Strategy & Sustainability

We build and implement the business case for the green transition.

Polar Associates is a strategy consultancy that advises investors, industrial companies, and the public sector in navigating the energy and materials transition.

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What We Do

Focus areas

The green transition creates enormous commercial opportunity, and enormous risk. Most strategy firms lack the domain depth to tell the two apart. We exist to close that gap.

For investors

We help investors understand where real value sits in the green transition, and where it doesn't. Our work typically starts early in the deal lifecycle: sector landscaping, investment theme development, or mapping the commercial dynamics of a transition-adjacent market. When a target emerges, we run commercial due diligence grounded in deep domain expertise across areas like waste, circularity, biofuels, energy, and sustainable materials. After the deal closes, we stay on to support portfolio companies with go-to-market strategy and scale-up execution. When the time is right, we work with management to build a compelling VDD story to pass on to the next owners.

For industrials

Industrial companies face transition decisions with real capital at stake and limited precedent to draw on. We help them navigate those decisions: building and stress-testing the business case and then helping implement it. Our work stretches from market entry strategy through commercial planning through to operational execution. We work across the energy and materials transition, with particular depth in paper and packaging, green chemicals, waste and circularity, automotive, and resource extraction.

For the public sector

We help regions and municipalities put numbers on the transition: what major industrial investments bring in jobs, exports, and climate benefit, what infrastructure they need to happen, and which climate measures have the greatest effect. Our analysis informs Region Norrbotten's work on the industrial transition, Umeå Kommun's work on transport needs in northern Sweden, and Nacka Kommun's prioritization of climate measures for transport.

Thought leadership

We produce proprietary research on the commercial logic of the green transition. Our published work is grounded in the same analytical approach we bring to client engagements: focused on where value is created for both people and planet. We collaborate with public institutions and innovation agencies, such as Vinnova and RE:Source, where the research agenda aligns with ours.

Our Approach

Top-tier rigor, boutique agility

Polar Associates was founded by three partners with deep roots in top-tier management consulting and sustainability strategy, advising some of Europe's largest organizations on industrial transformation and the green transition.

We started this firm because the climate transition demands a different kind of advisory. One that pairs rigorous strategic analysis with real technical depth, and that moves at the pace the challenge requires.

The Team

Founded by practitioners

We come from McKinsey & Company and Material Economics and have dedicated our professional careers to advising ambitious companies and public organizations on creating and protecting value within the green transition. Our focus areas include waste and circularity, sustainable packaging, critical materials and resource extraction, bio- and e-fuels, and the future of transport.

Mark Conrad

Co-founder & Partner

Mark leads Polar Associates' work with private capital and the energy transition. He helps investors and companies create and protect value in the energy and materials transition, from transactions and portfolio companies to district heating and biofuels. Previously an Expert Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he co-led the European waste and sustainable plastics service lines, after six years at Material Economics. MSc, Stockholm School of Economics.

Erik Gedda

Co-founder & Partner

Erik leads Polar Associates' work on industrial electrification and with the public sector. He currently directs a project to electrify industrial heat for a global industrial company, and has led the firm's work in northern Sweden, including for Region Norrbotten and Umeå Municipality. Erik spent nearly six years at Material Economics and McKinsey & Company, including on Klimatagenda för Sverige. MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management, Chalmers University of Technology.

Niklas Gullström

Co-founder & Partner

Niklas leads Polar Associates' work on circular materials, agriculture, and resilience. He currently directs the Vinnova-funded project on lignin-based plastics with Lignin Industries and Voi, and the firm's work on circularity for a more resilient Swedish food system, funded by RE:Source. At Material Economics and McKinsey & Company, he worked on circularity and decarbonization strategies for industrial and food companies, with a focus on waste and agriculture. MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management, Linköping University.

Case Studies

Representative engagements

We work across the green transition, from early-stage commercial diligence to industrial transformation to publicly funded research.

Go to market strategy

Lignin Industries: Growth strategy and go-to-market. Supporting Lignin Industries in developing and executing a commercial strategy for lignin-based green products, funded in partnership with Vinnova. Includes market analysis, customer development, and published research on the lignin value chain.

Thought leadership

RE:Source: Circular strategies for Swedish food supply resilience. Selected as one of three projects funded from around 40 applications, mapping which circular strategies build the most resilience for Sweden's food system and reframing circularity as an answer to import dependency.

Infra & Investment

Region Norrbotten: Quantifying the impact of the region's major industrial establishments: 15,000–20,000 jobs in the county, around SEK 100 billion in additional exports per year, and an 18–28% cut in Europe's iron ore import needs, along with the infrastructure needed to enable them. Presented at Almedalen and informing regional industrial and energy strategy.

Climate Strategy

Nordic automotive group: Comprehensive climate risk scenario analysis, including structured workshops and risk modeling across different climate futures to assess strategic exposure and long-term implications.

Climate Strategy

Nordic micromobility company: Analysis of the role of micromobility in greening European cities, examining its potential as a structural unlock for the future urban transport system.

Climate Strategy

Nacka Kommun: Assessing the main climate measures for transport, the municipality's largest source of emissions, in climate benefit, direct economic effects, and societal value such as less noise and fewer particulate emissions. The result: a prioritized list of measures, plus a method and template for following up climate action across the municipality.

Infra & Investment

Umeå Kommun: Mapping and quantifying future transport and logistics needs from more than 100 industrial projects in northern Sweden, by mode of transport, and comparing them with planned infrastructure to calculate the investment gap. The public report has been presented to municipalities, the region, and industry, including at Framtidsforum Norr.

Thought leadership

Sustainability software company: A benchmark study on the true cost of carbon compliance, quantifying what CSRD, SBTi, and related reporting obligations cost Nordic mid-cap companies in staff time, external spend, and business disruption. Grounded in roughly 20 interviews with sustainability leaders.

Green Investment

Impact investment foundation: A series of research reports on where value is created in the green transition, spanning the energy transition and the emerging market for sustainability compliance software. Investor-facing analysis that shapes the client's investment themes.

Green Investment

Commercial due diligence (confidential): Multiple commercial due diligence engagements for Nordic and European investors on transition-exposed assets, including waste-to-X, biofuels, circularity, and green materials.

Careers

Build something that matters

Polar Associates is growing. Applications for 2027 open soon. Follow us on LinkedIn so you don't miss when we open for new applications. For future opportunities, please reach out.

Get in touch at recruitment@polarassociates.se

Contact

Let's talk

Every conversation starts with understanding your challenge.

info@polarassociates.se

Office

Stora Gråmunkegränd 3, 111 27, Stockholm

Polar Associates