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Ted Flanigan is the founder and president of EcoMotion. Born in New York City and raised on Long Island, after graduate school Ted worked as a strategic planner for the New York Power Authority following his passion for energy efficiency. He then moved to Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colorado where he was the first Energy Program Director, and where with Amory Lovins, he founded Competitek, now E-Source, an energy efficiency information service.
In 1990, Ted was funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to create The Results Center, a division of IRT Environment, a center focused on documenting best practices with the implementation of energy efficiency. Under Ted’s direction, The Results Center produced 128 case studies of the best efficiency programs in North America, Asia, and Europe that were used to design effective programs and to benchmark success in regulatory proceedings.
In 1998, Ted came to Los Angeles to serve as Director of Energy Efficiency for Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the nation’s largest municipal utility. He was then Managing Director of The Energy Coalition, running innovative efficiency programs for California utilities. He then worked for the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, managing a lighting transformation project in the Philippines.
In 200l, Ted formed EcoMotion with the guiding principle of “the power of the increment,” that small actions collectively make great sense for our local, regional, national, and global society. Ted publishes and lectures on a broad range of energy and environmental issues and policies. With a team of dedicated professionals at EcoMotion, and a consulting stable of the “best and brightest,” EcoMotion tackles pilot projects for scalability and broad impact. Currently, EcoMotion provides smart energy management and climate action services – from behavioral change, to efficiency, solar, and storage — to cities, corporations, and campuses.
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Terry Chan PE is a Professional Engineer licensed in the state of California for 29 years. She holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from University of California at Los Angeles, an MS in Power Systems Engineering from University of Southern California, and an Executive MBA from the University of Southern California. In addition, she is a Certified Energy Manager and a Certified Green Building Professional. For 32 years, she held a number of positions within Los Angeles Department of Water and Power including responsibilities with power systems design, underground and overhead circuit design, load forecasting, rate design and customer services focused on major accounts. In addition, for the past eight years she has served as a Commissioner of Glendale Water and Power where she served two terms as President. Terry has traveled extensively on EcoMotion’s International Study Tours, has been an advisor to EcoMotion for eight years, and is fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish, and English.
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Michael Ware joined the EcoMotion team in 2007 to be an “honest broker” of solar power systems. Prior to working at EcoMotion, he worked at PermaCity Solar. At EcoMotion, Michael’s work focuses on solar opportunities, measuring potentials, and developing solar implementation strategies for organizations as diverse as Kimco, CBS, Sempra Utilities, LA Metro, and the Orange County Great Park.
Michael provides expertise in solar system site inspection. He is adept at measuring roof potential and modeling the cost-effectiveness of solar investments. His financial analyses include particular attention to electricity load profiles and rates and rate changes as a result of solar. These skills helped him successfully negotiate a 745 kW power purchase agreement for Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District, an agreement that is bringing solar to nine different campuses.
As an expert in utility rate structures and how they impact the return on investment of a given investment, Michael has developed tools for weighing the value of different components, and comparing different scenarios. Michael has developed particular expertise in analyzing and comparing solar bids. For clients, he drafts RFPs that result in useful, “apples to apples” bid comparisons. His responsibilities also include presenting solar findings to both expert and less experienced stakeholders to facilitate decision making.
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Alizeh Siddiqui brings experiences in project management to EcoMotion. Her primary responsibility is supporting EcoMotion’s contract to establish an Office of Sustainability for the City of Glendale. She is a native of Mississippi and Summa Cum Laude graduate of the University of Mississippi, home of the Ole Miss Rebels.
Prior to joining the EcoMotion team, Alizeh worked in publishing for Thomas Reuters in Sydney, Australia and then remotely as a marketing specialist for Innovarge LLC, a Pakistani import/export firm. In addition to Spanish proficiency, she is fluent in Urdu and Hindi. A warm and talented communicator with strong interests in policy, she shines with skills and enthusiasm now for the benefit of EcoMotion’s projects and clients.
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Simon Caplan is a sustainable development practitioner with a resolute commitment to decarbonizing the energy sector. He’s the EcoMotion team’s newest addition, and brings an interdisciplinary perspective to it along with valuable skill sets including data analysis, geographic information systems, and legal research.
He excelled in his academic endeavors at college, graduating with honors from the Columbia Undergraduate Scholars Program with a B.A. in sustainable development from Columbia University. His studies encompassed a cross-section of different environmental and social subjects, including classes which ranged from climate science to energy law and took him to both South America and Asia for field research.
Outside of school, Simon has experience in Southern California environment and energy policy. Working with the City Hall office of Los Angeles City Council President Paul Krekorian, Simon gained experience in legal research while augmenting his knowledge surrounding some of the many energy and environment issues facing the city. He also gained valuable perspective regarding how city governance interacts with public agencies and regulatory frameworks, from the municipal level up.
Simon is happy to be working in the energy space, and grateful to have the opportunity to work towards solutions that are mutually beneficial to stakeholders while advancing decarbonization. He’s happier still to be doing so while based in the state where he grew up, working towards a more sustainable and harmonious California.
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Nate Constan is an environmental professional with experience in the nonprofit and private sector. He is an experienced program manager, climate researcher, and environmentalist in the sustainable urbanism space. Nate’s strengths include research analysis, project management, stakeholder engagement, and cross-cultural communication.
Nate graduated from the University of Washington with a B.A. in Environmental Studies and worked as a Research Fellow and Assistant at the Center for Environmental Politics, where he became a twice published co-author in Forbes for topics on tree equity and energy distribution inefficiency.
Prior to his work at EcoMotion, Nate was in the inaugural cohort of the California Climate Action Corps, where he advanced small and large-scale urban greening and urban forestry efforts in Northeast and South Los Angeles. Nate played a key role in outreach campaigns to disadvantaged communities through the Los Angeles Urban Forestry Master Plan.
Outside of work, Nate is the Operations Lead for the United States Green Building Council- California (USGBC-CA) Emerging Professional Committee and a Committee Member for the Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) Emerging Professionals Committee. He is focused on nature-based solutions and sustainable infrastructure.
With a passion for sustainable urbanism and an understanding of the immigrant, Indigenous and Latinx perspective from a place of environmental equity, Nate is excited about projects that work to create more resilient, sustainable, and connected communities.
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Daniel started with EcoMotion years ago as an intern for the Solar Santa Monica program, which provided free solar feasibility assessments to city residents. He then worked as a Water Conservation Specialist alongside Santa Monica’s Office of Sustainability and the Environment, promoting water efficiency in landscaping, residences and businesses. Daniel graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a B.A. in Political Science. He brings with him a dedication to renewable energy and positive change.
After initially working in sustainability, he reignited his passion for music and toured world-wide with his band. Together they wrote and recorded four albums and performed countless shows. Following his music career, he spent years advocating for people experiencing homelessness, connecting them to services and finding permanent housing.
Daniel is excited to be back at EcoMotion. He is thrilled for the opportunity to meet new clients and build long-lasting relationships, which in addition to being good for businesses, will be good for the planet.
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Brady Zaitoon, PE + LEED AP is EcoMotion’s Staff Engineer. An advocate of reducing our societies “ecological” footprint, Brady is a big picture kind of guy. A graduate of the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas in Austin, Brady ran his own successful sustainability-consulting firm for the last 8 years, specializing in commissioning of commercial buildings and their HVAC systems. Having a firm understanding of how energy is being used in our buildings Brady helps EcoMotion in identifying energy-saving opportunities in Prop 39 projects.
Brady has acted as a Commissioning Agent for over 30 projects, ranging from stand-alone health-care facilities, to high-end restaurants. Working in the Commercial, Multi-family and residential building sectors, he is familiar with a multitude of sustainability rating systems. He has also been contracted by the City of Austin, acting as a consultant to help design teams of large scale developments such as The W and Fairmont Hotels, meet the progressive energy standards set by the city.
A “maker” and progressive thinker, Brady is a hands-on engineer. He has his own woodshop where he produces furniture and fashion accessories from salvaged wood. In his free time, he competitively plays the world’s sport (soccer) and also is passionate about music and its ability to create powerful waves and influence lives for the better. Prior work experience includes an internship at the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems for Pliny Fisk and Gail Vitorri, preceded by a brief stint in the Oil and Gas industry (as most Texans do).
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For over 40 years, Mark Hopkinson has been a management consultant, first for a national firm, then for a small independent partnership focused on infrastructure and economic development projects, then as the CEO of an independent manufacturing firm, and finally as an independent oriented to mitigation of climate change. His practice has been concentrated in logistics, operations and financial planning and implementation, coordinating and integrating disciplines to optimize outcomes. He was one of three consultants retained by a consortium of major public OEMs (3M was the lead client) to identify and develop methods for perpetuating innovation in large organizations. Over the years, he has been a speaker at seminars on change management and strategic growth.
His association with EcoMotion dates back to 2010, when he undertook to develop “going green” business with corporate clients and not-for-profit institutions. He has developed general models for accurately assessing the viability of solar installations and for transparently determining “who gets what when” in complex multi-party installations.
In the past five years, he has been engaged in multiple projects, in the role of principal or consultant, bringing innovative products and processes to market that address environmental issues. Current initiatives include a novel low-cost technology for removing nutrients from wastewater and development of a line of solar-powered refrigerators for residential and medical applications in less-developed countries.
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Russ Flanigan has been in the building trades since the 80s and deeply involved in the energy efficiency world since 2005 initially managing efficiency programs in Southern California for The Energy Coalition and then working for EcoMotion in its California office. These programs varied from large residential and commercial efficiency programs in multiple cities in the Los Angeles area to smaller scale solar/efficiency programs in Santa Monica to municipal greenhouse gas inventory work in the Coachella Valley.
Flanigan also served as Operations Manager for EcoMotion’s 2008 Germany Solar Tour and EcoMotion’s 2009 Spanish Solar Tour. He split his time between his roots in Vermont and California from 2008 to 2014 working on residential scale energy retrofits in Vermont partnered with Home Performance with Energy Star out of Efficiency Vermont while supporting analysis and construction of commercial solar and energy efficiency projects nationwide for EcoMotion.
Currently Russell is a Senior Energy Analyst and Solar Project Manager at Building Energy in Williston, Vermont and works with EcoMotion on projects on the East Coast. Most recently he has focused on residential and commercial scale solar, high efficiency heating and cooling (heat pumps), as well as Zero and Near-Zero buildings. He serves as a board member of the Vermont Building Professionals Association.
Russ Flanigan lives with his active family in an 1890s home in Burlington, Vermont. He plays the fiddle, enjoys biking in the Lake Champlain area, and volunteers in the local children’s theatre.