Case Studies
Industry Cluster Energy Goal Setting
Driven by market volatility, increase costs for natural resources, customer demands for ‘green’ products and new technologies catalyzing sustainable farming practices – the OAN, at the request of members - embarked upon a Sustainability Initiative in July 2009 to:
- Identify and promote the adoption of sustainable practices.
- Introduce resources to assist growers in achieving sustainability goals.
- Enhance market recognition and value for sustainably produced Oregon plants.
The nursery industry has seen sales fall, and state and federal agency resource conservation program funding at risk, prompting OAN to diversify program and partner strategies. As a key focus of the OAN Sustainability initiative centers on energy inputs, OAN became the second industry partner to join the 25inTENsity Challenge – a voluntary, industry-led initiative to set energy reduction goals of 25% in 10 years.
We work with the Oregon Association of Nurseries (OAN) and key partners to gain commitment to the goal, as part of OAN’s sustainability plan and initiatives. We help OAN collaborate across business, government and non-profit sectors to reduce risk, innovate around clean and efficient operations and maintain a vibrant industry.
Services: Business Growth Strategy, Facilitated Workshops, Strategic Communications, Energy Roadmap Counsel.
- Executive Forums and Goal Setting Workshops – convene OAN members to examine key barriers/benefits to energy reduction activities, culminating in collaborative, industry-wide goal of 25% energy intensity reduction in 10 years.
- Energy Roadmap Counsel – provide insights and content for a comprehensive industry-wide plan for achieving energy intensity reduction targets, addressing a range of focus areas; including operational improvements, operations management improvement, business & quality process improvements and by-product/natural resource utilization.
- Message Mapping – a strategic communication tool that helps OAN reinforce the Energy Roadmap value to OAN members, funders and key industry partners.
The OAN Board approved the OAN Sustainability plan and Roadmap supporting the 25% in 10-year energy reduction goal in June 2011.
A marketing and communications plan targeting OAN members, other organizations and potential partners details program momentum and interest, member participation, effective data sharing vehicles, and showcasing successful implementations.
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"If I were emperor of the world, I would put the pedal to the floor on energy efficiency and conservation for the next decade."
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"If you don’t risk anything you risk even more."
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"What you risk reveals what you value."
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"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. "
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"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."
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"MarketShift Strategies analysis made us entirely rethink our web presence"
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"MarketShift is filling a critical need in helping the first generation of sustainability oriented businesses find their way in a dynamic marketplace."
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"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."
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"MarketShift Strategies provided us with incredible insights into improving our web presence, including how to drive revenue to our bottom line"
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"Stephanie and Ruby bring years of experience and pragmatic thinking to help grow sustainable industries.”"
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"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"
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"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. "
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"The real art of conducting consists in transitions."
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"If the road to social transformation can be paved only by saints who never make mistakes, the road will NEVER be built."
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"Access to talented and creative people is to modern business what access to coal and iron ore was to steelmaking."
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"Blogging is intellectual prototyping. You put the ideas out there and start a conversation that leads to something… or not."
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"It's no longer a zero-sum game -- things that are good for the environment are also good for business."
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"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."
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"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower."
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"The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas. "
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"It might be sobering for the country to realize we're in a completely new era."
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"Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds."
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"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. "
