Its companies offer products and services to help analyze the environment or to prevent, control, assess, monitor, or clean up environmental pollution or degradation. Clients include federal and state government agencies, municipalities, engineering and consulting firms, and the resource extraction industries. This industry is particularly well developed in the Northwest.
Most companies are relatively small.
In Montana, for example, the average-sized environmental company has only 12 employees. As providers of products and services within a highly competitive field, environmental companies often seek to distinguish themselves from their competitors with superior technology. The environmental technology Focus Group Report discusses key technology needs.