We seek out opportunities to invest where we believe a portfolio company will enable a transition to a lower carbon economy, creating value through sustainability.

For example, Enwave, our formerly owned district energy business, deployed a sustainable technology for deep lake water cooling at commercial scale. During our ownership, this technology supported customer objectives and contributed to the city’s climate action plan, which seeks to reduce ~65% of emissions by 2030.

In Toronto, we increased system efficiency and capacity by constructing a new chiller plant and a combined heat and power plant, and by integrating a standalone chiller plant into the existing system. We believe investing in these types of initiatives is important in achieving large scale, real-world outcomes.

District energy systems have been recognized for creating economies of scale that help reduce energy costs and increase energy efficiency, as they enable the use of technology to centralize heating and cooling. Enwave’s district energy system continues to drive energy efficiency. It runs one of North America’s largest commercial deep lake cooling systems and repurposes over 26,000 metric tons of municipal solid waste and 36,000 metric tons of biomass.

Its deep lake water cooling saves customers in the City of Toronto 92,000 mega-watt hours of electricity use each year as a result of not running their own boilers and chillers, which can be equated to the energy needed to power a town of 25,000 people.