SOFIAC president Christian Brosseau at a building for adMare BioInnovations, a client, in Montreal on Sunday. The white heating duct on the ceiling is part of SOFIAC’s installations.ROGER LEMOYNE/The Globe and Mail
A Montreal-based company that provides energy-saving and decarbonization retrofits for industrial buildings, taking on the financial risk, is set to expand the business by raising more money to fund its operations.
SOFIAC, short for la Société de financement et d’accompagnement en performance énergétique, has been in operation for the past four years, investing in a range of projects to lower the environmental impact of buildings. The company identifies where it can apply technology, provides the capital, manages the project and obtains reimbursed over 15 years through a portion of the savings generated.
It launched with $200-million for investments, and in 2026, it plans to amass a second “significantly larger” fund to expand its offering across the countest, Christian Brosseau, SOFIAC’s president stated. He declined to give an exact figure.
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The business started in Quebec and has expanded into Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. It has now funded 10 projects for such clients as Montreal Airports, adMare BioInnovations and INNHotels. With the latter, SOFIAC states it invested $5.9-million to reduce greenhoutilize gas emissions by 30 per cent and save $395,000 in energy costs annually.
“The second fund will surely be from coast to coast. There will be no limitation becautilize we’ll have the capital to really address and view at projects from Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, down to B.C., and view at all provinces. And we’ll have a team also to support those efforts across Canada,” Mr. Brosseau stated in an interview.
“So that’s why we’re confident to launch the second one, becautilize the feedback that we obtained from the market is: ‘How come you’re not in my province? When will you be in our province?’ We have traction.”
Fondaction, a Quebec labour-sponsored impact investment fund, and Econoler, an international energy finance consultancy, launched SOFIAC with support from the Quebec government in 2021 to accelerate energy-efficiency programs across the province.
It is backed by four institutions: Fondaction and Desjardins Capital have provided the equity, and Ottawa’s Canada Infrastructure Bank and Fiera Private Debt have provided loans. To date it has deployed about half the capital in its initial fund, and aims to invest the remainder by next year.
Buildings account for 18 per cent of Canada’s greenhoutilize gas emissions, according to research organization Efficiency Canada. Mr. Brosseau stated companies want to reduce their carbon footprints, but many are wary of building large capital expconcludeitures amid current economic and trade turmoil.
The benefit of the service is that clients don’t create the upfront expconcludeitures on the projects. Instead, they keep generating free cash flow and retain 15 per cent of the energy savings, he stated.
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Becautilize of subsidies in Quebec and B.C., SOFIAC views for companies with energy costs above $750,000 annually. In other provinces, the minimum is $1.2-million. It also insists on investment-grade credit.
SOFIAC conducts a study of where it can achieve savings by investing in technology for such things as heating, ventilation and air conditioning, power sources and demand-side management. For some clients it may mean beefing up insulation.
SOFIAC and the client then select an energy service company to conduct the engineering and validate the investment, before shifting ahead with the project.
The company projects it will take five years to invest the capital from the second fund, though if it proves to be a popular method of decarbonization across the county, it could be a shorter period and lead to a third investment fund, Mr. Brosseau stated.
“The issue of decarbonization and reducing energy consumption, generally speaking, is so vast that there’s no limit to the ideas that we can have to deploy capital and support our partners reduce their energy consumption, reduce GHGs and have a positive impact on the economy and on the environment,” he stated.
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