Jon Braman

At Cadence OneFive, my role is…
Customer and industry relations lead. I’m excited to dive in and help ensure our platform meets a critical need for our customers and users in pursuing building decarbonization. In my career so far I’ve spent a lot of time tuning into customers and partners - building owners and managers, lenders gov’t agencies, engineers and consultants - helping figure out how to meet their needs even when it requires thinking outside the box. Look forward to diving in here!

Who are you outside of work?
I live in Washington Heights with my wife and two kids. I grew up on Long Island and always thought I’d live in the mountains. After college I did live for a year in Western Mass, a year on a sustainable homestead in Hawaii, a couple years in DC, and now upper Manhattan for the last 18 years (not counting a break during the pandemic). Outside of work I’m focused on family, music, getting outside as much as I can (mostly citibiking everywhere plus weekend hiking and camping). My wife and I met doing environmental organizing and she works on climate adaptation. My 12-year old daugher is at a public performing arts middle school and loves singing, dancing and reading historical fiction. My son, 7, is into kung fu and camping and tickling me every time he sees a Tesla. You might not guess my music is heavily influenced by hip hop. I sing, rap, play ukulele, guitar and other instruments if they are within reach. I was part of a music showcase/jam called the Melting Pot for about 10 years that included a mix of hip hop/jazz/folks/soul/rock and performed monthly at Pianos on the LES. That ended with the pandemic and I’m still trying to rekindle my music community. I miss it. In the last couple years I’ve also gotten more involved in my synagogue and help organize a peace group within the community.

At work
Since I was a teenager I’ve been pretty focused on doing work that helps the environment and climate. I studied ecology in college and spent a couple summers doing tree ring research. I’ve always loved science but after school wanted to do something with more immediate impact. Tried out organizing on environmental issues on college campuses and going door-to-door, spent a year taking care of goats and chickens on an off-grid homestead in Hawaii, then came back to the East Coast and worked on music while teaching an after school program at an affordable housing non-profit outside DC. Around this time my friend from playing music in college - Jeff Perlman - connected me to Greg Kats who was doing research on green buildings and needed more help once Jeff got busy with Bright Power. A couple years later we moved to NYC for my wife to get a masters at Columbia in Climate and Society and I joined Bright Power which was then about 6 people.

While I never studied real estate or engineering in school, the building energy work felt like a good mix of technical science/mathy puzzles and connecting with and helping people. During my time at Bright Power I worked on many different types of projects: energy audits, green building consulting, lots of energy benchmarking and other types of analysis, sales, leading teams, managing customer relationships. Affordable housing developers and owners (e.g. Mercy Housing, POAH, Jonathan Rose Companies) and trade groups (e.g. SAHF, HPN) and lenders/housing agencies (e.g. Fannie Mae, CPC, HPD) are the clients I’ve spent the most time getting to know.

Some highlights from my Bright Power time I’m particular proud of are:

• Being part of the team that launched EnergyScoreCards, Bright Power’s benchmarking platform. In particular I lead the data collection and analysis of the national data set we used to launch ESC and develop our grading system. I came up with some ways of categorizing multifamily properties and synthesizing performance metrics that are still used by the software 15 years later. I also sold some of our first contracts and came up with the first iterations of the human service that accompanies the software - now performed by “Energy Analysts.” In the early years I gave about a million demos of the software and presented at many conferences, often alongside our friendly competitor Wegowise.
• Conducting research and creating guidebooks and tools with industry partners (SAHF, BEEx, Elevate, VEIC, CPC) that seem to have been useful for building capacity and getting folks more comfortable with doing building energy efficiency and decarb work. For instance we heard from HUD after our report on their GRP program that the analysis of actual savings helped them increase the % of projected savings they felt comfortable underwriting to.
• Launching Future Housing with several internal and external partners as an effort to solve the performance data gap for low-carbon multifamily, and to redefine building performance as including carbon/energy, resident experience, health risks. I’m excited to keep championing Future Housing in my new role here and Cadence and to work with you all to figure out how it fits with Cadence’s vision. Directionally Future housing is also all about equity, decarbonization, data transparency, but there are a lot of details to think through about how a free-open source industry data resource might complement our software business.
• Launching Bright Power’s services for lenders, in particular our long relationship with Fannie Mae. 2019 was the hardest work-year of my life when we had won a big contract ot do M&V for their national portfolio of multifamily green loans. It was very challenging to make contact with thousands of borrowers (i.e. building owners) to get utility data and perform verification inspections in the first year when most folks would not pick up the phone when we called and our team was not prepared for a program of this size. A lot of tough lessons learned but we succeeded and continued to deliver for them in a long-term contract bringing in $4-$5 Million /year since 2019. Once the service was pretty well established we transitioned it out of my team (Strategic Initiatives) and under the main Analysis team. This was the most successful example of launching a new service and incubating it til it was ready for primetime.
• Pulling in and supporting and retaining talented folks who enjoyed working together. This included hiring former partners who had unique skills we needed to get over a new challenge and retaining experienced folks who didn’t fit well in other teams or we were at risk of losing during a company reorg. It’s fun to see people you once managed rising within an organization and taking on leadership and soaring.

I like doing new things. I’m not scared of the blank page and ambiguity. I like helping people and feel strongly motivated by living up to people’s expectations, or stepping in to fill an unmet need. I like finding new ways to use information that are practical. I’m committed to the mission of equitable decarbonization.

Goals
I want to learn more about actual implementation of decarbonization. At Bright Power I was involved with several installation projects, both retrofits and new construciton, but spent more time on analysis and data for asset managers and sustaiability folks. I want to get deeper into the latest in heat pumps for MF, what’s working and what’s not working, and where the sector roadblocks are to implementation. I want to think outside the box of the energy retrofit and energy management processes I’ve learned and perhaps taken as dogma so far in my career. I want to get more conversant with NYC and NYS incentives and policy details since a lot of my work has been national.

I want to learn more about being a software company. At Bright Power we always paired human support with the software - this approach may take me some time to unlearn.

Career goals
I want to help drive a just transition to a low-carbon future while supporting my family. If I’m doing those two things with enough time to make some music I’ll be happy.

You can lean on me to…
Bounce ideas in the abstract or provide specific edits/ feedback on anything from emails to energy analysis to new software features. Collaborate on client presentations or meetings, have difficult conversations.

I also know a lot of people in the multifamily energy world so may (or may not!) be able to help think through potential partners, clients, team-members, biz dev strategy.

I can write proposals and come up with workplans and budgets if that is helpful.

I don’t mind giving presentations and talking to clients as long as I have a few minutes to prepare.

How to support me as we work together
I am constitutionally optimistic and scrappy and improvisational so often pair well with folks who are a little more pessimistic/critical and can help bring structure and routines to new things I have kicked off which need some taming. I may have a small disability around folder organization… doesn’t come naturally to me.

Some past supervisors have felt I took on too many different things, over-committed, undisciplined or not sufficiently focused on financial goals. I sometimes need help setting priorities.

How to support me as a person

I have gone through periods where I worked way too much. I’m excited for the more flexible work culture and a bit nervous about how to establish norms that allow me time to be with my family (e.g. pick up kids early on some days), keep pursuing creative stuff and also do my part here. I’d appreciate open feedback either way especially early on as I get to know the vibe. Feel free to tell me “you’re working outside your set work hours - do you really need to do that?” or “it seems like you are taking off early too much” as the case may be.

I’m my best self on a team when…
There’s lots of communication and openness to new ideas.

Feedback preferences
I prefer more feedback. Good or bad! Like anyone I like positive reinforcement but don’t mind and appreciate critical feedback as well. But I get nervous when I don’t get any feedback or communication - so in general, my request is more - good, bad, neutral, writing, verbal, non-verbal - I’ll take it! I appreciate nagging if I’m behind on something.

Schedule and availability
What timezone are you in?

I am in NYC, ET. I have school drop off/pick up responsibilities most days and sometimes find I’m productive early in the morning or late nights when everyone else is sleeping. I’m thinking that 9-5 most days works well for me, with possibly a day or two of early pick ups (e.g. working 9-4) made up with 1 or 2 early morning or evening work-sessions.