Top Company 2014: Consulting & Professional Services

Consulting & Professional Services winner: Ecosphere Environmental Services

Ecosphere-services.com

Founded in 1982, Durango-based Ecosphere Environmental Services specializes in environmental compliance and permitting, natural resources consulting, public outreach and participation, and environmental planning and monitoring. Ecosphere provides professional environmental consulting solutions and expert regulatory guidance to a variety of clients across the Four Corners region, and in the last five years has extended its client base across the western U.S.

Balancing economic development with environmental protections requires not only expertise in the environmental sciences, but also a deep understanding of the federal, state, and local regulatory landscape. Ecosphere possesses both, having successfully provided integrated environmental consulting services for more than three decades to extraction industries, public and private utilities, private industries, tribal organizations, and government agencies.

Ecosphere owner and president Mike Fitzgerald noted that “balancing development with environmental protections is a valuable service we provide to our clients.” Fitzgerald bought the company in 1997 and has actively grown it from one employee, himself, to today’s 50. Ecosphere now has offices in Durango, Cortez and Pagosa Springs, as well as and Farmington, N.M. and Santa Fe, N.M. A privately held company, Ecosphere’s revenues are on track to nearly double from just three years ago.

Ecosphere’s technically diverse staff of wetland scientists, biologists, botanists, ecologists, socioeconomists, visual resource specialists, planners, and geospatial specialists contribute to the company’s success and excellent consulting reputation.

“We pride ourselves in being a small business that regularly and successfully completes large energy-related projects across the western U.S.,” Fitzgerald said. “Our nimble size and impressive in-house technical capabilities allow us to effectively out-compete large consulting firms both in terms of cost and consulting service quality.” Work, family and balance are three words that describe the culture at Ecosphere. It is a culture that has led to high staff productivity and satisfaction and enjoyment in the workplace.

Ecosphere was recently recognized as the 2013 Business of the Year by the Durango Chamber of Commerce and was named a 2013 Colorado Company to Watch.

Consulting & professional services  finalists:

Point B Inc.

Denver

pointb.com

Point B introduced its management consulting and venture investing services to the Denver market roughly 11 years ago. The group added new service lines and industry specialties within the last year, resulting in triple-digit growth. It recently shifted to a 100 percent employee-ownership model.

Workplace Resource

Denver

www.wrcolo.com

Open for business since 1985, Workplace Resource is the region’s only independent Herman Miller certified dealer, working to help organizations realize the potential of their workplaces and thereby their teams. Woman-owned WR attempts to build long-standing customer relationships to foster an efficient work force that communicates each company’s philosophy and values.