Welcome to Northwind Insights

Northwind Insights is the editorial side of our consulting practice — a place where we write about what we've learned, where we disagree with industry consensus, and what we think mid-market industrial companies should be paying attention to right now.

We started this blog for the same reason we started the firm: because the existing material in our field is mostly mediocre. The big consultancies produce decks-as-articles, full of frameworks and short on judgement. The thought-leadership platforms reward engagement metrics, which favors hot takes over rigor. The trade publications run advertorials with bylines. None of it is what we'd want to read.

What you'll find here

• Methodology pieces. When we develop a defensible approach to a tricky measurement problem (Scope 3 freight, embodied carbon in steel, occupational refrigerants), we write it up.
• Case studies, with permission. Anonymized where required, named where the client agrees. The interesting cases are the ones that didn't work out cleanly.
• Regulatory commentary. CSRD, SBTi updates, GHG Protocol revisions. We read this stuff so you don't have to, then we tell you which parts actually matter for a 500-person manufacturer.
• The occasional contrarian take. Most "net zero by 2050" pledges will not survive. Carbon offsets remain mostly broken. Reporting rigor varies more than anyone admits. We'll say so when we believe it.

Who writes here

The blog is collectively edited by Northwind's senior team — four consultants and our two founders. Most posts carry a single byline; some are co-written. We do not run ghost-written content. If a post has a name on it, that person wrote it.

How often

Monthly, roughly. We don't post for the sake of posting. A typical post takes a senior consultant two or three days, including research, writing, and an internal review. That means three to four posts a month at our peak. Fewer when client work fills the calendar.

What we don't do

We don't run sponsored content. We don't accept guest posts from vendors. We don't link out to product pages. We don't track readers (no analytics, no scripts). We don't run a newsletter that's secretly a sales sequence.

If a post mentions a specific software product or methodology, it's because we've used it, not because we've been paid to mention it. The boring honesty here is the whole point.

Why now

Sustainability work for mid-market industrials is finally moving past the pledge era and into the do-the-work era. The companies that built rigor between 2018 and 2024 are pulling ahead of those that prioritised marketing. We think this transition is the most important development in our field in a decade, and we want to be part of describing it accurately while it happens.

Welcome. Thank you for being here.