About
First Tracks Advisors was founded to provide not-for-profit organizations, governments, and small-to-medium enterprises with superior strategic guidance, analysis, tools and training for energy management and sustainability. Our areas of expertise include: helping organizations identify and prioritize energy efficiency and renewable energy opportunities, energy procurement and risk management, forecasting, modeling environmental and economic impacts, selecting and managing professional service providers and consultants, and developing meaningful goals, KPIs, and reporting systems.
Leadership
Sean Conboy
Sean Conboy, Founder/Principal
Sean founded First Tracks Advisors in 2016, after spending a decade helping some of Colorado’s best-known companies create award-winning sustainability programs.
Before starting First Tracks Advisors, Sean was the Energy Manager for Vail Resorts, a position that allowed him to combine a love of the outdoors and passion for sustainability. There, he was responsible for creating and implementing an enterprise program for energy management, setting public energy conservation goals, and leading cross-functional teams to implement energy projects.
Prior to joining Vail Resorts, Sean was the Energy Engineer-Golden Brewery at MillerCoors, where he was responsible for energy management at the world’s largest single-site brewery and also served on the MillerCoors Corporate Sustainable Development Council.
Sean has experience in CSR, energy management, operations, and strategic sourcing, and has received professional certifications as a Certified Energy Manager (CEM) and a Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP). He is also an alumnus of the NREL Energy Executive Leadership Program. Sean earned a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Dayton and an MBA in Organizational & Environmental Sustainability from the University of Denver.
Partners
Elyse Hottel
Elyse Hottel, Sr. Technical Specialist
Elyse met Sean through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Energy Executives Leadership Program, and provides technical, project management, and IT support on an as-needed basis.
Ms. Hottel worked for the City of Boulder from August 2013 to August 2016 in the Climate + Sustainability division. In her role, she managed the internal city facilities inventory over the three years of her tenure, as well as performed the 2012 citywide inventory. Elyse has extensive experience in data collection and analysis specific to sustainability program design and expansion, including greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory accounting, sustainability program metrics, goal- and target- setting, and performance dashboard design.
Prior to joining the City of Boulder, Ms. Hottel was the Environmental Initiatives Project Coordinator/Global Warming Data Analyst for City of Aspen’s Environmental Initiatives team. There she developed deep subject matter expertise in sustainability program design and implementation, as well as initiating a light-hearted sustainability behavior change competition between Park City and Aspen city staff.
Ms. Hottel has authored multiple greenhouse gas inventory emissions reports and contributed to numerous co-authored documents, including “Renewable Energy Payments: A Policy Guide to Feed-in Tariffs in America” and “Winds of Change: The Environmental Movement and the Global Development of the Wind Energy Industry”. Ms. Hottel holds a BA in economics and environmental studies from UC Santa Cruz and a Master’s in Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University.