Ameresco Company Overview
Ameresco is a leading provider of energy efficiency solutions for facilities throughout North America. Our solutions enable customers to reduce their energy consumption, lower their operating and maintenance costs, and realize environmental benefits. Our comprehensive set of services addresses almost all aspects of purchasing and using energy within a facility. Our services include upgrades to a facility’s energy infrastructure and the construction and operation of small-scale renewable energy plants. As one of the few large independent energy efficiency service providers, we are able to objectively select and provide the products and technologies best suited for a customer’s needs. Having grown from four offices in three states in 2001 to 54 offices in 29 states and four Canadian provinces in 2010, we now combine a North American footprint with strong local operations. Since our inception in 2000, we have served more than 2,000 customers, which include primarily governmental, educational, utility, healthcare, and other institutional, commercial and industrial entities.
Our principal service is the development, design, engineering and installation of projects that reduce the energy and operations and maintenance, or O&M, costs of our customers’ facilities. These projects typically include a variety of measures customized for the facility and designed to improve the efficiency of major building systems such as heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and lighting. We typically enter into energy savings performance contracts, or ESPCs, under which we commit to our customers that our energy efficiency projects will satisfy agreed-upon performance standards upon installation or achieve specified increases in energy efficiency. In most cases, the forecasted lifetime energy and operating cost savings of the energy efficiency measures we install will defray all or almost all of the cost of such measures. In many cases, we assist customers in obtaining third-party financing for the cost of constructing the facility improvements, resulting in little or no upfront capital expenditure by the customer. After a project is complete, we may operate, maintain, and repair the customer’s energy systems under a multi-year O&M contract, which provides us with recurring revenue and visibility into the customer’s evolving needs.
History
Ameresco’s customers benefit from the experience and leadership of its strong executive management team headed by the Company’s founder, President and CEO, George P. Sakellaris, P.E. Mr. Sakellaris is a well-known and respected executive in the energy services industry. In fact, Mr. Sakellaris is regarded as having pioneered the energy savings performance contracting (ESPC) concept in the Northeast, which has become a cornerstone of the energy services industry. In 1981, under his guidance and leadership, NEES Energy implemented the first ESPC at the Mercantile Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts.
Mr. Sakellaris’ vision was to create a company that provides its customers a broad range of customer focused services with the stability to deliver on its promises. Its foundation is a staff comprised of the industry’s most talented and experienced professionals, including market leaders DukeSolutions, L&E Enertech, Citizens Conservation Services, Planergy Housing Services, E-Three, Exelon Energy Services, Select Energy Services, Inc., Southwest PV, Global Energy Solutions, and Byrne Engineering. Their project experience includes energy conservation, consulting, and implementation services; supply management; utilities infrastructure operations and maintenance; energy efficiency and productivity improvement services; small to large generation including cogeneration; and renewable and sustainable energy strategies.
Under the executive management team’s leadership, Ameresco strives to follow these guiding principles in all aspects of its business :
Integrity, Independence, Innovation, and Flexibility
Customers
Key customers include Fortune 500 industrials, public and private school systems, state and municipal governments, large universities, and government agencies such as housing authorities, the United States Department of Energy, and the United States Department of Defense. Ameresco has developed the staff and service offerings to meet the needs of organizations in a variety of markets. Ameresco is well positioned to serve the following customers :