- Johnson Controls
- Building Insights
- Optimizing campuses with advanced tech, innovative funding
Optimizing campuses with advanced tech, innovative funding
At the 2019 APPA Annual Conference & Exhibition, Johnson Controls higher education team received three awards including the Strategic Business Partners Award, the Scholarship Supporters Award and the Visionary Award. Pictured from left: APPA President Ruthann Manlet, Johnson Controls Blake Edwards, Justin Newbern and Russell Garcia, and former APPA president Don Guckert from the University of Iowa.

At the NACUBO Annual Meeting, Johnson Controls connected with higher education leaders to discuss innovative funding options to help improve campus infrastructure. Pictured from left: Johnson Controls Russell Garcia and Lyle Schumann, University of North Dakota’s Mike Pieper, Johnson Controls Maureen Blasé, Judith Mouton, Rusty McLellan, Dr. Dan Peterson, Brody McMurtry, Brandi Williams and Gary Van Winkle.

By Russell Garcia, Director, Higher Education, Performance Infrastructure™, Johnson Controls
Johnson Controls higher education experts recently had the pleasure of attending the NACUBO Annual Meeting and the APPA Annual Conference & Exhibition in July. We led conversations around addressing deferred maintenance and finding the right, alternative funding approaches whether you’re looking to enhance energy efficiency, improve productivity in learning environments, utilize smarter technologies for a more connected campus or all the above.
One notable topic on NACUBO Annual Meeting’s agenda focused on the mental shift around digital transformation in the higher education industry. Understanding the value of digital transformation is critical and requires the digitization of building data, curriculum and administrative services; however, this won’t necessarily bring results unless you first conduct an overall assessment of your campus, including value cost and risk. The second step is to determine if making these updates are within your budget.
Our team’s sessions at NACUBO and APPA explored how alternative, creative funding options are available to help you reach your campus goals without shouldering the risk.
Allocating the funds to make your dream campus a reality – one that implements integrated technologies for smarter, more efficient environments – has long been a struggle for the education industry. For colleges and universities working with a limited budget, the question remains, how? Our team’s sessions at NACUBO and APPA explored how alternative, creative funding options are available to help you reach your campus goals without shouldering the risk. By highlighting customer projects, we were able to share real-life examples of how contingent payment programs, performance contracts and other public private partnership funding options helped to implement sustainable infrastructure upgrades within budget.
From improving the comfort of learning environments to optimizing energy efficiency, we’re excited to continue to help you realize and achieve your campus needs and goals with smarter technology and more innovative funding options.
Related Items
University of North Dakota partners with Johnson Controls
Johnson Controls partnered with University of North Dakota to build and operate a new central utility plant with infrastructure upgrades across the campus.