How To Become An Environmental Consultant: What It Is and Career Path

What is an environmental consultant and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Shannon Farrell Ph.D.,

Karl Offen Ph.D.

If you have a passion for improving the environment and making the world a better place, you may be on your way to becoming an environmental consultant. You call these professionals when you want to run a project but are unsure how it affects the environment.

The environmental consultant helps gather information and make recommendations on the possible outcome of specific projects and policies. There are two roles usually categorized together under the title of environmental consultant -- environmental scientist and environmental policy analyst.

Environmental scientists are on the field collecting data about pollution and contaminants around a certain area. On the other hand, policy analysts are more about consulting and developing recommendations for the best laws and regulations that can favor the environment.

Besides a strong passion for the world we call home, you also need a relevant bachelor's and advanced degrees to become an environmental consultant.

What general advice would you give to an environmental consultant?

Shannon Farrell Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Your career path is not likely to be one step after another in the same prescribed direction. In today's unique circumstances, be prepared to be flexible, open-minded, and alert for new and unexpected opportunities. Be ready to take multiple jobs in sequence - it is exceedingly rare these days that one finds their 'forever' long term job right off the bat and right out of undergrad. Try things, test, experiment - identifying what spheres of work you like and what spheres you don't like is all a valuable part of data gathering and adaptively moving forward.

If it is hard to find a job in your ideal field, find jobs that provide the opportunity for developing crossover skills: technical and field skills, research skills, writing skills, communication, or management skills. Leverage opportunities to improve and display your executive function skills - planning, organizing, managing, leadership, mentorship, etc. These can all be valuable efforts, even when you aren't working in your preferred scientific field. Be your advocate - make contacts, network, ask for advice, don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone (it may be uncomfortable, but you will survive!)

ScoreEnvironmental ConsultantUS Average

Salary

5.9

Avg. Salary $74,913

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.5

Growth rate 4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

10.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.44%

Asian 12.80%

Black or African American 3.46%

Hispanic or Latino 10.11%

Unknown 3.83%

White 69.36%

Gender

female 31.05%

male 68.95%

Age - 42

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 42

Stress level

6.5

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.3

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.6

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an environmental consultant

Explore environmental consultant education requirements

Most common environmental consultant degrees

Bachelor's

74.1 %

Master's

15.6 %

Associate

5.5 %

Start to develop specific environmental consultant skills

Skills	Percentages
Environmental Compliance	9.29%
OSHA	5.85%
Technical Reports	5.40%
Project Management	5.39%
EPA	4.06%

Complete relevant environmental consultant training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New environmental consultants learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an environmental consultant based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real environmental consultant resumes.

Research environmental consultant duties and responsibilities

Develop and implement SPCC regulations, and manage and coordinate routine policy audits for oil and gas industry operators.
Manage a project for the U.S.EPA Superfund program that evaluate flexible methods to distribute Superfund monies to state and tribal governments.
Manage environmental restoration waste site characterization activities in support of CERCLA cleanup.
Audit EHS programs for deficiencies, prepare reports with recommend corrective actions.

Prepare your environmental consultant resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your environmental consultant resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an environmental consultant resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable environmental consultant resume templates

Build a professional environmental consultant resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your environmental consultant resume.

Apply for environmental consultant jobs

Now it's time to start searching for an environmental consultant job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do environmental consultants rate their job?

-/5

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Environmental consultant reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Feb 2021

Pros

Firstly, the most important is to protect our planet for us and the future generations. Secondly our planet is not going to support the pressure and negative impacts because of the big Increased human population . Finally our planet needs more and more environmental specialists to regulate and control all human activities, especially the ilegal ones.

Cons

I don’t like when big companies they know what’s wrong and what’s right, but still the destroy, like cutting trees in Brazil and the other side big companies even knowing those trees are ilegal, but still they continuing to porches. There for I can’t understand and I don’t like.

A zippia user wrote a review on Oct 2020