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Earth Services & Abatement (ESA) is a long-standing, family-owned business that’s found success through their unwavering character and impact-driven mentality.

From their early origins all the way to the present, ESA has focused on the things that truly matter.

ESA puts safety first. They view client interactions as valued relationships of trust, not transactions. The team thinks about the greater human impact of their work, and they work tirelessly to maintain that culture of trust and accountability.

This invaluable framework was forged many years ago, when an Iowa construction professional saw an opportunity to keep his community safe by venturing into a new type of work.

PLANTING FAMILY ROOTS, 4 DECADES AGO

ESA was founded in 1982 in Sioux City, Iowa by Mike Mitchell, father of EIS Chief Commercial Officer Kory Mitchell

Mike was working in construction and was looking to diversify his business to keep up with industry economic developments. Opportunity came knocking when new regulation changes created an immense need for asbestos abatement work in schools.

He stepped up to the plate, knowing that he could help keep his community safe while gaining entry into a growing market. And just like that, ESA was born.

The company began as a mom-and-pop shop and was guided by an important (and familiar) set of principles. They placed a high value on safety, workmanship, trust and compliance.  This created the steadfast foundation that ESA needed to handle the incredible growth path ahead of them.

The roots were planted. Now, it was time to flourish.

MASSIVE OPPORTUNITIES, TRANSFORMATIONAL IMPACT

In the coming decades, a few key projects would create monumental shifts in ESA’s trajectory.

The first was unfortunately the result of a local tragedy in ESA’s hometown—they knew they had to act.

COMING TO THE RESCUE OF ESA’S HOMETOWN

In 1994, an explosion flattened a fertilizer plant in Sioux City. The damage was deadly and unimaginable. And to make matters worse, asbestos-contaminated materials from the facility were thrown into the air and scattered across the community.

ESA was trusted to safely remove these widespread hazards, and they got to work doing just that.

This was transformative for both Sioux City and ESA. The company worked tirelessly for two years to clean up the city.  This event supported ESA’s impact, their growth and their reputation as a brand that transforms communities.

They began to invest more in their business and started expanding to the west, acquiring more equipment and opening offices in South Dakota, Nebraska, and eventually Colorado – where the brand’s leadership sits today.

MOUNTAINS OF NEW WORK

Colorado presented ESA’s biggest opportunity yet—the Stapleton Airport redevelopment project in Denver, Colorado.

ESA was already the airport’s trusted asbestos abatement contractor.  When regulations changed, ESA was the natural partner for the City and County of Denver to perform the site’s immense contaminated soil problem.

Starting in 1999, ESA began to steadily diversify their work at this particular site. They started carrying out demolition and remediation services, adding to their capabilities while gradually transforming the area from an uninhabitable eyesore to one of the most sought-after communities in the Denver area.

But once again, the site was not the only thing transformed as a result of ESA’s hard work. ESA was now a full-service provider of environmental and infrastructure services—they had transformed their own organization and Denver had become ESA’s homebase.

The ESA team could now abate hazardous and regulated materials, safely demolish all sorts of structures, and revitalize contaminated soil and ground water. Plus, they had the equipment and experience needed to keep doing it for all their customers.

TURNKEY MINDSET & CAPABILITIES—A NEW CHAPTER

ESA kept evolving as a full-service abatement, remediation, and demolition company over the years, adding countless successful high-profile projects to their portfolio.

Ownership of the business eventually changed hands when brothers Kory and Kristian bought it from their father, but their core character and mission remained exactly the same.

Since their early teens, Kory and Kristian both grew up in the industry (and ESA), with Kristian gaining mastery in the field and Kory doing the same on the business side of things. They utilized the founding values and framework that shaped ESA from the beginning and took the company to the next level.

They took the “turnkey mindset” that they had built over previous decades in Colorado and the plains, then brought it back home to Iowa. In 2017, they acquired Iowa Demolition and combined it with another local acquisition to create a full-service abatement, remediation, and demolition business.

Their turnkey platform had finally made its way back to Iowa where ESA had its roots.  That was just the beginning of ESA’s transformational growth.

GROWING THE FAMILY, UNEARTHING NEW POSSIBILITIES

ESA was on an accelerated growth path around the time of their 2017 Iowa Demolition acquisition

At the same time 1 Priority Environmental Services was building out a best-in-class brand throughout Texas and Louisiana.  Their paths were distinctly similar: a focus on values and people, while growing into a dominant player in abatement in their region.

The two companies’ numbers, operational perspectives, and future goals were closely aligned, so they started a merger that was finalized in 2019. This would mark the beginning of the EIS family’s story.

ESA’s turnkey mindset, a focus on offering more to customers under one umbrella, helped shape EIS’s growth path—the companies in our family are constantly adding services, sharing valuable insights with one another, and finding new growth avenues due to our immense combined experience and expertise.

PRACTICE MAKES PERMANENT, & SUCCESS FOLLOWS

ESA has always wanted to do more for their customers and partners under one platform.

They’ve done this through the development of a turnkey business model, and even further through the way they’ve grown our family of companies.

Most importantly, as they have grown and evolved they have never lost sight of keeping people healthy and safe, and leaving a cleaner world behind so the community can flourish and prosper. 

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE EIS FAMILY

EIS is a leading provider of mission-critical environmental and infrastructure services in the United States, serving a wide variety of public and private end markets. We offer a full suite of compliant, and turnkey abatement, remediation, and demolition solutions that protect the health and prosperity of communities throughout the U.S.

Our trusted family of companies includes:

• Earth Services & Abatement
• 1 Priority Environmental Services
• Snyder Environmental
• Potomac Abatement
• Simpson Environmental Services
• Iowa Demolition
• AET Group

To read the stories of our clients and learn what makes the EIS family such an ideal partner, explore our case studies.