What We Believe

We believe a new economic reality is now under construction by businesses that find value in the connection between people, planet, profit and innovation. A new economy requires a dramatic shift in behavior, business practices and attitude. It also requires new technologies responding to wider market adoption of sustainable practices, purchases and innovation.

We work with partners who share an interest in finding new ways to deal with old challenges. Our team is steeped in the pertinent issues, partnerships, technologies, barriers and opportunities surrounding present and future sustainable economic development priorities.

We’re equally comfortable pursuing industry-wide initiatives, organizational-level brand and business development or product/service specific initiatives for individual companies. Our team is ahead of the learning curve as we navigate our way through the complex issues driving a 21st century economy.

In case you think we’re all work and no play – stop by our Pearl District offices in Portland for inspired conversation and occasional Upside Hour networking in the comfort of our daylit loft.


  • "If I were emperor of the world, I would put the pedal to the floor on energy efficiency and conservation for the next decade."
    Stephen Chu Interview with Reuters (2007)
  • "If you don’t risk anything you risk even more."
    Erica Jong
  • "What you risk reveals what you value."
    Jeanette Winterson
  • "MarketShift brings a passion for discovering the dynamics of new, uncharted market opportunities and the skills for translating those into effective product marketing strategies. Their support was key in the success of ClearEdge Power’s initial launch of a whole new product category in the cleantech space. "
    Bill Sproull, SVP for Business Development at ClearEdge Power
  • "There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction."
    John F. Kennedy (1917 – 1963)
  • "MarketShift Strategies analysis made us entirely rethink our web presence"
    Nik Blosser, President, Celilo Group Media
  • "MarketShift is filling a critical need in helping the first generation of sustainability oriented businesses find their way in a dynamic marketplace."
    Rob Bennett, Executive Director, Portland +Oregon Sustainability Institute
  • "Working with MarketShift resulted in a very pleasant surprise. The capabilities assessment they delivered turned out to be the catalyst for beginning development on a new product launch."
    M. Sami Khawaja, Ph.D., Vice President, Cadmus
  • "MarketShift Strategies provided us with incredible insights into improving our web presence, including how to drive revenue to our bottom line"
    Nik Blosser, President, Celilo Group Media
  • "Stephanie and Ruby bring years of experience and pragmatic thinking to help grow sustainable industries.”"
    Rob Bennett, Executive Director, P+OSI
  • "Gaining traction and results for NEEA’s industry-wide energy efficiency initiative requires a strategy that is part art, part science. MarketShift Strategies has the keen business acumen required to deliver both"
    Sharon Peterson, Marketing Manager, Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance
  • "Waste equals food, whether it's food for the earth, or for a closed industrial cycle. We manufacture products that go from cradle to grave. We want to manufacture them from cradle to cradle. "
    William McDonough, author "Cradle to Cradle"
  • "The real art of conducting consists in transitions."
    Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911)
  • "If the road to social transformation can be paved only by saints who never make mistakes, the road will NEVER be built."
    Van Jones
  • "Access to talented and creative people is to modern business what access to coal and iron ore was to steelmaking."
    Richard Florida, Economist and Author
  • "Blogging is intellectual prototyping. You put the ideas out there and start a conversation that leads to something… or not."
    Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.
  • "It's no longer a zero-sum game -- things that are good for the environment are also good for business."
    Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman and CEO, General Electric
  • "The economic crisis that’s going on right now doesn’t represent a cycle, it represents a reset. And people that understand that will prosper and people who don’t understand that will get left behind."
    Jeffrey Immelt, Chair and CEO, General Electric
  • "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower."
    Steve Jobs
  • "The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas. "
    Linus Pauling, Nobel Peace Prize recipient for his work on above ground nuclear testing.
  • "It might be sobering for the country to realize we're in a completely new era."
    Bill Clinton
  • "Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds."
    Alexander Graham Bell
  • "The Beetles didn't invent teenagers, they merely led them. Hugo Chavez did not invent the disenfranchised and disaffected Venuzualans, he stood up and and led them. "
    Seth Godin
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