Alison Hopcroft – Program Associate
Fluid Market Strategies – Portland, OR
Start Date: December 2008
Alison is a program associate for Fluid Market Strategies, which is a program management, marketing and consulting firm that specializes in energy efficiency, sustainability consulting, and consumer and workforce education. She has many roles at Fluid and works on several different projects. In addition to delivering sustainability consulting services to clients, she works on developing the company’s services and marketing materials. She’s also part of a team that manages the Northwest Energy Star Homes program, which promotes energy-efficient residential construction.
“I love having my hands in lots of different projects and opportunities,” says Alison. “There's a lot of room to be ‘entrepreneurial,’ and by that I mean that there's a lot of support to seek out new opportunities, think differently, and make things happen. It feels like there are always possibilities, and the hard part is deciding what to pursue.”
When Alison first started studying domestic and international environmental policy in grad school, she says she became disillusioned and impatient with policy and regulation as the primary tool for addressing environmental and social issues. She began to think about leveraging the innovation inherent in the business world to help solve environmental and social issues.
“I think that market-based solutions will have a significant role in addressing environmental issues, particularly in the next 10 years,” says Alison. “And the work we are doing supports that.”
Fluid’s idea, she says, is to help companies, government agencies and other organizations start thinking about changing their approaches to transportation, land use and development, food systems, energy, waste, and water.
“We're at a point now where it's not just about doing the right thing for the planet or for people: there are and will be real costs from inaction.”
Alison has a bachelor's degree in environmental studies from Connecticut College and a master's degree in international environmental policy from the Monterrey Institute of International Studies.
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