Environmental consulting firms help companies manage their relationship with the environment. Given the current focus on climate change and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), spending on these types of services is growing fast. Environmental consultants are most in demand in industries such as energy & utilities, chemicals, and construction. Greater than half of the market spend in 2020 for environment, health, and safety consulting services was estimated to come from those three sectors.
What is environmental consulting? At times, it’s a form of compliance, where an environmental consulting firm is focused on helping the client meet government regulations. However, firms can also hire environmental consultants to help design and execute strategies that position the company and its brand as a positive steward of the environment. Environmental consulting firms can also provide services including engineering and design, construction/project management, equipment manufacturing, operations outsourcing, or R&D.
Our list focuses on boutique environmental consulting firms based in the U.S. as opposed to MBB or Big 4 consulting firms that have practice areas dedicated to environmental consulting. Without further ado, let’s dig into our list of the top 10 US environmental consulting firms!
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Top 10 US Environmental Consulting Firms List
AECOM – Los Angeles, CA
AECOM is a professional services infrastructure firm headquartered in Los Angeles but with offices across the globe. Its projects go beyond just environmental consulting, including transportation, buildings, water, government, energy, and the environment. The firm designs, plans, consults, and manages construction projects. AECOM is a publicly traded firm with over $13B in revenue, and is committed to helping public and private sector clients address complex technical problems related to ESG issues.
TETRA TECH – Pasadena, CA
Tetra Tech is a pure play, publicly traded environmental consulting firm with over $2B in revenue and 20,000 associates. It provides high-end consulting and engineering services for projects worldwide. Projects typically address complex problems in water, environment, sustainable infrastructure, and renewable energy. It seeks to “Lead with Science®” to provide resilient solutions.
JACOBS - Dallas, TX
Based in Dallas, Jacobs is a $13B public traded environment-focused consulting company with 52,000 employees worldwide. Its consulting services have common themes of connectivity and sustainability, with projects tending to be focused in the following areas: Intelligence/preparedness, water, infrastructure, renewal, discovery, and mobility.
ICF – Fairfax, VA
ICF is a publicly traded global environmental consulting services company with over 7,000 employees. Its team includes business analysts, policy specialists, digital strategists, data scientists and creatives. Projects tend to fall in four areas: Health and Social (45%), Energy, Environment, Infrastructure (41%), Safety and Security (8%), and Consumer and Financial (6%). Projects tend to be of three different types: advisory and strategy, program management, or technology and analytics.
TRC – Boston, MA
TRC has over 100 offices in the U.S. plus a few international locations. It is a leader in delivering professional services for public and private clients. The firm’s areas of expertise include emergency management planning, engineering, environmental health and safety management, procurement and construction, regulatory and environmental compliance, and remediation and materials management. It provides a mixture of pure consulting and construction and contracting services. They are 1 of 3 environmental consulting firms in Boston, MA - again, showing that Boston is a consulting mecca.
TRINITY CONSULTANTS – Dallas, TX
Trinity is a unique consulting firm focused on three broad areas: environmental health and safety (ex: air quality, climate change, waste management, water quality), engineering (ex: building services, process safety, engine certification), and science (ex: aquatic environmental services, toxicology). But, outside of consulting, it offers technology services such as software design, staffing, and training solutions.
HALEY & ALDRICH – Boston, MA
With its headquarters near Boston, Haley and Aldrich is a private, U.S. focused team of environmental and geotechnical engineering consultants. It primarily operates in the realm of environmental health and safety compliance, construction support, contaminated site management, geotechnical resources, and water management.
ANCHOR QEA - Seattle, WA
Anchor QEA, based in Seattle, provides environmental consulting and related services in four key areas: engineering, environmental services, planning and restoration, and analytics. Markets served include Industrial (chemical manufacturing, mining, railroads, and shipyards), Energy (coal ash removal, hydroelectric, manufactured gas, renewables, and traditional oil & gas), and Government (federal, state, local, and ports/harbors).
GZA – Boston, MA
Rounding out our environmental consulting firms in Boston, MA is GZA. GZA is an employee-owned firm providing geotechnical, environmental, ecological, water, and construction management services. It boasts more than 700 professionals across offices in New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Midwest. Its focus industries include Buildings & Real Estate, Energy, Government, Industrial, Infrastructure, Transportation, and Water. Services provided are broad, from construction management to data visualization to EHS compliance and geotechnical engineering. But all services tend to be considered “advisory” in nature.
PARTNER ENGINEERING – Torrance, CA
Partner Engineering provides a wide range of consulting services, from environmental consulting to remediation, civil engineering, site management, land surveying, and Environmental Health and Safety compliance. It operates in a wide range of markets and has a variety of public and private client types. Its full-service engineering, environmental and energy consulting supports clients at all stages of a project’s life cycle. Partner is involved in initial due diligence, design, development, and construction, as well as ongoing maintenance and optimization.
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Conclusion
Environmental consulting is certainly a hot topic these days. These firms are doing important work for businesses, governments, and society at large, helping businesses find ways to balance the bottom-line and ESG-related concerns. To land roles with these firms, finance, management, or technology backgrounds are certainly relevant. But more so than in traditional management consulting, a science or engineering background will serve you well as you seek roles with top U.S. environmental consulting firms. Get help with your environmental consulting applications or interview prep with Management Consulted’s services.
Additional Reading:
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- Top 10 Boutique Consulting Firms in US
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