Cycle7 has led or facilitated more than $80 million in clean generation and retrofits covering multi-family, commercial, industrial and institutional buildings. As it built this track record it garnered expertise in the barriers to comprehensive retrofits (e.g. mortgage covenants, certain types of leases) and how to work around them. Its founder has won national awards for work in commercial energy efficiency and managed New York State programs serving over 100,000 units of affordable housing. Cycle7 advises state and local governments on energy policy and trains rising leaders in energy efficiency finance such as the Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Corps.
Featured Projects
125 Maiden Lane
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As a consultant for Transcend Equity, Cycle7 led development of a $3.5 MM energy system renovation under a Managed Energy Services Agreement (MESA) at 125 Maiden Lane, the first MESA in the northeast. Under a MESA structure, the developer assumes responsibility for a building's energy bills and for renovating the building to lower them, earning a return only if it achieves savings. MESA addresses both the issue of prohibitive mortgage covenants and split incentives in leases. Maiden Lane was among the first retrofits performed with private equity.
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UTICA MUNICIPAL hOUSING AUTHORITY
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The Utica Municipal Housing Authority faced cuts in its capital funds and an over-burdened operating budget. Working with Cycle7, it implemented a $9 MM energy system retrofit across some 800 units of the authority, including replacement of a steam system and other major upgrades. Cycle7 led the planning, secured HUD approval, closed the financing and supported construction. This project was one of the first completed with a consultant rather than an Energy Performance Contract. Not only did the UMHA upgrade major infrastructure, but it nets $450,000 annually from the project.
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Investor Confidence Project
With the Environmental Defense Fund, Cycle7 co-founded the Investor Confidence Project (ICP). The project recognized the potential for private capital to invest in energy system renovations and the lack of adequate guidelines for measurement and verification of savings. Without industry agreement on how savings would be measured, they could not be underwritten, and capital could not flow into the sector. ICP gathered leading engineers from around the country and built consensus around industry's best standards for measurement. In addition to wide adoption in the US, ICP spawned a partner project in Europe and was adopted by the Energy Efficiency Financial Institutions Group, a coalition of banks working together under the European Commission.
