Photo Credit Port of Portland and ZGF Architects
COMPANIES
Building on a Strong Foundation
Portland’s legacy industries – energy, metals & machinery and green building
– have yielded fruitful results for climate action.
Energy
We are the headquarters location of two investor-owned utilities, Pacific Power and Portland General Electric (PGE) as well as the home of the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). Both investor-owned utilities are on track to meet Oregon’s 100 percent clean energy goals by 2040. This has yielded an environment rich in energy and engineering consulting firms specializing in the energy transition such as Cadmus, Tetratech, Jacobs, Siemans and Black & Veatch. Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) companies such as Powin, ESS, Inc and ZincFive leveraged the local software and engineering talent to start and scale their global operations from their regional headquarters here. International clean energy heavyweights such as Avangrid and Vestas have established West Coast offices in the Portland region.
Metals & Machinery
Part of a community that capitalized on the World War II shipbuilding industry and cheap hydropower, metal fabricator and tooling companies such as Aimco, Vigor and Willamette Technical Fabricators have added business lines to serve clean energy industries such as wind, wave energy and pumped hydro storage. Daimler Trucks North America is transforming its headquarters in Portland from diesel truck design and manufacturing to engineering and assembly for zero emission trucks.
Built Environment
Portland led the national effort to adopt green building practices at the turn of the century and boasts deep, decades-long expertise in green building with leading firms in green building design like ZGF Architects, developers like Green Cities Company and engineers like Glumac. We continue to push the industry today. We are home to the world’s first developer-driven Living Building, designed and owned by PAE Engineers. We are a nexus for the mass timber industry with firms such as Timberlab and have received multiple federal awards to support mass timber innovation.
With more than 50 years in downtown Portland, PAE has undoubtedly benefited from proximity to peers in architecture, engineering, real estate development, and urban planning to push ourselves and our projects to be carbon negative. Building the largest commercial urban Living Building here was an intentional decision in a city that has walked the talk on sustainability for decades.”
Shiloh Butterworth
Oregon Region Leader and Chief People Officer | PAE
“With more than 50 years in downtown Portland, PAE has undoubtedly benefited from proximity to peers in architecture, engineering, real estate development, and urban planning to push ourselves and our projects to be carbon negative. Building the largest commercial urban Living Building here was an intentional decision in a city that has walked the talk on sustainability for decades.”
Shiloh Butterworth
Oregon Region Leader and Chief People Officer | PAE
Green Cities Solution Providers
We’re honored to work with the following companies in helping our communities prosper and be sustainable. If you have a business in the Portland-Vancouver Metropolitan Area that offers solutions addressing the climate crisis and/or solves environmental challenges and wants to be listed, please please contact us.
