When the Cheapest is the Best

Molly Mollenkamp (MSES '21) pivoted to a career in energy and sustainability thanks to a trip to the Arctic. Today she helps electric utility companies manage their 'first fuel' — energy efficiency.

There’s an adage in the electricity industry that the cheapest kilowatt is the one that never has to be generated. It’s an adage that speaks to the heart of Molly Mollenkamp (MSES ‘21). The kilowatt that never has to be generated isn’t just the cheapest, but it’s also the one that is best for the environment.

Mollenkamp is a program manager for strategic energy management at CLEAResult, a leading North American energy efficiency, transition, and sustainability program consultancy.

She leads CLEAResult’s Strategic Energy Management program. There, she works with utility companies to change their customers’ behaviors and increase operational efficiency to reduce the utility’s need for energy generation.

“We get to work with utility customers over the long term,” Mollenkamp said. “Our program managers really begin to understand all of the different operational and energy consuming facets of those organizations and can support them in making those incremental changes that last.”

Mollenkamp was familiar with program management, but not energy and sustainability, when she joined Northwestern's Master of Science in Energy and Sustainability (MSES) program. MSES is jointly offered by Northwestern Engineering and the Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy.

She previously held a similar role for a tour company that arranged international cruises for alumni associations. Mollenkamp helped charter ships, planned itineraries, and toured the globe in the process.

Her interest in the environment began to take shape during a cruise to an international climate station in the Arctic.

“It was really neat to hear people around the world talk about how they're working on climate change,” Mollenkamp said. “I was like, ‘You know what? I want to do something like that.’”

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the travel industry screeched to a halt, Mollenkamp pivoted her career and joined the MSES program.

She said she was attracted by the program’s integration of sustainability and energy in its curriculum, as well as the program’s compact 10-month timeframe. As a professional in her 30s, she said she wanted to make her absence from the working world as brief as possible while gaining a knowledge base to set her up for post-graduation success. And while a role leveraging her experience in program management made sense to her, Mollenkamp didn’t anticipate that electric utilities would be her first step.

“I was completely unfamiliar with the utility world and the utility regulation landscape prior to the program,” Mollenkamp said. “I didn't know exactly where I'd end up at the end of the program, but being able to join my company and understanding enough of the structure at a high level allowed me to hit the ground running.”

Illinois mandates that utilities allocate a specific percentage of their revenue toward programs that promote energy efficiency for residential, commercial, and industrial customers, as part of the state’s commitment to reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

In her three-and-a-half years at CLEAResult, Mollenkamp has been promoted twice. She was hired as a program specialist, became associate program manager in February 2022, and was then promoted to her current position as program manager in April 2023.

In that role, Mollenkamp focuses mainly on utilities in northern Illinois. She said she is happy to make an environmental difference in her own backyard.

“What I love about my role is that I'm working with my local utility to support customers in our region to lower their energy consumption footprint,” she said. “I really like knowing that my work is mostly local.”

The MSES program gave Mollenkamp the education and mindset to start that ripple effect, she said.

“Thinking through energy systems and the different types of technologies while in the MSES program has allowed me to think creatively in my role,” she said. “That knowledge and that practice in the program brought me to where I am today.”