The Top 200 Environmental Firms managed to grow revenue in 2011 despite economic uncertainties around the world and tightening infrastructure budgets in the public sector, traditionally a mainstay for this group. But where one window closed, a door opened for providers of environmental services on the 2012 list. Overall revenue was up 5%, to $54.1 billion, a slower rise than the 6.2% of the previous year but buoyed by increases in non-U.S. work and private-sector activity, which each exceeded 20%.
The domestic market still made up a major share of firms' revenue base, but completed projects and changing public-sector spending patterns made revenue growth anemic, up only 0.7% from the previous year's total, to $41.6 billion. Firms reported 5.2% and 6.1% drops, respectively, in revenue derived from federal and state owners, while the construction and remediation category total fell 7.1% and wastewater was off 3%. "My feeling is that many contractors who attempted to break into or increase their environmental construction work fared poorly," says Jim Voltz, president of American Contracting and Environmental Services. As a result, he anticipates "less competition and less price cutting in 2012."