Many resources have been enlisted in the fight against carbon emissions.

According to Evaluating GHG Mitigation Potential from ESPC Projects, a January 2024 report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, energy retrofit projects have proven effective.

The report, published this month, draws its analysis from the lab’s eProject Builder (ePB) database, which is a repository of information pertaining to approximately 3,000 energy retrofit projects that have been implemented by energy service companies (ESCOs). Most of the projects referenced were so-called energy savings performance contract (ESPC) projects.

According to the Department of Energy, ESPCs allow federal agencies to procure energy savings and facility improvements with no up-front capital costs or special appropriations from Congress.

The report recognizes that ESPC projects are highly leveraged by public agencies to reduce emissions, achieve energy savings and other ancillary benefits such as deferred maintenance. It explores the estimated effects these projects have on the projected greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions in the U.S. buildings sector, the associated estimated annual cost savings and marginal abatement costs.

The report reached several important conclusions. For example, it finds that ESPC delivers “considerable greenhouse gas emissions reductions” in addition to energy and water savings. More specifically, the lab’s analysis revealed that approximately two-thirds of the energy retrofit projects in the ePB database provided positive net benefits through cost savings and associated GHG reductions.

The study also found that ESPCs contributed to substantial GHG reductions across market segments, including municipalities, universities, schools, hospitals and federal projects.

Finally, the lab also found that many different factors affect GHG emissions reductions, including the region in which projects are located, the carbon intensity of the local grid, the types of measures deployed and the size of the projects.