Sell a Environmental Remediation & Abatement business

Owner-operator environmental remediation & abatement businesses trade at 3x–5x SDE for typical $500K–$3M SDE ranges. At $3M+ EBITDA scale the same operators sell at 5.5x–9x EBITDA. Multiples in this category are ebitda-based and data-sourced from AGC / FMI Construction Industry M&A Report 2025 + IBBA Q4 2024. Where you land in the range is driven by growth trajectory, revenue mix, customer concentration, and management-team depth beyond the owner.

Clean Harbors (NYSE: CLH), US Ecology, BELFOR Property Restoration, and PE platforms (Aurora Capital, Court Square Capital) drive remediation consolidation. Active buyer archetypes in construction include National contractor / vertical integrator, Construction PE platform, Family office / long-hold. Which of these bids for your business depends on scale — sub-$1M SDE is typically individual or search-fund territory, $1-3M SDE opens up PE platforms and strategics, and $3M+ EBITDA gets full LMM buyer attention.

Environmental remediation contractors with EPA lead-and-asbestos abatement licensing, PFAS-and-emerging-contaminants capability, and multi-state contractor licensing trade at premium. Beyond the industry-specific factor, the universal drivers in construction are bonding capacity and clean surety-carrier relationship; multi-year project backlog with reputable gcs / owners; union / prevailing-wage workforce where applicable (or explicitly non-union).

Environmental remediation carries substantial regulatory liability (RCRA, CERCLA) with material insurance-cost pressure; buyers require deep environmental-audit-history diligence. Buyers in this category also standardly scrutinize project profitability variance and buried job losses and bonding capacity limits growth. Addressing these in advance in a well-prepared CIM materially reduces retrade risk during diligence.

Typical transaction range for environmental remediation & abatement is $2.0M–$40M in annual revenue. Below that, buyer pool narrows to individual and small-search-fund. Above that, PE platforms and strategics dominate. NAICS code 562910 — buyers screen by NAICS in most deal sources.

From the day you engage a broker to close, expect 6–12 months for a well-prepared business in construction. The prep work — financial cleanup, addbacks documentation, key-employee retention agreements, real estate lease sorting — is where 3-6 months of the timeline hides. Starting that early is what separates a full-multiple exit from a discounted one.