Windward Engineers & Consultants is a Native American-owned multi-disciplinary engineering and consulting firm. We provide mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering design services, and offer specialties in fire protection, sustainability consulting and assessment, lighting design, and commissioning services. Our skilled team of problem solvers and professionals strive to make the places where people work, play, shop, learn, heal, and serve – function better.

Windward is an independent, standalone company and maintains a strategic relationship with NELSON Worldwide serving enterprise scale accounts nationally. As an NMSDC-certified minority-owned engineering firm, we work with our corporate clients and real estate partners to meet and increase their diversity spend commitments.

Corporations across the United States work to impact diverse communities through the engagement of Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs) in their supply chains. The greatest impact for these businesses comes through direct or Tier 1 engagement with the MBE. In these cases, the corporation contracts directly with the MBE for a particular good or service.

Benefits to Tier 1 engagement include:
• Results in longer relationships for diverse suppliers
• Profitability enhancement for the MBE (cutting out the middleman)
• Ease of tracking for the corporation (several software platforms exist for tracking diversity spend)

Many companies also track Tier 2 diversity spending or that amount spent with MBEs through non-minority contractors. The federal government allows for recognizing Tier 2 spending. However, the Billion Dollar Roundtable, a group of companies that spend over $1 billion each year with diverse firms does not yet count Tier 2 spending in their qualification standard.

Benefits to Tier 2 engagement include:
• Expand reach/impact on diverse businesses by including vendors
• Multiply effort to find diverse vendors through suppliers