MARCH 31, 2015 PROGRAM:
Greenmark Solar
Mark Andrew is the founder and President of GreenMark Enterprises LLC, the first agency to initiate, assemble and brand large environmental innovations on behalf of major public venues and commercialize them with public education, branding, sales and marketing strategies. After a distinguished career in elected office and as a communications executive, Andrew merged the two disciplines and established GreenMark Enterprises LLC, to help large firms leverage their sustainable business practices. His firm’s specialty is large-scale public/private sustainability partnerships.
Andrew created and sold the first-ever “green” corporate sponsor category in Major League sports, with the historic Minnesota Twins/Pentair “Rainwater Recycle Partnership” at Target Field. Recently, his firm secured approval of the largest airport parking ramp-top solar array in the world, at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, assuring the first utility scale solar project in the state, along with creating a major public education platform for consumers and firms.
Elected five times to the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners, Minnesota’s largest local unit of government, Andrew was a recognized innovator of social and environmental partnerships, including chairing the first successful vote to build an LRT line in the state, and authoring the nationally awarded recycling program. He led the creation of the County’s first dedicated urban hiking and biking trail, the Midtown Greenway, and built the first intergovernmental collaborative to use parks, water and green space as economic development tools to increase the tax base. More than a dozen of Andrew’s initiatives have won Innovation Awards from the National Association of Counties.