ABM Assists Abbeville County Schools with Integrated Facility Upgrade Solution

ABM, a leading provider of facility solutions, announced the initiation of an Energy Performance Contracting program for the Abbeville County School District (“ACSD”) in South Carolina. Projected to generate $4.9 million in energy and operating cost savings over a 15-year period, ABM’s custom solution modernizes facility infrastructure in every ACSD school. The project enables ACSD leadership to improve its learning environments and protect air quality for students while providing general fund relief needed to sustain investments in learning initiatives.

“The pandemic highlighted infrastructure needs nationwide, but it also required schools to invest more in alternative learning, teachers, and technology,” says Mark Hawkinson, president of ABM Technical Solutions. “We can do more for schools today than save them energy costs. We deliver solutions that address the capital investment needs and operating cost challenges schools face so they can best use funds for the benefit of students and teachers.”

In addition to energy savings and operational cost reductions from improved lighting, HVAC, and water conservation upgrades for all eight ACSD schools and their Adult Education and Career Centers, the project also specifies variable refrigerant flow units. This solution increases ventilation from outdoor air and provides needlepoint bi-polar ionization equipment, a pathogen and particle control measure, throughout the district to address indoor air quality health.

The project also improves building controls, adding sensors for measuring outdoor air conditions to empower system efficiency, and includes seismic, wind, and vibration hardware for earthquake and hurricane safety.

ABM’s Energy Performance Contracting Program enables a school system to invest in critical facility upgrades without drawing new capital from the community. The program is designed to drive costs out of a district’s operating budget, redirecting savings to fund critical facility needs and educational initiatives. ABM works with more than 500 K-12 school systems, colleges, and universities throughout the U.S. This video outlines how ABM provides a way to empower investment in educational facilities without upfront costs or tax increases.

“We didn’t have a way to equitably upgrade our schools for all our students with our current spending structure,” says Dr. Mason Gary, superintendent of Abbeville County School District. “ABM was able to put together a project that helped us better allocate our ESSER [Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief] funds, transform our capital budget into an investment in our community assets, and free up our general fund to invest in teachers and educational initiatives for our students.”

Additional technical and maintenance expertise will be provided by Total Comfort Solutions, a franchisee with ABM Franchising Group’s Linc Service network.