# Performance & Outcomes > Provider: [DutchGreenhouses](/) Greenhouse performance is the set of outcomes a buyer is actually purchasing rather than the components a specification lists. Each outcome carries its own metric, and they trade against one another, so a design begins by deciding which of them leads for a given crop and market. ## Facts | Property | Value | |---|---| | Outcomes modelled | 6 outcomes | | Design rule | Outcome first, specification second rule | | Outcomes with an agreed metric | 5 of 6 | | Governing constraint | No configuration maximises everything constraint | | Correction required on energy and carbon figures | Temperature correction | Greenhouse horticulture # What you actually buy. Nobody wants a greenhouse. They want what it does. ## Six numbers, and the fights between them ## For most of history, the weather decided You planted. The season did what it did. A good year fed you, a bad one did not, and nobody argued with it. That is farming. Accepting. ## Then someone built a wall In the seventeenth century, growers in the Westland started laying south-facing brick walls. Not for looks. Brick soaks up heat all day and gives it back at night. Plants do not feel averages. They feel extremes. The wall made the extremes smaller. Everything before that was protection. This was the first intervention. ## Glass scaled it Someone leaned a window against a wall. Glass trapped the heat, brick stored it, and together they multiplied. Lean-to frames followed. Then real glasshouses. Then steel, screens, heating pipes, computers. The tools changed every generation. What growers were buying never did. ## They were buying a better outcome First, stability. A harvest that actually arrives. Then volume. More kilos off the same square metre. Then efficiency. The same kilos for less gas and less water. That is the whole history of this industry in three steps, and it is still the order the money follows. ## Today it is six numbers - Yield — kilos per square metre per year - Light — how much daylight reaches the crop - Energy — what it costs to hold the climate - Water — how much goes in, how little leaves - Carbon — what the heat is made from - Year-round production — whether you can promise a date ## And they fight each other A second screen saves energy and costs light. Light is yield. So the screen that cuts your gas bill also cuts your harvest. Fine insect mesh keeps pests out and chokes the ventilation the house was sized for. Lamps buy winter production and raise your energy and your carbon in the same move. There is no setting where everything wins. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling equipment, not a greenhouse. ## So we start at the other end Tell us which of those six decides your business case, and the design follows from there — structure, climate, water, light, crop protection, all dimensioned against one number instead of a standard package. DutchGreenhouses® builds the greenhouse your figure demands. Get in touch and tell us which number you are being judged on. The six ## Pick the one you are judged on. ### Yield Kilos per square metre. Cultivar sets the range. ### Light Free, finite, and fixed the day you design. ### Energy The bill that never stops. Ask which winter. ### Water Almost none leaves. Sodium sets the limit. ### Carbon The boiler feeds the crop. That is the catch. ### Year-round production Selling a date instead of a harvest. ## Which number decides your business case? Tell us the crop, the market and the site. We will tell you what the greenhouse has to look like to hit it — and what it costs you elsewhere. Talk to our engineers From the knowledge base ## Reads you might find interesting ### Grow Like a Pro: Starting Smart, Growing Strong How Grow Like a Pro combines smart farming, CEA technology and local partnerships for eco-friendly, profitable, pesticide-free greenhouse pr Read article ### The Case for a College Greenhouse Why a college greenhouse belongs in the curriculum: teaching science, craftsmanship, business logic and sustainability, and preparing studen Read article ### The Case for a High School Greenhouse Why every high school greenhouse matters: how it makes STEM tangible, builds responsibility and teamwork, and helps students discover their Read article ### Greenhouses in Education: The Case for Schools Greenhouses in education reconnect students to reality — the full case for why every school, high school, college and trade program should h Read article ### The Origins of Greenhouse Horticulture: My Backyard A tour through greenhouse horticulture history: from 19th-century Westland fruit walls to the “City of Glass” and today’s international high Read article ### DutchGreenhouses Rebranded: A New Corporate Identity Announcing our new corporate identity — a visual style reflecting our dedication to advanced, high-quality greenhouse projects and The Futur Read article ## FAQ **What outcomes does a greenhouse actually deliver?** Yield, light transmission, energy use, water circularity, carbon footprint and security of supply. Every system in the facility exists because it moves one or more of them, which is why a component list does not answer the question a buyer is asking. **Why does each outcome need a named metric?** Because a metric makes the claim checkable rather than promotional. Yield is kilograms per square metre per year, transmission a percentage of outside light, energy gigajoules per square metre. Where no agreed metric exists, saying so is more useful than inventing one. **Can a greenhouse be optimised for all of them at once?** No, and the trade-offs are physical rather than commercial. A second energy screen cuts energy use and costs light, so it moves yield the wrong way. Supplemental lighting lifts winter yield and raises energy use and carbon footprint together. Something always gives. **Which outcome should lead a project?** That follows the crop, the market and the site rather than a default. A high-value crop in a cold market may lead on yield and accept the energy cost; a project in a water-scarce region may lead on circularity. The ordering is the first design decision, not a later one. ## Related [Yield](/performance/yield.md) · [Light Transmission](/performance/light-transmission.md) · [Energy Use](/performance/energy-use.md) · [Water Use & Circularity](/performance/water-use.md) · [Carbon Footprint](/performance/carbon-footprint.md) · [Year-Round Production](/performance/climate-resilience.md) · [Greenhouse Horticulture](/greenhouse-horticulture.md) · [Greenhouse Construction](/greenhouse-construction.md) · [Climate](/climate.md) · [Screening](/screening.md)