5.3.2.3Vertical

Environmental Site Work

Contractors performing environmental remediation and brownfield preparation.

Market snapshot

These figures describe Civil & Site Work Contractors (5.3.2), the segment that Environmental Site Work sits within. They are not figures for Environmental Site Work on its own.

Market size
~$257B
Growth
~9.2%CAGR (2017–22, nominal)
Companies
~65,577 firms
Firms by employee count

87.5% of firms have fewer than 20 employees: 57,361 micro-businesses, below most mandates.

The investable universe8,216 firms with 20+ employees
20–99
7,01985%
100–499
99912%
500+
1982%

Strong nominal growth that is materials cost as much as volume: concrete, steel and fuel all repriced sharply through 2021–22, and site work passes those through on unit-price contracts. The segment is equipment-heavy, which limits how small a viable operator can be and gives scaled players a genuine cost edge on bonding and fleet utilization.

NAICS 238110, 238120, 238910. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses; U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census.

Business model & economics

Revenue model

Site-preparation and earthwork contracts

Key economics

Revenue per firm
$3,921,097
Revenue per employee
$307,925
Employees per firm
11.7
Recurring revenue
Low

project-based

EBITDA margin
Equipment-utilization-driven
Capex intensity
Moderate

Characteristics

  • Scale-driven: payroll is only 22% of revenue, so the cost base is assets, not headcount
  • Deep strategic-buyer pool: 198 firms exceed 500 employees, so a scaled asset has trade buyers
  • Equipment-driven earthmoving and site development.
  • Essential to nearly every construction project.
  • Strong growth from data-center and industrial builds.

NAICS 238110, 238120, 238910. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses; U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census.

M&A deal context

Deal activityModerate

Who’s acquiring

  • PE-backed site-work platforms
  • Heavy-civil strategics
  • Regional contractor consolidators

What’s driving deals

  • Consolidation of local site contractors.
  • Data-center and industrial site demand.
  • Construction-cycle activity.

Find Environmental Site Work acquisition targets

Search Acquisera’s index for companies classified under Environmental Site Work (5.3.2.3) and build a targeted deal pipeline.

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