents reported that access to capital remains the top barrier to improving energy efficiency in their buildings.

"Attracting private capital investment is key to unlocking large-scale efficiency upgrade opportunities for commercial buildings," said Myers. "For example, our performance-based contract with the Empire State Building – which President Obama mentioned in his remarks on Friday – is on target to save $4.4 million annually and reduce energy use by more than 38 percent. We have already seen the great financial and environmental impact these projects can have for commercial buildings.  We are encouraged that more private-sector building owners will now be able to take advantage of this opportunity."

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