PACE Equity, the leader in Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing for development projects, along with decarbonization non-profit Phius, jointly announced a new compliance path for PACE Equity’s CIRRUS Low Carbon program at PhiusCon 2023. Through the new partnership, commercial real estate projects that are certified as Phius CORE or Phius ZERO passive house buildings are automatically eligible for the CIRRUS Low Carbon financing rate when approved for PACE Equity funding.
What is CIRRUS Low Carbon financing?
CIRRUS Low Carbon is the only private financial product that provides a lower cost of capital for buildings that are developed or renovated to a lower carbon design. The standards set by Phius CORE and Phius ZERO are locally tailored and globally applicable, aligning significantly with PACE Equity’s CIRRUS Low Carbon design goals.
Projects that apply for PACE Equity financing with the passive house Phius certification will qualify to receive CIRRUS Low Carbon’s reduced financing rate, helping the project developers fill a gap in a capital stack, replace more expensive funding options, and improve project returns.
“The path to lower carbon commercial real estate development is forged through symbiotic industry partnerships that offer developers and building owners unique financial, environmental, and brand advantages,” said Beau Engman, President and Founder, PACE Equity. “The convergence of Phius passive building standards and PACE Equity’s lower rate financing for lower carbon buildings equips developers with the tools and financial incentive to design more energy-efficient buildings with a better return.”
“With the most effective and widely applicable passive building standard, Phius shares PACE Equity’s vision for a lower carbon future,” said Katrin Klingenberg, Co-founder and Executive Director, Phius. “Partnering with PACE Equity to offer automatic CIRRUS Low Carbon qualification for Phius CORE and Phius ZERO projects helps make decarbonization of the built environment even more achievable.”
About PACE Equity
Since 2014, PACE Equity has funded Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy projects in innovative, never-before-seen ways, with better financing for better buildings. PACE Equity has closed C-PACE projects across the U.S. and enabled the energy efficient commercial development of over $2.7 billion while eliminating over 1 million metric tons of carbon. PACE Equity offers the design and support that allow customers to intelligently meet the demands of today's consumer and tomorrow's requirements.
About PHIUS
Phius is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization committed to decarbonizing the built environment by making high-performance passive building the mainstream market standard. It trains and certifies professionals, maintains and updates the Phius climate-specific passive building standard, certifies and quality assures passive buildings, certifies high-performance building products and conducts research to advance high-performance building.
Related Stories
| Nov 3, 2010
Dining center cooks up LEED Platinum rating
Students at Bowling Green State University in Ohio will be eating in a new LEED Platinum multiuse dining center next fall. The 30,000-sf McDonald Dining Center will have a 700-seat main dining room, a quick-service restaurant, retail space, and multiple areas for students to gather inside and out, including a fire pit and several patios—one of them on the rooftop.
| Nov 2, 2010
11 Tips for Breathing New Life into Old Office Spaces
A slowdown in new construction has firms focusing on office reconstruction and interior renovations. Three experts from Hixson Architecture Engineering Interiors offer 11 tips for office renovation success. Tip #1: Check the landscaping.
| Nov 2, 2010
Cypress Siding Helps Nature Center Look its Part
The Trinity River Audubon Center, which sits within a 6,000-acre forest just outside Dallas, utilizes sustainable materials that help the $12.5 million nature center fit its wooded setting and put it on a path to earning LEED Gold.
| Nov 2, 2010
A Look Back at the Navy’s First LEED Gold
Building Design+Construction takes a retrospective tour of a pace-setting LEED project.
| Nov 2, 2010
Wind Power, Windy City-style
Building-integrated wind turbines lend a futuristic look to a parking structure in Chicago’s trendy River North neighborhood. Only time will tell how much power the wind devices will generate.
| Nov 2, 2010
Energy Analysis No Longer a Luxury
Back in the halcyon days of 2006, energy analysis of building design and performance was a luxury. Sure, many forward-thinking AEC firms ran their designs through services such as Autodesk’s Green Building Studio and IES’s Virtual Environment, and some facility managers used Honeywell’s Energy Manager and other monitoring software. Today, however, knowing exactly how much energy your building will produce and use is survival of the fittest as energy costs and green design requirements demand precision.
| Nov 2, 2010
Yudelson: ‘If It Doesn’t Perform, It Can’t Be Green’
Jerry Yudelson, prolific author and veteran green building expert, challenges Building Teams to think big when it comes to controlling energy use and reducing carbon emissions in buildings.
| Nov 1, 2010
Sustainable, mixed-income housing to revitalize community
The $41 million Arlington Grove mixed-use development in St. Louis is viewed as a major step in revitalizing the community. Developed by McCormack Baron Salazar with KAI Design & Build (architect, MEP, GC), the project will add 112 new and renovated mixed-income rental units (market rate, low-income, and public housing) totaling 162,000 sf, plus 5,000 sf of commercial/retail space.
| Nov 1, 2010
Vancouver’s former Olympic Village shoots for Gold
The first tenants of the Millennium Water development in Vancouver, B.C., were Olympic athletes competing in the 2010 Winter Games. Now the former Olympic Village, located on a 17-acre brownfield site, is being transformed into a residential neighborhood targeting LEED ND Gold. The buildings are expected to consume 30-70% less energy than comparable structures.
| Oct 27, 2010
Grid-neutral education complex to serve students, community
MVE Institutional designed the Downtown Educational Complex in Oakland, Calif., to serve as an educational facility, community center, and grid-neutral green building. The 123,000-sf complex, now under construction on a 5.5-acre site in the city’s Lake Merritt neighborhood, will be built in two phases, the first expected to be completed in spring 2012 and the second in fall 2014.
