segment, over the next three to five years.” “Frankly, our biggest growth limiter has been recruiting the right people in large enough numbers. But it’s a limit we have to respect and manage: our culture and dedication to each other is what has sustained the firm through thick and thin. It’s existential.” No matter how fast the company grows, however, or how big, Pete says they want to continue pursuing and taking on some of the industry’s most challenging and complex work: “While our core office network ensures responsive, day-today services for all of our clients, some of our most interesting opportunities are large, complex, long-lead projects, often in partnership with other leading firms. We love the strange and difficult – remote sites, complex deals, exotic contaminants, that sort of thing. That’s an easy thing to say, but in our case, our track record actually shows it. And it’s part of who we are: it helps us attract and retain some of the best, most client-centered, creative problem-solvers in our industry.” “It’s surprising, also, how much of a gap there can be in the market when a client needs to weave together many strands in a solution, like traditional civil construction, water management, reactive barriers, indigenous sourcing, ecological restoration guided by traditional knowledge, and so on. While we will never give up our very satisfying day-today support of consistently great clients, we see more and more one-off challenging jobs – we call them ‘Special Projects’ – that really do need a contractor with our capacity and appetite.” Through targeted moves, including acquisition, Pete says the company is also seeing specific new opportunities in water treatment, treatment systems,ecologicalconstruction and multidisciplinary projects with balanced environmental, climate change resiliency and development objectives. “We’re also returning again and again to whether to yield to requests to operate internationally,”Peteconcludes. “All-in-all, there has probably never been a more exciting time for QM Environmental.” AUGUST 2022
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