Making energy efficiency feasible and scaleable. Cycle-7

October 6, 2011

Transcend Equity and Blue Hill Partners Unveil New Initiative for Energy Efficiency in Higher Education with the Pennsylvania Treasury as Investor

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August 12, 2011

Matt Maher of Mitsui USA to speak on energy efficiency at the AIA

Susan Leeds, CEO of the New York City Energy Efficiency Corp, will moderate a panel consisting of Matt Maher from Mitsui USA, Sadie McKeown from Community Preservation Corp, and Michael Weisberg of M-Core Credit Corp. The event will take place at the American Institute of Architects' Center for Architecture. Read more here..

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June 15, 2011

Transcend Equity Development and Mitsui USA Ink Joint Venture Agreement

Cycle-7 affiliate Transcend Equity Development has signed an agreement with Mitsui USA, the US subsidiary of one of the world's largest trading companies, to jointly fund energy efficiency in privately owned real estate. This agreement marks the biggest commitment by a private equity source to a model providing energy efficiency as a service and taking risk entirely on production of energy savings. Cycle-7 brought the parties together and played a facilitating role in the development of their partnership. See the full press release here..

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June 15, 2011

Sean Neill to Speak on Energy Efficiency Panel Hosted by Agrion

On June 22, in a morning session at the Markle Foundation in Rockefeller Plaza, Neill will join speakers from Siemens, Con Edison, and Associated Renewable. Sadie McKeown, Sr Vice President at Community Preservation Corp, will moderate the meeting. Agrion is a global network of businesses working toward sustainable communities. See more on the panel discussion here..

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May 11, 2011

Sean Neill to present at PACE Energy and Climate Center Conference

On June 1 at PACE Plaza in Manhattan, the PACE Energy and Climate Center will host "Financing Energy Efficiency in the Commercial Sector." Neill will present on a panel moderated by Joyce Ferris of Blue Hill Partners and including Zach Axelrod of Skyline Innovations and Jim Fuller of Green Campus Partners..

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WHO WE ARE

Cycle-7 is a consultancy that develops and promotes practical, market-centered approaches to environmental sustainability. It seeks to understand the financial value of sustainable practices across various market contexts and to identify tools and mechanisms for capturing those benefits to generate a return on investment. Cycle-7’s clients include governments, non-profits, real estate developers and managers, and engineering firms. The firm has been instrumental in the refinement, growth and emergence of new models of energy efficiency finance, notably the MESA model developed by Transcend Equity. Sean Neill, founder and Principal, is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars on energy efficiency, an adjunct instructor at NYU and CUNY, and a provider of ongoing pro bono support to the New York City Mayor’s Office as it seeks to implement the Mayor’s PlaNYC 2030.

SEAN PATRICK NEILL - Principal and Founder
email: sean@cycle-7.com • tel: (917) 776-6155

WHAT WE DO
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Cycle-7 or its founder have developed, promoted and actively put into practice:

Models that demonstrate for commercial real estate owners how the benefits of energy efficiency retrofits flow to landlord or tenant;
Financial products that capture energy savings otherwise lost to a landlord and utilize them to finance building retrofits without debt or liens;
Tools that guide public housing authorities in optimizing the benefits of federal energy efficiency funding programs;
Underwriting models for utilizing energy savings to finance retrofits in affordable housing;
Investment funds that blend public and private funds at varying levels of risk and return to invest in envelope-pushing new technologies.

Cycle-7 is also frequently called upon for work on economic development and redevelopment analyses and strategy for specific properties, neighborhoods, towns and cities. Cycle-7 or its founder have:

Led economic feasibility and reuse analyses for brownfield redevelopment efforts;
Developed reuse strategies for industrial districts, tested their economic feasibility and modeled their benefits to the public;
Performed financial planning and budgeting for public open space;
Led strategic growth planning for major private universities;
Performed market analyses of demand for container shipping to ports east of the Hudson River.

Click on the firm below to read project descriptions:

Transcend Equity

Cycle-7 is the New York City representative of Transcend Equity working with large real estate firms across the City to develop energy-saving system retrofits in very large commercial buildings. Transcends innovative Managed Energy Services Agreement enables commercial owners to undertake major energy-saving capital projects and to capture energy savings that would otherwise be lost through operating expenditure passthrough provisions. Transcends MESA is paradigmatic of the tools and methods Cycle-7 seeks to advance an economically viable approach to sustainability that has the potential to be transformative for New York City.
Utica Muncipal Housing Authority

In 2006, the Utica Municipal Housing Authority faced more than $6 million in deferred capital expenditure, much of it energy related. It engaged Sean Neill (then at HR&A Advisors) to help address the problem through a comprehensive energy retrofit program. He led a project that will address the deferred capital expenses and create more than $660,000 in annual energy savings. Those savings will be used to support debt service on a municipal lease for more than $8 million, which closed despite a serious financial crisis in mid 2008. Proceeds of the lease paid for boiler replacements, windows, lighting, energy recovery ventilation and more than a half million dollars in code and ADA compliance. Meanwhile, the UMHA should benefit from hundreds of thousands of dollars in excess energy savings over the course of the project, which it will retain. Cycle-7 also secured more than $1.5 million in grants and interest rate subsidies for the project.
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority

Cycle-7 founder Sean Neill has consulted for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority for more than eight years. While working for them, he has: • Developed and led the Focus on Commercial Real Estate initiative, an effort to improve efficiency across the 600 M sf of commercial space in New York State and the New York City metropolitan area. It was the first initiative of its type to focus on the returns to efficiency based on the composition of leases in a multi-tenant building. • Developed and managed (together with leadership of HR&A Advisors) the Assisted Multifamily Program, a Statewide energy retrofit program serving more than 100,000 affordable housing units. • Led policy development and marketing of the NYSERDA Energy $mart Loan, including its transition from a linked deposit to an interest rate buy-down program. The Energy $mart Loan is New York States principal financing instrument for energy efficiency, designed to be unsecured.
Ithaca Housing Authority

For the Ithaca Housing Authority, Cycle-7 led a $2.6 million comprehensive energy retrofit project across its 320 units. The authority had been utilizing a HUD option to convert Capital Fund subsidies to Operating Funds, limiting its ability to pursue major capital work. Cycle-7 led engineers in formulating a capital plan focused on energy systems. The project, which will replace boilers, install an energy recovery ventilation system, and replace lighting and refrigerators, will produce about $130,000 in energy savings. Those savings financed a $1.6 million capital lease, which Cycle-7 helped to close in mid 2008. Cycle-7 also secured more than $1 million in grants and interest rate subsidies for the project. The excess funds allowed the authority to pursue an additional $500,000 in non-energy related capital work including new roofs.
Natural Resources Defense Council

During the launch of Cycle-7, Sean Neill conceived, developed and lead the Green Lease Forum spearheaded by the Natural Resources Defense Council. The Forum convenes real estate attorneys, environmental advocates, New York Citys major landlords, large tenants, and energy engineers in a series of discussion aimed at developing guidance for commercial real estate that will change the way commercial leasing is done in New York City and across the nation, making environmental improvements more economically beneficial for both tenants and landlords. Among the practices it seeks to affect are mismatches between landlord responsibility for capital expenditure and tenant benefit from energy savings (the so-called "split incentive") as well as lease terms that charge tenants a flat fee for electricity regardless of usage.
Brooklyn Motorized

Innovative Electric Motorcycle
Cycle-7 is a consultant to Brooklyn Motorized, developer of an innovative electric motorcycle. While conventional motorcycles typically get 2-3 times the gas mileage of a car, cars are 20 times more efficient on the basis of weight. And motorcycles emit more pollutants than an SUV. Brooklyn Motorized is developing a zero-emission, 100% electric bike tailored for the city dweller, a prototype for which will be complete in early 2010. Cycle-7 advises on business strategy, funding and the sustainability of Brooklyn Motorized products. Cycle-7 founder Sean Patrick Neill also serves on the Advisory Board of Brooklyn Motorized.
Community Environmental Center

For Community Environmental Center, Cycle-7 is developing a measurement and reporting database for implementation of Weatherization Assistance Program. CEC is one of New York Citys largest Weatherization providers, managing a large volume of major multifamily retrofit projects. The database will track affordable housing projects from initial inquiry through income certification, energy analysis, bidding and design, construction and certification.
New York City Economic Development Corporation

For EDC, Cycle-7 is engaged in an analysis of demand for shipping direct to New York City marine terminals. In an effort to reduce congestion on roads and bridges, as well as greenhouse gases, EDC is seeking ways to improve its East of Hudson terminals and the volume of goods that come direct to the City as opposed to New Jersey terminals and thence via truck. Cycle-7 is implementing a variety of analytical approaches, from synthesis of shipping data, on-line surveys and direct surveying, to estimating the quantity of goods that could flow directly to East of Hudson terminals. It will also identify specific shippers that may be ideal candidates for direct shipping as well as marine freight lines that should be encouraged to call East of Hudson.
Environmental Defense Fund

Based on a concept paper written by Cycle-7, the Environmental Defense Fund launched a project to prepare the engineering framework for underwriting energy efficiency projects. Heretofore, lending for energy efficiency has been secured by an implicit government guarantee on municipal property or through equipment liens, absolving lenders from underwriting based on project performance and effectively slowing the technical formalization of energy savings project preparation, implementation and monitoring. This innovative project, now funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, will engage major banks and leaders in the professional engineering community in the development of protocols and standards engineers will use to make projections of energy savings and risk for lenders. The goal is to develop a framework for energy efficiency finance based upon clear, replicable methodologies for savings projection and measurement of savings over time.
Brookfield Properties

While a Principal at HR&A, Cycle-7 founder Sean Neill led a project to evaluate several million square feet of commercial property owned by Brookfield Properties and make recommendations as to the optimal set of energy efficiency retrofits.