October 27, 2026
Clearing roads after a hurricane. Cleaning up a polluted river. Restoring land after decades of mining. Phillips’ environmental work takes many forms, but each project helps communities and landscapes recover.
That work has earned the company national recognition in Engineering News-Record’s 2026 Top 200 Environmental Firms rankings. Phillips ranks:
ENR bases its rankings on firms’ reported revenue from environmental services in the previous year. For Phillips, that work spans four specialties: disaster response, remediation, reclamation, and restoration.
Disaster response starts with mobilization: getting crews, equipment, and field leadership to where they’re needed, often under difficult conditions.
Following Hurricanes Helene and Milton, for example, Phillips crews removed debris from roads and active waterways across the Southeast, helping restore access for emergency responders, utility crews, and residents.
In another example of this work, Phillips provided quick and wide-ranging support in 2008 when a containment dike failed at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston facility, releasing coal ash into the surrounding environment. Phillips mobilized within approximately 24 hours to help mitigate the environmental impacts.
For Kevin Dyson, Phillips’ Director of Environmental, that readiness is essential to helping communities recover. Having the crews and equipment to respond quickly, he says, is “the gold standard.”
Remediation: Tackling the Contamination
Remediation addresses contamination in places such as industrial properties, rivers, lakes, and streams. Crews may excavate polluted soil or remove contaminated sediment, following plans developed through extensive site investigation and engineering.
Before construction begins, drilling and sampling help establish the extent of the problem. Project teams then determine how to remove or contain the contamination and obtain the necessary permits for the work.
The planning also accounts for what happens to contaminated material once it leaves the site. For persistent pollutants such as PFAS, often called “forever chemicals,” Dyson points to staying abreast of ongoing research into methods to contain or destroy them.
Removing contamination often sets the stage for restoring the landscape. That can mean reconstructing streambeds, replanting wetlands, or establishing native trees and plants. Heavy civil construction skills help crews reshape the site, while restoration plans guide its recovery.
Reclamation often focuses on land disturbed by mining. After extraction ends, crews work to return the property to its approximate original contours, grade the ground, and reestablish vegetation. Depending on conditions, remediation may also be necessary.
The goal, says Dyson, is to prepare the land so it’s "reclaimed by nature.”
Phillips is proud of its ENR rankings, but the real reward is seeing what the work makes possible: roads reopened after a hurricane, waterways and industrial sites freed of contamination, and former mine sites coming back to life.
“The satisfaction comes in really when you step back and you look at the impact that you’ve had on the local citizens or the local communities,” Dyson says.
To learn more about Phillips Environmental and its approach to response, remediation, reclamation, and restoration, visit phillipsinc.com/about/companies/phillips-environmental.