Efficiency Capital launched a Social Housing Readiness Initiative (SHRI) program, which begins with a series of practical workshops starting April 13, 2021, to leverage a strategic impact investment from Toronto Foundation.
The SHRI program is designed for owners and operators with the goal of making efficiency and infrastructure upgrades easier and more accessible to social housing providers. The workshop takes attendees through common issues, benefits of building upgrades, best practices and available products to evaluate and start their own efficiency upgrades.
“We’re delighted to have the opportunity to do good with our investments while also earning a financial return,” says Sharon Avery, President & CEO, Toronto Foundation. “As we know from our Fallout Report, much of Toronto’s affordable housing is in desperate need of repair and energy retrofits. We’re proud to be supporting Efficiency Capital’s program that makes social housing more economically viable, while improving outcomes for tenants, investors and our planet.”
The SHRI program aims to help improve seven per cent of Ontario’s social housing units over the next 10 years, achieving three per cent of the total greenhouse gas emission reductions needed from residential buildings in Ontario to help the province reach its 2030 greenhouse gas reduction targets.
“Everyone wins when investments are made into building efficiency retrofits, but we understand how overwhelming these projects can be for social housing providers who have limited time and capacity to start evaluating the diverse resources needed to complete such a project,” says Chandra Ramadurai, CEO of Efficiency Capital. “While capital is available to complete these projects through multiple market mechanisms, it’s not always easy to build the business case needed to move projects forward. The first step is to understand which projects need to be undertaken and why – this initial process is where this SHRI initiative is looking to develop capacity. Thanks to the support of Toronto Foundation, we’re proud to be leading the charge in making energy efficient retrofit projects more accessible to building owners at all levels.”
The program is designed to help social housing providers prepare for building retrofits by providing industry insight on building the business case, the process, funding, available partners and solutions, and implementation options that will enable operators to maximize their long-term financial sustainability.