2022 Year In Review

Greetings in the New Year! As we look forward to the exciting opportunities ahead of us, we’d like to share some highlights and achievements of the Cyclone team and our clients from 2022. 

April 19th marked the 10th anniversary of Cyclone Energy Group. Founder and CEO Benjamin Skelton had a clear vision for Cyclone from the onset. “Ten years ago I wanted Cyclone to be the best energy-performance company in Chicago,” said Benjamin. “Over the past decade, the Cyclone team has grown from myself to over 20 of the most talented engineers and architects in the country. Their relentless passion to make buildings better and focus on client care has put our company at that pinnacle.” Click here to read our anniversary announcement and progression of the company over the past decade.

We expanded our team this past year and we are continuing to grow in Q1. We also expanded our office space. In June, we finished construction on our 1,200 square foot High-Performance Design Studio, an innovative, high-tech collaboration area for our team and clients to advance our space to the next level of performance. The studio features eight adjustable height hoteling workstations, ergonomic seating, video conferencing and collaborative technology, a state-of-the-art LED circadian lighting system, a 3D printing lab, a collaboration conference room that is also used for weekly yoga and a healthy food prep area. The entire space utilizes our airPLAN indoor air quality live monitoring system. 

In July, Cyclone was highlighted on CNBC Business Channel’s ‘Inside the Blueprint’ show. We were featured as an industry leader providing energy efficient solutions for all stages of the commercial building life cycle. The segment aired on the local Chicago edition of the show. In addition to running on WPWR-TV Chicago, it premiered on Facebook Watch and YouTube. Much of the footage for the episode was shot in our new High Performance Design Studio. (Link to episode)

We hosted our first live Innovation Rodeo event since 2019 at the historic Old Post Office in September. We had a fantastic line-up of guest speakers who explored the themes of Wellness in the Workplace and Building Health and Sustainability. The program featured distinguished experts in Building Health and Wellness, Commercial Real Estate, Sustainability and Decarbonization. The presentations and discussions covered a variety of topics including indoor air quality in the workplace, indoor carbon dioxide measurement, WELL building program updates, updated decarbonization policies, Chicagoland sustainability program updates and grid integrity and the interaction with buildings. We had a record attendance with over 100 people joining us. Afterwards, we held a rooftop party to celebrate Cyclone’s 10 Year Anniversary. (Link to presentations) Mark your calendars to join us for our 8th Annual Innovation Rodeo on September 7, 2023. 

Those are just a few of the highlights from the past year, more notable achievements are listed below. We wish you a happy and prosperous 2023!

Project Awards

• McDonald’s Global Flagship-Buena Vista received the CIBSE BPA Project of the Year 
• Presidents Plaza won the TOBY International Award for Renovated Building Category
• Elmhurst University Elmhurst University received the 2022 Technology Award from the Illinois Chapter of ASHRAE

Cyclone Team Achievements

    Awards and Recognition

• Cyclone received the IBPSA-USA Outstanding Practice Award
• Cyclone has been shortlisted for the CIBSE Building Performance Awards in the Building Performance Consultancy category
• Our Energy Engineer Team won the ComEd RCx Service Provider Clutch Performer Award
• Emmy Riley and Allen Mei were named CSE Magazine 40 under 40 award winners
• Frank Kohout contributed to an ASHRAE design guide for kitchen ventilation as part of the ASHRAE sponsored Commercial Kitchen Design Guide Committee. He was also selected as Program Subcommittee Chair on the ASHRAE Technical Committee 9.12: Tall Buildings 
• Allen Mei serves as a voting member on the IBPSA USA Certification Committee 
• Benny Skelton won the ASHRAE Regional Award of Merit 
• Sumayyah Theron became a Green Globes Fellow and will be serving on the Board of Directors for the GBI
• Vinit Gala was shortlisted as a finalist for the CIBSE Young Modeller of the Year Award
• Dave Lippe was named as a finalist for the BOMA Chicago Gold Circle Award for Affiliate Member of the Year

    New Team Members

• Mickey Mangan, Energy Engineer II  
• Sam Mansfield, Sustainability Analyst I
• Ricky Limeburner, Senior Energy Engineer  
• Kate Bren, Building Analyst II & Project Coordinator
• Kexin Li, Building Analyst 

    Emerging Engineers

• Ayush Chobe
• Rubi Mendez

    Promotions

• Allen Mei was promoted to Simulation Team Technical Leader
• Karl Walsh was promoted to Senior Sustainability Analyst
• Tom Berzins was promoted to Commissioning Project Manager II
• Vinit Gala was promoted to Building Analyst II

    Team Certifications 

• Cyclone achieved WELL Health-Safety Rating for our Chicago office 
• Cyclone was accepted as WELL Performance Testing Organization and was recognized by IWBI as early adopters of the WELL Performance Rating program
• Cyclone became an approved Energy Management Association Corporate Member
• Jed Starner became a certified Energy Management Professional and gained BECxP and CxA+BE certifications
• Emmy Riley achieved WELL Performance Testing Agent Status
• Jason Sippel achieved WELL Performance Testing Agent Status, and gained BECxP certification 
• Ricky Limeburner gained BECxP and CxA+BE certifications

Project Certifications

• Hub Group Phase 2, LEED Gold 
• Cirrus Condominiums, LEED Gold
• Cascade Apartments, LEED Gold
• The Old Post Office, LEED Gold and WELL Gold
• The Link, LEED Silver 
• Ascendium Educational Group, LEED Silver
• Intermodal Logistics Center Building 2, LEED Silver
• O’Hare Multi-Modal Facility, LEED Silver 
• Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (M-8), LEED Silver 
• KeHE Dallas, LEED Certified
• KeHE Goodyear, LEED Certified
• Medline Grayslake, LEED Certified
• OSI Industries, LEED Certified 
• Monarch O’Hare, LEED Certified
• 1350 S Union, LEED Certified
• 311 N Morgan, LEED Certified
• KeHE Dallas LEED Certified
• KeHE Goodyear LEED Certified
• OSI Enterprise LEED Certified
• Medline Grayslake LEED Certfied
• Albion Highland Park, National Green Building Standard Certified
• 150 N Wacker achieved WELL Health-Safety Rating
• Coeval achieved 2 Green Globes for New Construction-Multifamily
• Imprint Luxury Apartments achieved 2 Green Globes for New Construction-Multifamily 

ComEd Utility Incentives

• Total Incentives for RCx/MBCx reached over $625,000 and counting with total electric savings exceeding 4,000,000 kWh (~$380,000) annually 
• Total Incentives for Standard/Custom have reached $525,000 and counting

Retro-Commissioning and Monitoring-Based Commissioning 

• Cyclone had the most accepted applications with ComEd in 2022 among all 44 qualified services providers with a total of 14
• Cyclone currently leads the ComEd RCx program with 24 active RCx/MBCx projects

Notable Projects

• McDonald’s Global Flagship-Buena Vista – Net Zero
• Elmhurst University – New Campus Central Plant and Boiler Decentralization 
• ParkShore – Chiller Plant Replacement
• One Chicago – Commissioning
• Old Post Office – Base Building Commissioning (2.5M sqft)
• 680 N LSD – New Chiller and Chiller Plant Upgrades 

Energy Modeling 

Our Simulation team completed 161 models last year. Our modeling projects included cold storage distribution facilities, commercial kitchen, food processing, manufacturing, high rise supertall multifamily, geo-coupled heat recovery chiller central plant, indoor farming, federal building retrofit, campus building retrofit, high rise office retrofit, church, LEED volume prototype, warehouse and distribution centers. Services included: parametric study, LEED modeling , calibration modeling, CFD modeling, HVAC&R system studies, decarbonization planning, energy code consulting, code compliance modeling, solar PV studies, condensed risk assessment and daylighting study. 

Cyclone Day of Service

In early December our team purchased, organized and filled 100 hygiene bags for The Boulevard, a local Chicago shelter. The Boulevard is the first organization of its kind in Illinois, providing their residents access to programs and medical services such as medical respite, behavioral health, housing advocacy and workforce development. To learn more, visit their website https://www.blvd.org.