Ocean surface waves play a crucial role in Earth system models, influencing momentum transfer, ice breakup, CO2 fluxes, and mixed-layer dynamics. Unlike third-generation spectral models, wave information needed for mixing, air-sea, and wave-ice coupling is minimal, relying mainly on dominant frequency, direction, and energy. Given that modest errors in sea state have limited impact, the high computational cost of spectral models is a concern for next-generation Earth System Models (ESMs). We here describe an alternative, cost-efficient wave modeling framework for air-sea interaction to enable the routine use of sea state-dependent air-sea flux parameterization in ESMs. In contrast to spectral models, the Particle-in-Cell for Efficient Swell Wave Model (PiCLES) is constructed for coupled atmosphere-ocean-sea ice modeling. Combining Lagrangian wave growth solutions with the Particle-In-Cell method leads to a periodically meshing model on an arbitrary grid that scales in an embarrassingly parallel manner. The set of equations solves for the growth and propagation of a parametric wave spectrum's peak wavenumber and total wave energy, which reduces the state vector size by a factor of 50-200 compared to spectral models. We estimate PiCLES's computational costs about one order of magnitude faster then established wave models with sufficient accuracy for ESMs -- rivaling that of spectral models in the open ocean. We will evaluate PiCLES against WaveWatch III in efficiency and accuracy and discuss the planned coupling of this Julia-based model into the CESM/NUOPC framework.