WHY PORTLAND?

Portlanders are highly skilled and prioritize working for companies that reflect their values. Greater Portland has a higher concentration of engineers and technicians compared to the rest of the country, due in large part to a high clustering of engineering firms across multiple industries.

Of Portlanders have a Bachelor’s Degree or higher. National Average is 33%

Among the top 50 major cities in the U.S. for residents with a graduate degree

Oregon and Portland are members of the Pacific Coast Collaborative (PCC), an entity that facilitates sharing best practices on climate policy among cities and states on the West Coast of North America. Portland is situated in the middle of the four-member regions (British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California) that together are equivalent to the fourth largest economy in the world. The jurisdictions that comprise the PCC are on the leading edge of advancing market transformational climate policy in North America.

Oregon has the second cleanest grid in the country, with a 100% clean energy mandate for its investor- owned utilities by 2040. Oregon has also been ranked fourth in the country for having the most climate-focused transportation policies and funding. Each legislative session in Oregon has seen an increasing number of legislative actions on climate issues as the state responds to the urgency of the climate crisis and the need to transform critical sectors of our economy.

Portland has a long history of public-private partnerships to advance climate solutions. A collaborative group of architects, engineers, urban planners, and civic activists were instrumental to Portland’s early national leadership in adopting green building practices and policies in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. Today, our collaborative spirit continues in many more areas of the climate tech economy. Our tradition of place-based learning labs continue in projects such as Daimler Truck North America’s Electric Island, Port of Portland’s Terminal 2 Mass Timber campus , and the OMSI District.  A growing number of local coalitions are facilitating local expertise to advance sectors of climate tech nationally and internationally. From Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) to mass timber to offshore wind, the next generation of industry focus areas are building on Portland’s natural strengths in these subsectors.