The Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) has provided energy-retrofit consultants Efficiency Capital with a loan of $50 million to help small and medium-sized building owners across Canada decarbonize their facilities.

Efficiency Capital, one of Canada's first Energy-as-a-Service companies, partners with owners to deliver fully funded deep retrofit solutions which reduce energy use and GHG emissions, generating environmental, social and economic results.

Examples of such upgrades can include lighting, roof insulation, heating-ventilation-air conditioning, heat pumps, automation systems, EV charging and renewable energy sources such as solar PV and geothermal. Some projects are expected to achieve a reduction in GHG emission by up to 50 percent.

“Over the past year, Efficiency Capital has announced multiple partnerships to deliver its offerings across Canada,” said CEO Chandra Ramadurai. “Our financial partnership with the CIB has given us the tools to make significant reductions in GHG emissions in buildings across Canada. Leveraging the CIB's investment, we're thrilled to expand our projects to improve efficiency, increase asset value and create cleaner, brighter spaces for tenants across Canada.”

Efficiency Capital is an 'aggregator' under the CIB's Building Retrofits Initiative, which provides long-term investments for building retrofits to modernize and improve the energy efficiency of existing buildings. The CIB created the aggregator program so that building owners both large and small can access its capital for low-carbon investments.

“Through our Building Retrofit Initiative, we have invested more than $1.2 billion towards modernizing aging buildings across the country,” said CIB CEO Ehren Cory. “Our $50-million investment with Efficiency Capital targets opportunities, primarily for small to medium-sized building owners to cost effectively upgrade their assets. Eighty percent of the buildings which will be standing in 2050 are standing today, which presents a tremendous opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy use through retrofits.”

With buildings currently accounting for 18 percent of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions, CIB says modernizing these assets is critical to meeting Canada's climate change goals.