When Journal Editor Jim Thrush approached me with the idea for a survey of industry leaders about how they expect the economic condition of our industry to evolve over the next six months, we both agreed it might work well as a special edition of "Prospecting". I’m going to let the survey results speak for themselves, for the most part. But I will summarize them and provide my opinion.

Who did we survey?

To get the most meaningful results we targeted senior-level environmental professionals (based on job title) assumed to have a pulse on the direction of their organization and knowledge of short-term plans. We then added people who’s title may not reflect it, but we know they have access to management and are involved with business planning in some way.

Selection of Survey Questions

When deciding on survey content we balanced our desire for detailed, in-depth information with the responders’ need to "keep it quick". We settled on three questions; employment expectations, projected expenditures for contracted services (consultants, etc) and expected waste disposal and laboratory services expenditures.

Survey Procedure

232 specially selected senior level environmental professionals were invited to participate. Each was provided a link to the survey on a private webpage. Participation was anonymous to ensure that responders could answer freely the questions relating to sensitive business information, such as an impending reduction or increase in the number of employees.

The survey received a 37% response, which we considered excellent, and about 85% of that within 24 hours! This says a great deal about the people in our industry and we extend a hearty thank you to those who participated.

Tone of the Responses

Some of the responses were optimistic and some less so. The commentary that accompanied many was very interesting and provided a unique opportunity to see how business leaders around our industry view their circumstances. See a full list of the comments on pages 21-22.

My Take

The actual survey results are reported on the following two pages. Please take a few minutes to read through them to draw your own conclusion.

What I perceive is this: Public sector clients, especially federal government, are playing a key role for companies that are doing well in these times. Stimulus money has impacted some firms, but has not had a widespread influence. Diversity in a client base and services is also important. Companies seem to be operating as lean as possible, and staff cuts that need to be made have been made and companies have found balance between available work and available staff for the time being.

Once business begins to recover, staff levels are unlikely to return to where they once were and when they do grow, it will be under a more conservative philosophy. Most companies will come out of this experience healthier, leaner and more productive and able to contribute more to their bottom line once things turn around.

Now, about the economy turning around: although the comments from the survey were generally optimistic, my opinion is different. My experience tells me that when general media reports start to surface about the economy turning around, that we’ve hit bottom, or even that the recession is over times are going to get tougher for the environmental community. Many aspects of our industry trail the general economy by six months or a year so as things start to improve overall, we’ve got some time left. As you probably have seen, there has been rumbling in the media about spotty economic improvement so it might be awhile yet before we see any kind of significant improvement.

I know it’s not the most optimistic opinion, but it is how I have seen it in my years working in the industry. I completely understand that this recession has acted quite different from others and there are unique characteristics that could cause a very different outcome. I would be glad to be proven wrong.

Thank you to all that responded to our survey and provided comments. It is appreciated!

Editor's Note:

TO VIEW THE RELATED SURVEY DATA RESULTS, CHARTS, AND LISTING OF COMMENTS, please see article, beginning on page 18, in the October/November 2009 Issue of the Journal. A PDF copy can be downloaded HERE.