Oasis Environmental
Specialty: A full-service environmental consulting firm that specializes in environmental site assessment and environmental management systems
Principals: Brad Authier (president) and Max Schwenne
(vice president)
2002 revenues: $5 million ($444,000 Washington)
Projected 2003 revenues: $5.2 million ($440,000 Washington)
Oasis Environmental’s Bainbridge Island office spent 2002 serving existing clients in Alaska and elsewhere while also building a presence in Puget Sound.
Founded in Anchorage in 1995, Oasis opened its Bainbridge office in 1999 after hiring environmental management systems expert Robert Newman, who has roots in the Seattle area.
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The Bainbridge office now has four employees, but less than 5 percent of its work is tied to Washington, said senior scientist Krista Graham. Meanwhile, in Alaska, Oasis has 46 employees and clients including BP Alaska and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.
“We haven’t really made a good hit here yet,” Graham said. “My main client is still in Alaska as well.”
Graham said the company’s goal for Bainbridge is an eight-person staff capitalizing locally on environmental management systems expertise and staff experience in site assessment and remediation.
The company’s biggest local client in 2002 was the Kent office of Boston-based American Tower, for which Oasis provided environmental site assessment for potential Western Washington cellular tower locations. Last year Oasis did National Environmental Policy Act and phase one environmental assessments across Washington and in Colorodo, Oregon and Montana.
Oasis’ Bainbridge staff also works with national clients such as Ensco, a Virginia-based engineering, science and technology firm. Graham said two employees — a chemist and a technical writer/editor — support Newman’s environmental management systems work.
Standard environmental management systems are growing more common as companies and government agencies try to comply with International Organization for Standardization (ISO) guidelines, which encourage standard operating procedures for environmental documents, personnel and waste streams.
In addition to local environmental management systems clients, Graham said Oasis is trying to find local environmental site investigation, assessment and remediation clients. She expects business to pick up as property owners try to comply with changing shoreline management and Endangered Species Act laws.
“People will have problems they can’t get around,” she said. “They’ll need a consultant.”