Legislation requires each agency of the United States Federal Government to reduce the aggregate energy use index of its buildings by 30% by 2015, with respect to a 2003 baseline. The declining availability of appropriated funding means that energy performance contracting will be key to achieving this goal. Historically, however, energy performance contracts have been able to reduce energy use by only about 20% over baseline.Achieving30%energy reductions using performance contracting will require new approaches and a specific focus on achieving higher energy savings, both by energy services companies (ESCOs) and by agencies. This paper describes some of the ways federal agencies are meeting this challenge and presents results from the efforts of one agency -- the U.S. General Services Administration -- to achieve deeper energy savings in conventional energy savings performance contracts.