Project Experts
Pierre Langlois ESCO Expert
Unlocking private-sector investment through Canada's first Super ESCO
Designing, establishing, and scaling SOFIAC's integrated energy performance financing platform
- Client
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Year
2020-2031
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Region
- North America (USA-Canada)
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Service
- Energy Performance Contracts (EPCs)
- Innovative Financing Mechanisms
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Countries
Canada
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Sector
- Commercial and Institutional
- Industrial
- Financial institutions
Energy efficiency projects can deliver lasting cost and emissions reductions, yet many private-sector organizations struggle to move them forward. High upfront costs, perceived financial risk, and complex transactions often prevent technically sound projects from reaching implementation. SOFIAC was created to remove these barriers by combining long-term financing, technical expertise, and performance-based contracting in a single, scalable platform.
Project goal: Turning energy savings into an investable opportunity
The project aimed to create a financial and operational platform capable of accelerating energy efficiency investment in Canada’s commercial, industrial, and multi-residential sectors. Through a shared-savings approach, SOFIAC provides a unique point of access to turnkey projects that are 100% financed, maximize value, protect clients from financial risk, and allow clients to preserve their financing capacity.
Mandate: Designing the fund and supporting its implementation
Econoler initially designed SOFIAC as an investment fund, acted as co-manager during its first five years of operation, and has served as a strategic partner since its launch. Its mandate has included developing and implementing SOFIAC’s technical and financial framework and supporting project origination and execution. Econoler’s contribution has focused on structuring Canada’s first and only Super ESCO initiative, developing shared-savings and energy performance contracting mechanisms, and establishing standardized approaches to procurement, project bundling, and delivery.
A Canadian response to a persistent financing gap
SOFIAC was launched in fall 2020 as the first Super ESCO in Canada and one of the first initiatives of its kind in North America. Its creation followed an Econoler study for the Government of Quebec, which identified a lack of financing mechanisms adapted to private-sector energy efficiency investment. Econoler and Fondaction Gestion d’Actifs, Fondaction’s asset management subsidiary, jointly structured the initiative, with financial support from Quebec’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and Natural Resources Canada.
The operating model was designed around long-term agreements of 10 to 15 years, enabling deeper retrofits and more significant decarbonization outcomes. SOFIAC combines turnkey project development, 100% non-recourse financing under shared-savings arrangements, subsidy management and optimization, an open-book approach to costs, independent measurement and verification management, and coordination of ESCOs and third-party experts throughout project delivery.
The fund began with a CAD 150 million financing capacity and a 4:1 debt-to-equity leverage ratio. Portfolio risk is distributed across projects requiring investments of CAD 1 million to CAD 20 million. Where appropriate, projects are bundled into calls for tenders to generate economies of scale.
Removing barriers while strengthening competitiveness
For participating enterprises, the SOFIAC model transforms energy efficiency from a capital-intensive, technically complex undertaking into an integrated service. Clients can implement projects with minimal internal involvement, without assuming upfront costs or reducing their financing capacity. Long-term, performance-based agreements support more ambitious measures, while independent measurement and verification and an open-book approach reinforce transparency and accountability.
The model is designed to lower energy costs and strengthen the profitability and competitiveness of Canadian commercial and industrial enterprises. More broadly, it supports an efficient, profitable, and inclusive energy transition by aligning the interests of private-sector clients, governments, investors, ESCOs, and technical specialists.
A platform positioned for national scale
By 2025, SOFIAC had committed more than CAD 100 million to energy efficiency investments and developed a pipeline representing approximately CAD 100 million in additional opportunities.
Clients SOFIAC helped:
- IBM with CAD 11.5 million invested, 76% reduction in GHG emissions, and 14% reduction in energy consumption
- Montreal Airports with CAD 14.3 million invested, 51% reduction in GHG emissions, and 3.6 MW of winter peak shaving
- Lactalis with CAD 11.5 million invested by SOFIAC, 5,632 tCO2eq/year avoided, equivalent to 1,725 light vehicles taken off the road each year, and 11% in reduced energy consumption
From a pioneering model to a growing family of investment vehicles
SOFIAC’s success has paved the way for replication in other markets and sectors.
Econoler Capital now manages and co-manages specialized investment vehicles that include ÉcoÉnergie360 for Quebec municipalities, SOFIAC France for the private sector, and the African Energy Efficiency Fund in Morocco, with additional initiatives under development.
SOFIAC provides a pioneering example of how energy efficiency can move beyond isolated projects and become a structured investment market.
Rethinking the Value of Energy Efficiency Projects
Through SOFIAC, Econoler has helped design and operationalize one of North America’s first Super ESCO models. The initiative demonstrates how energy performance contracting can be adapted to a mature market and how an integrated financial and technical platform can mobilize private capital for deep decarbonization projects.