The following are samples of our work with public, private, non-profit, academic, and philanthropic partners across diverse settings. They include projects that address climate, community and economic development, conservation, food systems, and capacity building. Common to these efforts are characteristics of strong teamwork, thought leadership, effective management, and productive collaboration.

Climate Action

Portland Clean Energy Fund. Helped launch innovative fund investing $100m+ annually — including market study for investment scenarios, grant-making processes, performance measures, and workforce and contractor development initiatives.

City of Hillsboro/Community Energy Project. Facilitated stakeholder engagement and proposal development for neighborhood retrofit strategy to improve community health, resilience, and prosperity.

Portland Clean Industry Initiative. Led Assessment & Roadmap process to support businesses’ transition to clean, decarbonized, circular, and community-benefiting practices — including management of internationally distributed team, research, stakeholder engagement, advisory group, contracts and budgets, and final report. 

Bonneville Environmental Foundation. Engaged 100+ stakeholders across multiple states and tribal nations to design and successfully apply for $130+million for solar and job creation programs serving low-income communities.

Community & Economic Development

Economic Development & Entrepreneurship. Provided research, engagement, and recommendations to the City of Beaverton, Travis County, Business Oregon, Pew Charitable Trusts, Kansas City, and VertueLab. These projects focused on cultivating prosperity in ways that promote environmental and social well-being.

Social Bottom Line Framework. Led initiative addressing social dimensions of real estate development — including research, framework design, contribution to district and city scale metrics, engagement with 100+ stakeholders, and publications introducing the social bottom concept, draft framework, and examples. 

Triple Bottom Line (TBL) Tool. Developed for US Economic Development Administration a context-responsive tool that helps organizations align development investment with social, environmental, and economic goals. Led nationally distributed team, engaged 400+ stakeholders, and designed and managed research, publications, engagement, trainings, budgets and contracts. Field-building contributions include the TBL Tool Practitioner’s Guide, User’s Guide, and Casebook as well as articles in Economic Development Journal and Economic Development Quarterly (one of their most read). 

Land Conservation and Smart Growth. Contributed to development of award-winning model village extension ordinance, award-winning research on land use regulations supportive of agriculture and natural resources, and interactive game and teacher in-service training about sustainable land use.

Capacity Building & Organizational Development

Sonoma Land Trust. Co-led vision process including reconnaissance, workshop design, and activation toolkit to strengthen capacity for successful implementation.

Meyer Memorial Trust. Assessed applicants’ organizational capacity and proposals, and made funding recommendations.

Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber. Led strategic plan process, leadership development initiative, and fundraising efforts. 

California Association of Resource Conservation Districts. Evaluated capacity-building program and provided recommendations.

National Park Service. Co-created tool for assessing collaborative capacity.

National Park Foundation. Created framework to foster broad engagement in parks, and assessed leadership and capacity-building programs.

Multistakeholder Initiatives. Designed and led multiple engagements that bridged sectors and stakeholders to address important community issues. Field-building contributions include article in The Journal of Community Development. 

Sustainable Food Systems

Regional Food System Collaboratives. Led development of vision, strategy, and action agendas in three states to improve urban and rural communities through the development of sustainable regional food economies. 

Community Food Projects. Contributed to development of neighborhood workshops, seasonal guides, and food system assessments. 

Farm Link Programs. Led research and engagement to establish programs in three states that help ensure farmland remains in active agriculture production.

Food Policy. Contributed to creation of Food Policy Council and co-authored book chapter on food policy councils.

Food for Thought Café. Co-founded student-run, sustainability-focused café including development of strategy, policies, and connections to university courses. 

Field Building. Designed and taught courses on sustainable food systems, facilitated integration of community food system issues into curricula of 35 courses and placement of 1,000 students in community- based service-learning projects, and published journal article about integrating food systems into university curricula.

Next?

Learn more about us, check out a few testimonials, and connect to explore how we can support your work.