50+ years of impact
Our first president was Clarence “Lucky” Lester, a member of the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II. He earned his nickname after flying more than 90 missions without being hit. 他还在不到六分钟的时间里击落了三架敌机. 在军队之外，“幸运”被朋友和家人称为“莱斯”. 他是一名充满激情的摄影师，对跑车情有兴趣.
1969年，Lucky与Donald“Don”Ogilvie、Herbert S. “Pug” Winokur Jr., and Bruce Caputo — the four individuals knew one another from business school and from working at the Pentagon — to establish the Inner City Fund. Our founders, who did not take any outside funding to start the company, 试图为首都少数族裔拥有的企业提供资金. In 1972 we diversified and went into consulting, changed our name to ICF Incorporated, and became a well-respected advisor to a number of U.S. federal agencies.
我们的一些早期客户包括国家安全委员会, the Office of Child Development, the National Academy of Sciences, the Federal Maritime Commission, and the District of Columbia Public Schools system. By the mid-1970s, our founders were less involved in the business, pursuing other passions and career ventures. According to co-founder Bruce Caputo, they had no idea how big ICF would become.
During the 1970s U.S. federal agencies ramped up their regulatory activity — including at the newly created Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), established in 1970, 1977年成立的能源部(DoE). 我们很早就与这些机构合作，帮助推动能源方面的成果, climate, and the environment. Other early clients included the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare (with functions now found in Department of Health and Human Services as well as Education); the U.S. Department of Labor; the U.S. Department of Transportation; the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); and The White House. While U.S. federal, state, and local governments comprised most of our client base during these years, 我们为私营部门完成了大约10%的工作.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s we took on more ambitious projects as our expertise and capabilities grew, specifically in energy modeling and forecasting. In 1977 we worked with the Federal Energy Administration (FEA) and the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) – both eventually merged under the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) – to help develop the Coal and Electric Utilities Model (CEUM), 按燃料类型预测未来能源使用的政策规划工具. Around the same time we created supply and demand forecasting models for U.S. 天然气市场(最初为能源与环境分析公司). (EEA) later acquired by ICF) that were formalized in 1997 as the Gas Market Model (GMM). At the time, it was believed the U.S. was running out of natural gas, and the Fuel Use Act of 1978 prohibited the use of natural gas as a fuel for electric power plants. The CEUM and GMM preceded the Integrated Planning Model (IPM), which launched 10 years later. We also did much of the analytical and policy-related work that supported early implementation of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980. Informally called Superfund, CERCLA gives EPA the funds and authority to clean up contaminated sites that pose risks to human health and the environment.
In 1984 we partnered with USAID to implement the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program (initially as Macro International, Inc.(后来被ICF收购)，这是我们持有时间最长的连续合同. Over the last 35 years, working in 90 countries, we have collected, analyzed, and disseminated critical data on important health topics such as fertility, family planning, maternal and child health, gender and domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, malaria, nutrition, and environmental health. Health and government officials use the survey data to make important decisions to improve the overall health and economic status of populations in developing countries.
Also in 1984 under contract with the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, we estimated the economic losses to Japanese Americans interned during World War II. Additionally, in conjunction with the EPA, we published the groundbreaking book 温室效应和海平面上升:对这一代人的挑战, that was decades ahead of its time in its investigation of the potentially catastrophic implications of the “greenhouse effect” and the impact of global warming on sea levels.
We expanded our portfolio (and our team) in the 1980s and 1990s, performing exciting work for the U.S. government and the private sector. In 1985 we founded our housing division, providing technical assistance, training, and research for rental and homeownership affordable housing programs on behalf of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). We earned our first million-dollar technical assistance contract with HUD in 1989 which led to decades of work at the local, state, and federal levels supporting some of the nation’s important housing and community development issues. What started as a one-person team with a small revenue stream quickly grew to a significant practice and one of our core offerings. The work we started in the 1980s planted the seeds for the robust community development and disaster recovery work we continue today.
We outgrew our offices in downtown Washington, D.C. and relocated to our existing headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia, just outside the nation’s capital, in 1987. We continued to accelerate our climate, energy, and environment work while expanding our work in health and human services in the public sector. During this time we began to build on our advisory services with program management and implementation work that grew rapidly throughout the decade.
In 1987 we developed the first Integrated Planning Model (IPM)的北美电力，燃料和环境市场. IPM – built on the modeling work we did in the prior decade – created a common analytical platform used by both the U.S. government and the power sector to analyze various policy scenarios associated with the U.S. Clean Air Act amendments. In the mid 1980s we developed a model that integrated scientific estimates of the effects of ozone depletion on agriculture and human health with estimates of the benefits and costs of reducing ozone emissions. This analysis was used by the EPA in its work on the 1987 关于消耗臭氧层物质的蒙特利尔议定书, a global agreement across all United Nations (UN) members to protect the stratospheric ozone layer by ending the production and use of ozone-depleting substances. Some of the support for this work included training and technical assistance in Latin America and China, demonstrating our early international focus.
两年后，我们与环境保护署合作，制定了有史以来第一个美国环保署.S. national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory to help inform climate change policy, an index that we continue to compile today. Around the same time, we acquired Lewin and Associates, 一家专门从事医疗保健和能源问题的咨询公司. In 1988 we acquired Kaiser Engineers. This allowed us to provide implementation support — primarily for large engineering and construction projects — associated with our existing work in energy and environment. A new company called ICF Kaiser was formed and the consulting business became one of three divisions within the parent company. In 1989 ICF Kaiser went public.
But it wasn’t all about climate and energy; we also expanded our scope in health and human services during this time. In 1990 ICF began operating and managing the Child Welfare Information Gateway (initially as Caliber Associates, later acquired by ICF), an online library with hundreds of thousands of resources dedicated to protecting children and strengthening families. In 1990 we also implemented The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) (initially as Macro International, Inc., later acquired by ICF), a powerful tool for targeting and building health promotion activities across the nation, on behalf of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Following the launch of projects like the greenhouse gas inventory in the prior decade, U.S. federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DoE) pursued non-regulatory approaches to motivating the energy industry and consumers to adopt energy efficient products and approaches.
对ICF来说，这意味着支持像 ENERGY STAR. In 1992 we worked with the EPA to launch the ENERGY STAR program which helps customers save money and protect the climate by purchasing highly energy-efficient products and services. To support the program’s launch we developed a communications and marketing capability that worked with the U.S. 政府和能源明升体育m88鼓励其采用. Over time our energy efficiency work expanded beyond EPA to include utilities and individual states across the U.S. Since 1992 ENERGY STAR and its commercial partners have helped American families and businesses save nearly 4 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity and achieve more than 3 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions. This is equivalent to taking more than 600 million cars off the road for a year – more than twice as many as were on U.S. roads in 2018. We continue to support the ENERGY STAR program while working with utilities across the U.S. to plan and manage energy efficiency programs.
In 1994, The Commonwealth Fund selected ICF to be the National Program Office for a new national initiative focused on the importance of the first three years of life. We worked with The Commonwealth Fund, the Boston University School of Medicine, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to design and implement Healthy Steps for Young Children.
In 1996 we began an ongoing partnership with the U.S. Army Research Lab (ARL) (initially as Jacob & Sundstrom, Inc., later acquired by ICF), greatly expanding our cybersecurity capabilities. We collaborated with ARL to research, test, and apply new technologies to support U.S. national defense. In 1999 we implemented The National Adult Tobacco Survey (NATS) (initially as Macro International, Inc., later acquired by ICF), the first nationwide adult tobacco survey in the U.S.代表美国疾病控制与预防中心. One year later, we worked with the CDC to deploy the National Program of Cancer Registries, Cancer Surveillance System (NPCR-CSS) (initially as Macro International, Inc., later acquired by ICF), one of the agency’s largest disease surveillance systems, to help policymakers and researchers make timely and informed decisions regarding patient care. 这两个项目最初都是由Macro International, Inc .启动的., later acquired by ICF.
而我们的咨询业务继续蓬勃发展, the two engineering divisions within ICF Kaiser struggled. In June of 1999 the consulting management team led a leveraged buyout of the consulting arm, in partnership with CM equity, splitting from ICF Kaiser. Some 35 senior managers supported the transaction with their own financial contributions. We returned to being a privately-held consulting company named ICF Consulting, and Sudhakar Kesavan was named CEO. This enabled us to control our own destiny and focus on growing our core consulting business.
四年后的2003年，我们开始与 Office of Head Start (initially as Caliber Associates, later acquired by ICF), that continues today. For more than 15 years we have supported Head Start programs in multiple regions across the U.S. to help the nation’s most at-risk populations achieve the highest-possible performance in school readiness, child welfare, family engagement, professional development, and community support. Services include language and literacy learning, healthy meals, and financial planning. Head Start today supports roughly 1 million people, including children under the age five and expectant mothers.
The 2000s were a time of rapid growth for us. Following the leveraged buyout of 1999 we acquired several companies to add subject matter expertise and implementation skills to our offerings. We acquired two divisions of Arthur D. Little (2002) strengthening our environment, energy, applied technology and program management capabilities. In 2005 we acquired Synergy, Inc., enabling ICF to provide mission-critical and technology-based solutions for the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal and state agencies. Also in 2005 we acquired Caliber Associates, enhancing our IT and workforce offerings for the U.S. 国防部，教育部，卫生和公共服务部以及司法部.
In 2004 we opened an office in New Delhi to provide analytical support to the U.S. energy team and help grow our work in the India region where we saw long-term opportunity. Our team in India has been involved in several high-profile projects including developing a masterplan for the national gas grid on behalf of the Indian government and working with the Department for Internal Development (DFID) on various programs. Today, the India team – with locations in New Delhi and Bangalore – supports all divisions across ICF such as energy, aviation, climate, education, and health.
In 2005 the most active Atlantic hurricane season in recorded history saw catastrophic damage to the southeastern U.S., particularly from Category 5 Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. These storms, among the top 10 most intense Atlantic storms ever, battered U.S. states Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Georgia, and several others just one month apart. 近4000人丧生，损失总额超过1800亿美元. In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we worked with the State of Louisiana to implement Road Home, the state’s Community Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded the grant to the state of Louisiana. CDBG是美国最大的连续运行项目之一.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Our long history of supporting HUD CDBG work since the 1980s positioned us well for this work. The Road Home, a joint effort with numerous partners and local, state, and federal agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), was an ambitious and complex project that would eventually become the largest single housing recovery effort in U.S. history.
Despite massive infrastructure challenges and the complexity inherent in such a vast, unprecedented project, we opened nine housing assistance centers within 90 days of being contracted. We later added four more assistance centers and a mobile center to handle the high demand for assistance. 我们雇佣了2300名员工来增强州、地方和非营利组织的能力. We ensured that there was no duplication of benefits and that funds were tracked to the individual case or applicant level, a critical step for protecting taxpayer investment in federal and state programs. As of 2018, the Road Home program had dispersed more than $9 billion dollars to over 130,000名路易斯安那州居民受到卡特里娜和丽塔飓风的影响.
Our organic and acquisitive growth during the period from 1999 to 2006 allowed us to do something big: we went public on NASDAQ with the stock ticker ICFI on September 28, 2006, having raised $56M. That same year, 迫于我们公司对环境管理的承诺, 我们决定对我们的碳足迹承担更多的责任. We became the first professional services firm in the world to achieve net carbon neutrality by purchasing high-quality carbon offsets.
From 2007 to 2009 we grew through a series of strategic acquisitions including: Energy and Environmental Analysis (EEA) (2007), 提高天然气等替代燃料的生产能力, and in automotive emissions and fuel efficiency technologies that impact greenhouse gas emissions; Advanced Performance Consulting Group (APCG) (2007), 扩大我们在联邦组织绩效方面的能力, human capital, and strategic communications consulting; Z-Tech Corporation (2007), bringing additional health technology skills; Simat, Hilliesen & Eichner (SH&E) (2007), which added aviation consulting capabilities; Jones & Stokes (2008), expanding our geographic presence on the West Coast and bringing field-based environmental capabilities that established us as a leader in the environmental planning and infrastructure field; Macro International, Inc. (2009), which significantly increased our public health and international health portfolio; and Jacob & Sundstrom, Inc. (2009)带来了网络安全和身份和访问管理
At the same time we continued to grow organically, largely due to The White House’s significant investment in the economy following the financial crisis. We supported key infrastructure and implementation projects that were funded under the American Recovery and Reconstruction Act (ARRA). We worked with the Department of Agriculture to encourage the installation of broadband access to underserved and rural communities; with the Department of Education to support the Race to the Top program; and with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to reduce the risk factors for chronic diseases. ICF’s organic growth in its federal business during this period was well above 10 percent.
We experienced robust double-digit growth in our commercial energy efficiency business during this period. This was driven by more than 30 state public utility commissions mandating the implementation of energy efficiency programs by utilities and providing a dedicated funding stream to support such programs, 通常是通过能源账单上的一小笔公共物品费用. In 2008 we were selected to work with the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE), an Exelon Corporation company, to pioneer one of the first, longest-running energy efficiency programs in the nation. Since 2008 we have assisted utility clients in more than 30 states to design and implement innovative energy efficiency programs that help their customers save energy and money, while helping the states and utilities achieve efficiency targets and improve grid resiliency and reliability.
We expanded our geographic presence. 2011年，我们收购了总部位于加拿大的Marbek Resource Consultants Ltd, strengthening our position in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and pollution prevention programs. Also in 2011 we acquired Ironworks Consulting, L.L.C. which accelerated our technology implementation skills and was the first step in building what would eventually become a powerful commercial marketing technology services capability. A year later in 2012, we acquired London-based company GHK Holdings Limited, strengthening our advisory services capability in the U.K. and Europe. That same year, we purchased the 可持续发展信息管理系统(SIMS)平台, an analytical framework used by energy utilities to make informed decisions on resource consumption trends and program effectiveness.
In the midst of this growth we grew our disaster recovery and management offerings. In 2011 we helped launch the HUD Exchange, 一个获奖的在线平台，提供节目信息, guidance, services, and tools to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) community partners to help build resilience before a disaster hits. In 2013 we expanded our work in disaster recovery, helping more than 30,000 people in the Northeast U.S. return to their homes or relocate to safer areas following the damage caused by Superstorm Sandy.
在过去的几年里，我们继续扩大在欧洲的工作. In 2013 we partnered with the U.K. Department of Business, Energy and Industry Strategy (BEIS) on the Energy Using Products Programme, building on our ENERGY STAR work. 时至今日，我们为美国政府提供技术和经济分析服务.K. government, influencing European Union (EU) regulations on mandatory Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) and energy labels for domestic products including appliances, lighting, and other devices. 我们还管理申请和评估标准的美国.K. incentive program to encourage industrial and commercial consumers to purchase highly energy-efficient products. 该项目确立了ICF作为美国空军认可的项目承包商的地位.K. government. Since then we have expanded our services to BEIS and now deliver support for the Energy Technologies List and the Industrial Heat Recovery Support Programme (IHRS), 一项1800万英镑的资助计划，用于支持可行性研究, detailed engineering and capital expenditure analysis on IHR projects in the U.K.
In 2014 together with AIDSInfo and the National Institues of Health (NIH) we helped develop the AIDSinfo Drug Database app to address the increased use of mobile devices to access health information. A year later we worked with the NIH to pilot the Navigator Program for ClinicalTrials.gov data providers, contributing to more timely access and transparency of clinical trial information for researchers, patients, and health care providers.
Starting in 2015 we worked with the EU Network of Public Employment Servies (PES) to establish a formal and highly engaging mutual learning program that connects jobseekers with employers to help reduce the soaring levels of unemployment across the EU. We started working with the European Commission and China on climate change, emissions trading and cooperation on energy. 从2016年开始，我们为欧盟启动了另一个有影响力的项目 EU Aid Volunteers programme, which trains young volunteers for humanitarian aid. Also in 2016 we started working with the European Commission to strengthen relationships with North America and China on sustainable urban development, climate change, and cooperation on energy programs.
In 2016, leaders from around the world signed the Paris Agreement这是有史以来第一个具有普遍法律约束力的全球气候协议. ICF is working with countries in Asia, the European Union, and North America to help meet the goals of the Paris Agreement by designing and implementing climate policies including emissions trading systems. For almost 30 years, 首先是我们在1987年为支持《明升体育m88》所做的工作, we have provided integrated and holistic climate services to clients around the globe.
In 2017 we again expanded our disaster recovery work with the launch of projects in Texas and Puerto Rico. This work is focused on helping residents and communities recover in the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey, 有史以来最昂贵和最具破坏性的风暴之一和玛丽亚, the most powerful and devastating storm to ever hit the island of Puerto Rico. In addition to case and project management, we are bringing new innovation to recovery efforts. In Puerto Rico, we are partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to leverage innovative technologies including drones and 3D modeling to quickly assess damage and expedite access to federal recovery funds. In 2018 we acquired DMS Disaster Consultants, which now operates as part of our disaster management and resilience division.
几十年来，ICF一直为美国军方提供战略通信服务.S. government clients, including the expansion of our early work with the ENERGY STAR program. 随着商业营销技术的进步, ICF开始扩大其在这一新兴领域的能力. 2011年对Ironworks的收购是这一努力的开始, followed by the 2014 acquisitions of CityTech and Olson, which together greatly increased our service to commercial sector customers in marketing, communications, and marketing technology. In 2014 we also acquired Mostra SA, a leader in strategic communications for the European Commission. We followed that by acquiring The Future Customer in 2017 and We Are Vista in 2018, both marketing firms based in the U.K. serving the private sector.
2019年，我们推出了ICF Next，这是ICF咨询公司的一个新部门. ICF Next encompasses all of our marketing, communications, and technology organizations to bring our outreach and engagement capabilities to private and public sector clients worldwide. ICF Next represents an exciting period in our evolution, enhancing our ability to bring our complete set of capabilities to clients in the energy, financial, consumer, government, health, and travel and hospitality industries. For example, we worked with the Belize Tourism Board (initially as Olson, later acquired by ICF), to create a 95 percent year-over-year increase in tourism growth; we serve three of the largest global hoteliers to provide loyalty marketing services; and we partnered with the CDC to launch the Be Antibiotics Aware campaign to promote appropriate antibiotic prescribing and use. We supported the CDC 以帮助打击全国性的阿片类药物流行病. And we helped the European Union engage its citizens on policy issues (initially as Mostra SA, later acquired by ICF).
