(Hint: It has nothing to do with room rates or green fees)

Owners at Pacific Palms Resort in City of Industry, California were at a crossroads.

Many of the resort’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems were original to the facility, including those serving the resort’s 35-year-old convention center. The antiquated HVAC systems and incomplete, pneumatic controls were extremely inefficient, resulting in high energy usage and comfort issues throughout the building.

Like other hospitality businesses, owners at Pacific Palms Resort needed to balance their desire to improve guest comfort and reduce energy costs with the capital costs of upgrading their aging building comfort systems. Because of their commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainability, the owners wanted to move forward with a project to update its HVAC systems.

Prior to undertaking upgrades, the project team engaged Trane to complete an audit of the resort, undertaking an in-depth analysis of more than 200 data points to identify, validate and prioritize energy-conservation measures.

Based on the results, the owners went forward with improvements to systems, controls, energy management, lighting and services. This included upgrades for the convention center and the resort as a whole to reduce energy and operational costs.

Resort owners funded the improvements with a performance contract, which allowed them to use future energy and operational savings to finance the infrastructure improvements up front. Performance contracting is a funding option that provides measurable results to support strategic business objectives.

Successful Results

The resort expects infrastructure upgrades to generate first-year savings of more than $540,000 in energy and operational costs, including nearly $343,000 in energy costs and nearly $203,000 in operational savings. Owners anticipate similar savings in subsequent years. The resort also gained an additional $500,000 in one-time rebates from electric and gas companies.

Best of all, the resort can provide a reliable, comfortable environment that optimizes guest comfort. The improvements not only aligned with the resort’s energy sustainability program but also will meet energy sustainability requirements requested from groups hosting events at the resort.

In recognition of the resort’s commitment to energy and operational efficiency and sustainability, Trane, a leading global provider of indoor comfort solutions and services and a brand of Ingersoll Rand, presented Pacific Palms Resort’s owners with the Energy Efficiency Leader Award on Dec. 3, 2014, which recognized the resort as a national leader for reducing environmental impact.

What upgrades does your building need?

You don’t have to own or operate a major luxury golf resort to experience potential cost savings by investing in building system upgrades. To learn more about how energy performance contracting could pay for your building’s needed upgrades, contact Trane.