Sustainable Environments, LLC A Mitigation Banking Company In 2002, Dr. Kevin Noon, Jerome Ryan and James Hodge decided to found Sustainable Environments, LLC, in order to fulfill the need for high quality mitigation, and provide for financially successful investments to our mitigation partners at the same time. We are in the midst of the certification process on numerous projects across the Western U.S. We feel that we have brought together top professionals in each respective field to create a top mitigation banking company. We look forward to working with other top professionals, and land owners in the creation of ecologically and financially successful mitigation banks. Kevin F. Noon, Ph.D. PWS, Co-Founder Responsibilities include: site selection, certification, acquisition of permits, habitat design, and quality control/oversight of “partners.” Kevin F. Noon is the Chairman and founder of Critical Habitats, Inc. Dr. Noon works with regulators, landowners, and investors from the US, Canada, and Australia, on developing environmental banks or banking policy. He has developed excellent working relationships with public and regulatory agencies, as well as private sector clients. Dr. Noon is a member of the Washington State Wetland Mitigation Banking Advisory Team responsible for creating the State regulatory guidelines for wetland mitigation banking. Dr. Noon is formulating a mitigation-banking model that can be administered by the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans; and adopted for use in creating mitigation banks in the province of British Columbia. He recently created a 629-acre wetland bank on the Texas Gulf Coast. Of the seven mitigation banks that are currently going through the certification process in Washington State, three of them were sourced by Dr. Noon. Of these three banks, Dr. Noon was a consultant on two of them and is no longer involved with them, and the third is the Skagit site that SE is currently in the midst of the certification process on. In 1995 Dr. Noon presented the first mitigation bank for certification in Washington State. This bank stalled in the certification process because of a refusal by the National Marine Fisheries Service to be involved in the process, which was a requirement for a coastal saltwater mitigation bank. His twenty-one years of professional experience with land development, wetland mitigation permitting, and wetland mitigation policy development formed the foundation necessary to create his wetland mitigation banking business. Dr. Noon has conducted wetland delineations; local, state, and federal wetland permit applications; and prepared wetland enhancement, mitigation, banking, and monitoring plans for over 500 projects in thirteen of the thirty-four national Corps regulatory districts. His professional practice included three years of research and teaching as an Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University. In addition, Dr. Noon served as part of an eight-member panel at the Congressional Forum on Wetlands Loss, Washington, DC. Comments were used in formulating the National Wetlands Protection Act Senate Bill #481. The Society of Wetland Scientists, Professional Certification Program, awarded him the status of Professional Wetland Scientist. Jerome Ryan, MBA, Co-Founder Responsibilities include: project management, sales and marketing and all financial concerns. Mr. Ryan’s interest in the interplay between economics and the environment started over a decade ago while he was an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley. While there he wrote a thesis on the Environmental Impact Statement and why it had been rendered largely ineffective. Next Mr. Ryan worked for two years for Coleman Consulting Firm as an Associate focusing on Operations. Wanting to move into the financial sector, Mr. Ryan began to work with Raven Capital Management, a small private equity firm in San Francisco with $300 Million under management. It was while working at Raven Capital Management that he decided to pursue a Masters in Business Administration and was accepted to The Stanford Graduate School of Business. While attending Stanford Mr. Ryan decided to refocus his interest in investing and finance on the Real Estate sector. During the summer of 2001 he interned with Carmel Partners, a full service real estate firm with over $1 Billion in assets under management and with offices in San Francisco, Denver and Los Angeles. Mr. Ryan accepted a part-time offer from Carmel Partners for the position of Asset Project Manager while finishing his MBA at Stanford. James B. Hodge, JD, General Counsel Co-Founder Responsibilities include: legal and real estate matters, government relations, project management, sales and marketing. James B. Hodge was, until 2003, a senior partner in the Corporate and Real Estate Departments of the San Francisco office of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, and since that time has maintained his practice and has devoted his time to SE. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Washington and his Juris Doctor from Columbia University in the City of New York. He has specialized in real estate, securities, corporate, banking, and finance transactions, and has lectured and written extensively in those fields. He is a member of the California and the Wyoming State Bar Associations and the American Bar Association. Mr. Hodge has over 25 years of experience in a wide variety of transactions in the real estate, corporate, and banking areas. He has represented national and regional lenders in real property secured transactions, real estate companies in the acquisition, sale, regulation, development of real property and environmental matters relating thereto, and general business companies in the sale of assets and of stock, securities offerings, financial matters relating to real estate, leasing, debt and equity financing, and the law of partnerships and limited liability companies. He has represented clients in dealings with the SEC, state and federal bank regulators, and federal and state securities regulatory authorities. He also advises clients on a variety of legislative matters. PARTNERS One advantage that SE is continually creating is the formation of partnerships with some of the Nation’s top mitigation banking professionals. While Messers Noon, Hodge and Ryan form the nucleus of the company, SE has formed partnership agreements and works with select partners throughout the U.S. It is SE’s belief that, like most real estate ventures, having local talent and expertise is fundamentally necessary to the success of a mitigation bank. Local mitigation consultants and experts have the ability to source projects through their network of contacts, know what regions are in need of mitigation banks, will be able to market and sell the credits after certification is obtained and most importantly they have existing relationships with the regulatory agencies that will end up comprising the Mitigation Banking Review Team, which is the group that is put together to manage the certification process. This network of partnerships has allowed SE to begin sourcing deals outside of Dr. Noon’s immediate areas of expertise of Alaska, Washington and Michigan, and move into Oregon and California. FAQ