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It was 1988, the year in which the U.S. General Services Administration mandated that integrated pest management (IPM) strategies be utilized exclusively in some 120 Federal buildings, including the White House and the Old Executive Office Building. In this same year a pest control company was established as a sole proprietorship by our founder who served as its only IPM practitioner; the company was the forerunner of Environmental Coalition Incorporated.

In 1989, our founder’s services were contracted by the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC). The RTC was formed by Congress in 1989 to replace the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation and to respond to the insolvencies of about 750 savings and loan associations. As receiver, the RTC sold the assets of the associations that included a large portfolio of office buildings. Insured depositors were reimbursed for their losses. The office buildings retained by the RTC were kept pest-free by our founder while he honed his skills as a practitioner of integrated pest management. As the buildings were sold, the newly appointed property management companies would most often retain the services of our founder’s pest control company.

The founder of Environmental Coalition Incorporated made it his policy to put to task only IPM practices and no others. Those who became the clientele of our founder’s pest control company shared his concern. They wanted pests to be controlled but they wanted the health and well-being of those who were employed in their buildings to be guarded. In this era – circa 1990 — most pesticides were odiferous and people inherently equated odor with toxicity – the stronger the pesticide, the more it would stink! The pesticides that are sprayed today are usually without odor; nonetheless, most of today’s sprayable pesticides are just as toxic and just as volatile as those that were used some 18 years ago!

On August 30, 1991, Environmental Coalition was chartered as a Texas corporation and established its offices in Stafford, Texas. Our founder’s pest control service continued to operate until the second quarter of 1992 when the new corporate identity made its debut.

In February of 1992, BOMA International’s Skylines magazine published an article written by our corporate founder. The article was titled, Keeping Insecticides Out of The Workplace. Right from the beginning, the article emphasized, “The broadcasting of pesticides inside buildings is slowly waning. In most cases, there’s no longer a need to spray work areas such as around desks and credenzas.” Here we are 16 years later and our competitors’ pest controllers are still carrying spray cans into office buildings!

Over the years, the practices utilized by Environmental Coalition Incorporated evolved to include a wide range of proprietary strategies. Not every technique that was conceived would meet the need; however, as a technique was proven worthy of deployment in a particular situation, it would be archived for future use. Environmental Coalition Incorporated has a track record that spans 20 years. Because experience is the best teacher, ECI has amassed an incredible number of proprietary strategies. This is not to say that we can rest on our laurels. If we ever stopped thinking outside the box – ECI could become just another face in the crowd!

Environmental Coalition Incorporated has been forever green — we neither offer nor perform anything less than the strictest interpretation of integrated pest management!

Another bit of history: back on January 6, 2000, the business license holder for Environmental Coalition Incorporated was certified and therefore recognized by the State of Texas as a Reduced Impact Pest Control Service Provider (more than 10 years ago)! The designation was awarded by the Texas Structural Pest Control Board.

As long as Environmental Coalition Incorporated has been in business our motto has been, pest elimination in tandem with risk abatement.

If we didn’t eliminate pests, we wouldn’t be working with so many property managers in and around Houston!

Equal in importance, the risk that we abate is that which is associated with the application of volatile pesticides that produce toxic off-gases (we never use these pesticides inside an office building). The toxic off-gases cannot be filtered out of indoor air and therefore, these toxic gases are circulated as a part of the building’s breathable atmosphere. Volatile organic chemicals negatively impact the health and well-being of workers who (like many of us) spend no less than one-third of their weekdays in an office building.

For the record, Environmental Coalition Incorporated is a member of the US Green Building Council, Bio-Integral Resource Center, Beyond Pesticides, Entomological Society of America, and the National Pest Management Association.