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Canada Infrastructure Bank commits funds to Efficiency Capital to retrofit buildings

Photo courtesy CIB.

The Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) has committed to invest up to $50 million in Efficiency Capital’s (EC’s) $62.5-million asset management platform for the purpose of developing, funding and delivering energy-efficient and low-carbon retrofits for private-sector buildings.

The commitment is part of CIB’s commercial building retrofit initiative (CBRI) program to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and help meet national net-zero targets. Under this program, EC will become a ‘retrofit aggregator,’ where CIB financing will cover up to 80% of the capital costs for eligible projects. EC’s impact investors will contribute the remaining capital as equity through its platform.

EC, which was launched by The Atmospheric Fund (TAF) more than five years ago, will work with pre-approved engineering partners to offer light-emitting diodes (LEDs), heat pumps, on-site solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, energy storage and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) upgrades, among other technical systems, to projects that will achieve a minimum 30% reduction in GHGs.

“Canadian businesses and building owners are starting to make serious commitments to reduce their GHG emissions, but often struggle with the allocation of sufficient capital to implement their projects at scale or across multiple sites,” says Chandra Ramadurai, CEO of EC.

“We recognize EC for its innovative financing approach, which enables building owners to execute major energy-efficiency retrofit projects without the need for any upfront, working capital deployment,” says Ehren Cory, CEO of CIB.

CIB and EC are expected to reach financial close by this fall. All CIB investments are subject to the approval of its board of directors.