CIRRUSTM Low Carbon, the only private financial product in the country with a lower cost of capital when you develop or renovate with a lower carbon design, has been revolutionizing the Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) industry since its inception. The goal of CIRRUS Low Carbon, and PACE Equity, is to offer financing solutions for our customers while encouraging lower carbon building design. We financially incentivize developers to build lower carbon buildings that exceed the nation’s highest commercial building codes.
There are three compliance paths for CIRRUS Low Carbon verification: the Prescriptive Path, the Performance Path, and the Phius Certification Path.
Prescriptive Path
The Prescriptive Path is simply put, a checklist. It is the most commonly used compliance path for CIRRUS Low Carbon. Under the Prescriptive Path, your project’s design must meet a set of mandatory measures as well as one or two high-efficiency measures (depending on if your project is a new construction or a renovation). The mandatory and optional measures for new construction projects are outlined in the table below.
For redevelopments and major renovation projects, only two of the Mandatory Measures are required, as well as one Additional Efficiency Option.
In both cases, any updated measures must meet the efficiency requirements laid out by ASHRAE 90.1 – 2019 plus an additional 5% efficiency.
Performance Path
The Performance Path requires your project to demonstrate a minimum reduction in carbon emissions of 8% over the performance of an ASHRAE 90.1 – 2016 Appendix G energy model of your project. There are no mandatory or additional required measures for the Performance Path apart from this reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
This Compliance Path is typically used for projects with conditions that make prescriptively meeting the CIRRUS Low Carbon specification more challenging. A common example is a large hotel with specific requirements for brand identity that cannot be altered, such as lobby lighting. In such cases, other sources of energy savings are identified and optimized to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Phius Certification
Phius Certification is the newest compliance path for CIRRUS Low Carbon. Phius (stands for the Passive House Institute of the United States) is a non-profit organization working to decarbonize the built environment through their air-tightness-focused passive building specifications. Any building that earns a Phius certification automatically qualifies for the CIRRUS Low Carbon low rate.
No matter how you qualify for CIRRUS Low Carbon, you’ll qualify for the industry’s lowest funding rate. You’ll be supported by our in-house Low Carbon Center of Excellence who are ready to work with you and ensure you qualify at the lowest possible cost and with the best customer experience.
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