Building Bridges to a Sustainable Future
Mark Wilhelm on Climate Education, Digital Twinning, and Practical Impact
An Interview with Marie Cresswell and Mark Wilhelm
Marie Cresswell: Welcome, Mark. I wanted to catch up with you specifically about your experiences with Arizona State University (ASU) and its journey in climate education. We've heard snippets, and I know your ASU case study was a significant undertaking, not just in building, but also in involving people and curriculum. Let's dive into how ASU approached the climate education side of things.
Mark Wilhelm: Sounds good. Go ahead.
Marie Cresswell: When ASU first embarked on its education piece for sustainability, did the physical buildings and infrastructure drive the learning component, or was it the other way around – the learning piece dictating the building approach?
Mark Wilhelm: That's a great question, Marie. It goes way back to the origins of the School of Sustainability. I was part of a committee that evaluated establishing this school, and we came up with the first micro-credential in sustainability, which I even lectured on, back around 2007. The initial class had about 25 people, many of whom were government employees, like the energy manager for the city of Phoenix, along with architects, engineers, and folks from both public and private sectors, including some from NAU.
This initiative was driven by a recognition that sustainability needed to be built into something substantial. Dr. Crow, the university president, was a highly effective leader who helped push this forward. They secured significant funding from Julie Ann Wrigley and Rob and Melanie Walton, which was crucial because, as we know, funding "wags the tail of the dog" and is essential to drive efforts beyond just conversations.
Arizona State University (ASU)
Marie Cresswell: So, it sounds like the educational vision was foundational, especially with the early micro-credential. How did your prior experiences with training on LEED and sustainable building practices integrate into ASU's approach?
Mark Wilhelm: My prior work, starting around 2000-2002, involved education and training on LEED and sustainability. My company trained about 30,000 people, including 6,000 through direct classes, covering everything from design and construction to operations and maintenance of energy-efficient, sustainable, low-carbon buildings. In each project, especially the 100 LEED projects, we provided training because without a similar lexicon, language, and understanding of metrics, it becomes chaotic – "like herding cats". We always tried to include students and engage them, whether working with school districts in Arizona, New Mexico, or California, or corporations like General Dynamics and Intel.
Fast forward to ASU, many of these lessons learned regarding the implementation of sustainable practices heavily relied on education, whether for professionals seeking to upskill or interested parties in schools.
Marie Cresswell: You used a great term there: "upskilling". It highlights that education isn't just traditional classroom learning; it's cross-curricular and applies to all ages. What were some of the early lessons learned, particularly about changing people's ideas?
Mark Wilhelm: Exactly, it's about upskilling and changing people's fundamental ideas. For example, the City of Scottsdale, an early adopter of LEED Gold standard for its buildings, demonstrated a common issue. I remember working on early projects there, specifying low-flow plumbing fixtures. Mechanical engineers would confidently say they "always design low flow", but their understanding differed greatly from ours. They might consider 1.6 gallons per flush - the legal limitin the U.S. since 1994 - as "low flow" because they were accustomed to much higher rates of five or seven gallons. This highlighted that people often don't have the same understanding or lexicon, which makes upfront education incredibly important to ensure alignment and prevent frustration.
Marie Cresswell: That makes perfect sense. Terms like "net zero" also lead to similar arguments. So, beyond defining terms, what were some of the biggest barriers you encountered in trying to move the climate action agenda forward, both in education and engaging people?
Mark Wilhelm: Oh, there were many. Money is always a factor. Other significant barriers include:
"It's not in my scope" / "It's not part of my job": This creates silos.
Resistance to change: People often prefer to "use what we've always used" and stick to familiar specifications, especially in government agencies.
Fear of change: This is a major underlying factor.
Lack of motivation: Some people, particularly in government roles, might see it as just a "9 to 5" job, though you do find incredibly committed individuals ("gems") everywhere.
It's like being at a party where everyone's looking at their phone – there's no communication. To overcome this, it's crucial to find ways to pull people together, challenge them, and encourage them to communicate and share ideas.
APS Environmental Showcase Home
Marie Cresswell: That leads me to the stakeholder engagement piece. You mentioned the APS Environmental Showcase Home as a precursor to your methods. Were you already using those tools, like bringing disparate groups together and setting overriding goals, before ASU, and then applying them there?
Mark Wilhelm: Yes, absolutely. I developed many of those engagement strategies with the APS Environmental Showcase Home, which was long before LEED. Mark DeMichele, the president of APS (Arizona Public Service Company), wanted a house designed and constructed to be better for Phoenix's harsh environment. My team brought together diverse groups: architects, engineers, APS staff, ASU professors, product specialists, and materials experts.
We set overriding goals – like durability, efficiency, availability, and replicability – to influence the new home builder market in Phoenix, where more new homes were built annually than in any other market in North America. We then broke into discrete, cross-disciplinary groups to focus on specific areas like site, materials, energy, water, and indoor air quality. These groups would make recommendations based on the driving tenets, which we'd then discuss. We also held summits to share these ideas with a wider audience, paying homage to those who contributed, making them feel their "DNA is in here". This approach aimed to break down silos and allow everyone to contribute their "small way".
We used these tried-and-true methods at ASU. However, ASU's sheer size, and being a government-funded, public university, presented unique challenges. People often had to focus solely on immediate problems due to budget or personnel constraints, even if they recognized broader issues.
Marie Cresswell: That's a constant challenge – the scope versus the bigger picture. When educating about climate, how do you balance providing an honest picture of the challenges without making people feel depressed or hopeless, while still motivating them to make changes?
Mark Wilhelm: That's a great point, Marie, and the balance can be different one-on-one. With the Showcase Home, we had a communications team targeting 10 or 12 discrete audiences – builders, mortgage lenders, salespeople, engineers, architects – because each reacts to different messages and has different roles. All pieces of that "necklace" are vital; if one "clasp is broken," the whole thing is useless.
I recall a story about our printer for the Showcase Home. He was excited about a complex brochure design, but I asked him to use only one sheet of cardstock, like origami, for sustainability reasons. He struggled but then found a creative solution to use every last bit of the card by making a slip for a floppy disk. He was thrilled because he had fulfilled his mission and contributed in his "small way".
This taught me that people need to know "what is that small way?" To me, it became important to focus on K through PhD education. We can't change things unless people understand how it has to change, unless their creativity is sparked, and they know they can make a difference. If people only think that driving a Tesla and recycling cans will "save the world," they miss the larger systemic changes needed.
It's also about helping people see beyond the obvious "waves" of climate change – the horrifying floods, fires, and heatwaves – to the chronic, insidious impacts. These include reduced food production, crashing fisheries, and undersized water reservoirs, leading to rising, unnoticed costs. People often don't recognize these as part of the broader concept, like "frogs in boiling water". This is where education is critical – to help them understand impacts like millions of climate migrants driven by economic survival, not criminal intent.
Marie Cresswell: So, what have you found to be the most effective strategies in this climate education piece, based on your lessons learned?
Mark Wilhelm: In terms of effectiveness, I'd highlight:
Engaging case studies: Things people can see, feel, hear, and read about.
Experiential learning: Driving people to think deeper about the implications of stories and concepts.
Carbon footprinting and calculators: Even though initially designed for other reasons, they help individuals understand the impacts of their actions. This is about baselining and understanding the cause-and-effect.
Digital twinning: The world is "bloody complicated," and digital twinning provides a means to better understand it. It allows people to see beyond their immediate five-foot picture, to their municipality, province, and country, across social, economic, and environmental aspects.
Teaching critical thinking and research skills: In an age of information overload and political talking heads, people need to learn how to vet information and understand things for themselves, rather than just accepting what they hear.
For me, it boils down to three critical components: education, roadmapping, and digital twinning. These are the areas I'm most focused on now. Phil Allsopp and I touched on this during our presentation at Pivot Tech ’24 in Hamilton last November. We’ve had extensive experience with various tools to drive market transformation. I’m convinced that we need to focus on these three tools to drive real climate action.
Marie Cresswell: You touched on ASU's broad approach to sustainability. Can you elaborate on how the university structures its programs and expertise in climate change and sustainability?
Mark Wilhelm: ASU's approach is truly comprehensive. If you look at their list of Global Futures Scholars and Scientists, there are hundreds of them, and their areas of expertise tick "all the boxes". We're not just talking about accountants focused on GAAP; it's the "whole enchilada" – accountants, engineers, social scientists, and more. They have various areas of discipline, and their coursework is imbued with climate change or sustainability aspects.
This whole system is constantly evolving; they're continually redoing their focus on education and curriculum to stay up-to-date. For example, after two or three years of effort, ASU and Mohawk College are finally working on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). ASU's head of the sustainability school noted that they are redoing their curriculum and are interested in working with Mohawk on micro-credentialing and experiential opportunities for students, especially since Arizona has less industry than Ontario. This partnership bridges the academic approach of ASU with the Institute of Technology approach of Mohawk.
Marie Cresswell: That's great news about the Mohawk MOU! It sounds like ASU is very dynamic in its curriculum. What about addressing the practical skills gap for graduates, which I know industry partners sometimes highlight?
Mark Wilhelm: That's a very keen observation. Taimur Burki, formerly the Circular Economy and Waste expert for Intel, drove corporate waste diversion from 42% in 1997 to 90% globally, once critiqued ASU graduates, saying he wouldn't hire them because they lacked the specific skills he needed. While they had a general broad understanding of sustainability, they often didn't have the entrepreneurial spirit or practical experience in applying concepts – like knowing how to "make that particular recipe". They might lack technical skills, certifications, or knowledge of specific regulations, which means they couldn't immediately contribute "day one". Industry needs graduates with a clear skill set that adds immediate value, with sustainability knowledge as an enhancement. This highlights an area where ASU listened, and today, they continue to adapt and integrate more practical application.
Mohawk College
Marie Cresswell: Looking at all of this, and knowing where Mohawk's School of Climate Action is headed, how do you see the future unfolding for Mohawk and the surrounding municipalities?
Mark Wilhelm: The future looks incredibly bright and exciting. We're having discussions with municipalities like Oakville, Burlington, and Hamilton, and with McMaster University. We're focusing on leveraging road mapping and the digital twinning approach, especially through the Digital Twin Observatory. The potential exists to establish discrete digital twinning and road mapping labs and hubs across Canada, engaging with institutions like BCIT and SAIT.
This ability to impact the built environment is key, and getting organizations like NRC involved aligns with broader visions, including Mark Carney's. It's about taking efficiency and sustainability efforts and applying them with a pro-business approach, finding fast ways to address critical needs like the 4 million housing unit deficit. These problems can be helped through education, digital twinning, and road mapping. Education is as vital as anything – it's truly "one leg of the table".
Analogy: Think of ASU's sustainability journey like a continuously evolving ecosystem. It began with a seed (the committee and first micro-credential) carefully planted and nurtured with essential resources (funding and strong leadership). It then spread its roots, drawing on past successes (Mark's training programs) to cultivate a diverse forest (Global Futures Scholars and Scientists) where various disciplines interweave to create a rich canopy of knowledge. While facing natural challenges like sprawling growth (size of the university) and differing needs within the forest (silos, practical skill gaps), the ecosystem constantly adapts, shedding old leaves and growing new ones (curriculum updates, new partnerships like Mohawk), always striving to foster critical thinking and practical application, ensuring that its inhabitants (students, professionals, and the wider community) can understand and contribute to real market transformation and the health and vitality of the entire planet.
Mark Wilhelm Bio
Mark Wilhelm is a highly experienced expert in sustainability, climate education, and the built environment, dedicated to fostering practical change through innovative approaches. He currently resides in Buckeye, Arizona, where summer temperatures can reach 118 degrees Fahrenheit, so he often spends summers in Denver and near the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.
Wilhelm's extensive career includes significant contributions to Arizona State University (ASU), where around 2007, he served on the committee that evaluated and established the School of Sustainability. In this role, he helped develop the first micro-credential and lectured on the subject. Earlier in his career, he spent 13 years at APS (Arizona Public Service Company), where he spearheaded the Environmental Showcase Home project. This initiative, predating LEED, aimed to design and construct environmentally superior homes in Phoenix to influence the production builder market, which continues to be one of the largest new home construction markets in North America. For this project, he successfully brought together diverse groups, including architects, engineers, and material specialists, to establish overriding goals for durability, efficiency, availability, and replicability.
Around 2000-2002, Wilhelm founded a company that provided education and training on LEED and sustainability, through which he trained approximately 30,000 people, including about 6,000 through direct classes. His training covered various aspects of energy-efficient and sustainable low-carbon buildings, including operations, maintenance, design, and construction. A key part of his methodology involved training and engaging students in projects with local school districts and corporations such as General Dynamics, Intel, and ASU. He continued to apply these stakeholder engagement tools at ASU and later incorporated instant surveys to gather input.
Wilhelm emphasizes the importance of "upskilling" and cross-curricular education for all ages, highlighting the critical need to align understanding and lexicon around sustainability concepts like "low flow" or "net zero" to prevent misunderstandings and improve efficiency. He identifies common barriers to advancing climate action, such as financial constraints, siloed thinking, fear of change, and a limited scope of responsibility ("not in my scope" mentality). To counteract these, he champions strategies that unite people, challenge their perspectives, and encourage open communication and idea sharing.
Currently, Mark Wilhelm's primary focus revolves around education, roadmapping, and digital twinning, which he considers the three essential pillars for driving meaningful change. He passionately advocates for teaching individuals how to think critically, vet information, and conduct their own research, moving beyond reliance on political or news soundbites. He stresses that sustainability education must go beyond general knowledge to impart practical skills and cultivate an entrepreneurial spirit. He is actively involved in efforts to forge a partnership between ASU and Mohawk College, aiming to expand micro-credentialing and experiential learning opportunities. Looking ahead, he envisions a promising future for Mohawk College and Canadian municipalities through the establishment of digital twinning observatories across Canada, which will significantly impact the built environment and help address challenges like the 4 million housing unit deficit, all within a pro-business framework. For Wilhelm, education is fundamentally "one leg of the table" crucial for addressing complex societal and environmental impacts.
Mark Wilhelm's work can be seen as a master key for complex systems: instead of trying to force open one stuck door (a single climate issue) with a specific tool, he's teaching people how to forge new keys (education), map out entire initiatives (roadmapping), and even create a virtual model of it (digital twinning) to understand how all the parts work together and unlock solutions for a truly sustainable future.
Short Bio
Mark is an entrepreneurial climate and clean energy strategist dedicated to accelerating the global transition to a low-carbon economy. Mark has over 35 years of leadership in utilities, management, sustainable building design, construction, and operations. He is a Director with Tierra Resource Consultants, an Affiliate Scholar with the Jule Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at ASU, and an Adjunct Professor with Mohawk College’s School of Climate Action. Mark develops transformational and cost-effective energy efficiency, clean energy, and decarbonization roadmaps. He has developed 40 MW of solar energy systems and consulted on 70 MSF of high-performance buildings and over 100 sustainable developments across every sector. He served as the first Chief Sustainability Executive for Ameresco. He managed $20 million of collaborative energy technology R&D at EPRI, trained over 6,000 professionals in sustainable design, managed 80 LEED projects, founded two successful sustainability and education consultancies, and addressed over 100 audiences worldwide. In 2017 Mark was named a “Top 50 Energy Manager in North America” by Energy Manager Today Magazine. Mark is a past president of the AEE Phoenx Chapter and holds CEM, CAP, and LEED AP O+M credentials. MW LinkedIn