NAICS Code for Environmental Services

Environmental services spans consulting, remediation, assessment, and compliance work, and the NAICS system splits these categories across several codes with different size standards. Contractors who bundle environmental work often sit in the wrong primary NAICS and miss opportunities as a result.

Primary NAICS codes for environmental services

541620: Environmental Consulting Services ($19M size standard) Use this for environmental assessments, impact studies, compliance consulting, and regulatory advisory work. Most environmental consultants primary here.

562910: Remediation Services ($22M size standard, 750 employees for some sub-categories) Use this for active remediation work: contaminated site cleanup, hazardous waste removal, groundwater treatment, soil remediation. Physical work, not just consulting.

541330: Engineering Services ($25.5M size standard, $47M for specific sub-categories) Use this if your work is primarily engineering design for environmental systems: water treatment design, air quality systems, stormwater engineering.

541380: Testing Laboratories ($19M size standard) Use this if you operate environmental testing labs for water, soil, or air analysis.

Secondary NAICS codes to consider

237990: Other Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction ($45M) For large-scale environmental construction: containment systems, remediation infrastructure.

562211: Hazardous Waste Treatment and Disposal ($47M) For contractors handling the disposal side of remediation work.

562112: Hazardous Waste Collection ($47M) For transport and collection of hazardous materials.

541712 or 541715: Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (various standards) For environmental R&D work, especially under EPA and DoE contracts.

Which code should be your primary

The defining question for environmental contractors is whether you sell expertise or execution.

Expertise-first firms (consulting, assessment, compliance, advisory) primary under 541620. The $19M size standard is tighter than remediation codes but the work is lighter-capital and higher-margin.

Execution-first firms (remediation, cleanup, waste handling) primary under 562910. The 750-employee/partial-revenue size standard gives significant runway.

Engineering-first firms (design of environmental systems) primary under 541330. Higher size standard than 541620, which matters as you grow.

Many environmental firms do all three. In that case, primary under the code that drove your strongest past performance contracts.

Federal demand snapshot

EPA, DoD (especially Army Corps and Navy), DoE, Interior (especially Fish and Wildlife and BLM), and NASA are the largest federal environmental buyers. Superfund cleanup work drives significant 562910 volume. VA has consistent environmental consulting needs at facilities nationwide.

SDVOSB and HUBZone set-asides are common in environmental NAICS, particularly at EPA and DoD installations.

Next steps

The NAICS recommender will rank codes against your specific service mix. For context on how environmental NAICS interact with set-aside programs, see the NAICS code finder guide.