Canada Infrastructure Bank Invests $100M in Deep Energy Retrofits to Decarbonize Aging Buildings Across Canada
July 9, 2024
The Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) has achieved financial closure on a $100 million investment with GDI Integrated Facility Services to support deep energy retrofits in aging buildings across Canada and help reduce their environmental impact.
GDI has formed a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to finance the capital costs of the retrofits. The SPV will include the CIB's investment, and GDI and third parties will fund the remaining amount through equity investments.
“The CIB's Building Retrofit Initiative is further bolstered by an additional $100 million loan to a leading energy services company in GDI,” said Ehren Cory, CEO of Canada Infrastructure Bank. “This partnership will enable GDI to accelerate the implementation of turnkey retrofit solutions designed to improve the efficiency of our country's inventory of aging buildings which is key to making communities more resilient and sustainable.”
GDI's wholly-owned subsidiary, Ainsworth, and its subsidiary, Energere, will source energy projects and provide complete turnkey design/build services. The companies will offer initial energy audits, energy modeling, system design, installation, commissioning, measurement and ongoing energy management, data analytics, and energy optimization.
Each project carried out by the SPV will be different in scale and approach. Ainsworth's turnkey energy services will provide their clients with deep energy retrofit solutions to reduce carbon emissions. Carbon reduction measures will include fuel switching, HVAC upgrades, electrical vehicle charging, energy storage facilities, and renewable power sources such as solar generation.
Upon completion, all of the retrofits are estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 44,000 tons annually and support nearly 500 jobs in the trade sector.
The investment is part of the CIB's Building Retrofits Initiative, which has committed over $1.2 billion towards financing sustainable retrofits. While buildings account for around 18% of Canada's total GHG emissions, such investments will help prioritize and accelerate building retrofits to meet Canada's climate change goals of net-zero emissions by 2050.
