Established in 1980, Herrera Environmental Consultants, Inc. is an innovative employee-owned consulting firm focused in three practice areas: water, restoration, and sustainable development. Herrera’s interdisciplinary teams of scientists, engineers, and planners provide scientifically defensible and realistic solutions to complex resource challenges facing municipalities, utilities, government agencies, Tribes, non-profits, and businesses. Herrera’s philosophy is to integrate protection of environmental, cultural, and economic values into all of our projects.
 

Herrera’s passion for innovative, smart solutions is rooted in the history of our founder, Carlos Herrera.
 

When Fidel Castro took power in Cuba, Carlos’s family left and relocated to the United States as refugees. Carlos received his undergraduate and graduate engineering degrees from the University of Washington, and after grad school, Carlos used a contract from the Seattle Water Department to launch Herrera Environmental Consultants. Early projects in the 1980s and 1990s involved much of the foundational work done by the City of Seattle, King County, and the State of Washington on stormwater impacts to ecosystems, water quality treatment design, recycling and waste separation, and restoration projects.
 

Equal leadership and employee participation is a hallmark of Herrera. In 2005, Carlos sold his company to the employees to create an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). This move solidified Herrera’s tight knit family culture and promotes our entrepreneurial spirit.
 

Today, CEO Mike Spillane is known to clients and colleagues as an exceptional design and construction engineer, strategist, and problem-solver.