BACKGROUND / HistorY

Symbiont was founded by a team of engineers in 1981 to resolve the wastewater treatment and environmental permitting issues of manufacturing clients in close proximity to its office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Symbiont’s early client base included companies in the chrome-plating, automotive, and leather-tanning industries, for which physical/chemical wastewater treatment processes were engineered.  Business grew, in part, because of Symbiont’s continuing efforts to expand its industrial client base through environmental compliance consulting projects in permitting, agency reporting, and environmental management planning.

In the mid-1980s, Symbiont continued its growth by expanding its services to include public sector wastewater treatment design, combined sewer overflow and conveyance system projects as well as soil/groundwater investigation and remediation projects.  In 1986, Symbiont established a design-build subsidiary with the goal of offering quality-driven project deployment with unique performance guarantees for its clients.  In the late-1980s and early-1990s, Symbiont established its presence in Indiana, ultimately settling in its current office location in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Symbiont has since served manufacturing and public sector clients, as well as real estate developers, in Indiana.

Through the years, Symbiont has developed an expertise in biological treatment of wastewater for the food and beverage industry, in particular, brewers, carbonated beverage manufacturers, juice manufacturers, and the dairy industry.  Additionally, the Company has served the beverage industry by offering its process and utility piping engineering expertise in the design and layout of bottling and canning lines.

Meanwhile, Symbiont has continued to solve the wastewater and conveyance issues of its clients while expanding its expertise to meet storm water, facilities, and process engineering needs.  Symbiont has also expanded its soil/groundwater investigation and remediation expertise to include assisting clients with securing brownfield redevelopment grants and implementation of brownfield redevelopment projects.

In 2006, the Company’s growth continued as it expanded into the renewable energy industry.  The first projects focused on material handling and storage needs of these clients.  Quickly, the Company expanded to help renewable energy providers optimize their plant performance through improved efficiencies in their ancillary processes.  By using heat from primary production processes, efficiency was further improved, and new co-product revenue streams were developed.

After being in business for over a quarter century, Symbiont has grown from a Company of a handful of employees to a full service professional firm of approximately 75 people.  Symbiont’s employees include civil, environmental, chemical, process mechanical, HVAC, structural, electrical and instrumentation/controls engineers as well as geologists, hydrogeologists, and water resource and GIS specialists.  As a result of our broad range of in-house expertise, Symbiont is able to complete projects that range in size from relatively small consulting projects of about $5,000 to design-build projects in excess of $10,000,000.

Throughout its history, Symbiont has prided itself on putting the client, quality and value first.  We have talented engineers and scientists, who enjoy the challenge of developing creative solutions to meet our client’s needs.  Symbiont believes in the capabilities of its professionals, is dedicated to its clients, and stands behind every project to ensure the client’s satisfaction.