(1 GBCI + 1 AIA LU) Financing Resilience with C-PACE

On September 20, 2019, school children in the Solomon Islands arrived by canoe to their demonstration site to join the 4 million others around the world in the School Strike for Climate. In 2019, 906 thousand hectares of the Amazon rainforest were lost to fires, wiping out one of the earth’s best carbon sinks. Meanwhile, governments across the world, particularly local municipal governments throughout the U.S., representing concerned citizens with their hearts in the right place, are adopting ambitious climate plans with very little logistics for achieving them. Many of these climate plans rely heavily on the idea that improving buildings is a key solution, buildings being responsible for 40% of energy consumption in the U.S. However, until now there has been no practical way to execute this at scale across the entire fabric of commercial building square footage, two-thirds of which is small, with ownership that lacks the resources to hire engineers and properly perform an energy audit and upgrade. We are on a mission to show the way.

LEED has become a shining example of what the best buildings can achieve. But LEED has still only touched a fraction of the overall building stock. In this presentation we will show that there now exist solutions to two of the bigger obstacles in the way of solving the climate problem across the rest of the building industry. These obstacles are: time and money. This session will introduce you to C-PACE financing which enables owners of eligible commercial and industrial buildings to finance up to 100% of energy efficiency, renewable energy and water conservation eligible improvements, for terms up to 25 years, The session will explain how the financing works and how it is different than traditional financing options, what types of buildings and improvements are eligible, how the process to develop a C-PACE financed project works, how the financing can apply to new construction projects, and synergies with LEED. Case studies will be presented that demonstrate the depth and breadth of project types currently being financed through this innovative state-wide program.

Learning Objectives:

1. Demonstrate understanding and empathy for why many building Owners don’t pursue LEED or energy improvements.
2. Understand C-PACE financing and how to bring energy improvement financing options to your building Owner client, including zero-money-down options that any Owner can afford.
3. Understand how C-PACE financing can help new construction design push the boundaries and remove the need to “value engineer” out design features.
4. Learn about tools available to help projects evaluate their savings and investment potential.

Presenter: Tracy Phillips, CMVP, CEM, CDSM / Director, Colorado C-PACE Program