Opportunities Grow for Vendors to Clean Up Financially While Helping Clean Up Environmentally

Protecting the environment is a major concern these days of government bodies throughout the U.S. and Canada (true also in a great many other countries). As a result, agencies far and wide are investing in services, solutions, and equipment related to good stewardship of their piece of the planet.

Indeed, over the last five years, the environmental industry in North America has experienced significant growth (a rise documented by BidPrime on the pages of six separate studies published during that time), including “Climate, Environment, and Pollution are Hot Topics for U.S. Governments”.

Based on the trend-lines we’re seeing, we can predict with confidence that the growth of the environmental industry has yet to peak. And we’re far from alone in making that forecast. Here is Marketwatch:

“The global environmental consulting services market grew from $28.4 billion in 2013 to $31.9 billion in 2017 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.96%. It is expected to grow from $31.9 billion in 2017 to $35.9 billion in 2021 at a CAGR of 3.02%. Growth will result from a growing focus on sustainable development, development of smart cities, global collaborations for environmental protection and increasing environmental regulation.”

(Marketwatch notes that the environmental consulting services industry “comprises establishments that provide advice, assistance, and action plans to organizations and governments to manage their environment. It includes services on environmental issues such as environmental contamination prevention, emission of toxic substances prevention, waste management and pollution control.”)

Small Businesses Benefiting Too

It’s not just the environmental industry’s biggest players getting a bump from the public sector. Small businesses too are benefiting, with government agencies more often looking to startups and mom-and-pop operators for help developing and implementing new eco-friendly technologies.

For example, in July, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced eco-oriented R&D grants totaling $2.3 million to 21 small businesses. The recipients of that funding are tasked with finding and advancing technologies that will “help protect human health and the environment by monitoring air quality, treating drinking water, cleaning up contaminated sites, and creating greener, less toxic materials,” according to an EPA press release, which indicated that two New England projects will each receive $100,000 “to develop methods to sequester PFAS from wastewater, and to develop a wearable, low-weight, high accuracy, air-quality measurement tool.”

A University of Southern California report published at the online news site phys.org detailed several ingenious, environment-friendly initiatives. Wrote author Michelle Boston: “…solutions can be both entrepreneurial and profitable, creating innovative business models that can fuel jobs and a healthy economy while also saving the planet.”

Clearly, governments are driving much of the current growth in the environmental industry. In the last three years alone, more than 11,000 bids/RFPs with titles containing the word “environment” were issued by agencies in the U.S. and Canada. That number goes even higher if you search online for bids/RFPs by swapping “environment” for other keywords. Try the term “water treatment,” for instance, and set the time parameter for the last 12 months. You’ll receive more than 1,000 additional bids/RFPs. The same if you use plug in “hazardous material” or “recycling” as your keyword.

Even more specifically, the keyword “climate” pulls up 387 hits from the past year, while “pollution” yields 334, “air quality” 287, “noise reduction” 230, and “site remediation” 131.

Data on bids with “Environment” in the title.

Data summary on U.S. federal, state & local, and Canadian “environment” bids (past 36 months).

Source: BidPrime.com’s database

Cumulative data on U.S. federal, state & local, and Canadian “environment” bids (past 36 months).

Source: BidPrime.com’s database

Meanwhile, the steady growth continues and at an impressively steady pace. The numbers confirm it:

• 2015-16 Environmental bids = 2,251
• 2016-17 Environmental bids = 3,159
• 2017-18 Environmental bids = 3,973
• 2018-19 Environmental bids = 4,005

It all adds up to busy times for those in the environmental industry—including environment engineers, consultants, or providers of any other environmental service, solution, or equipment. What it means for you is now could be an opportune time to consider expanding into this particular public-sector market niche, if you haven’t already, and start cleaning up financially while cleaning up environmentally.

To see information on the bids/RFPs we identified during our research for this report (and to view the associated bid documents), call 888.808.5356 or visit BidPrime.