The History of hard hat Services

The Beginning

Hard Hat Services (Hard Hat), was founded in 2000 as an environmental design-build firm, focusing on building long-term relationships with clients in need of engineering, environmental remediation, construction management or system and process enhancements. Based in Naperville, Illinois, Hard Hat was centrally located to service clients across the country.

The Growth

Through 2008, Hard Hat continued to grow at a steady pace, adding key personnel and acquiring several small firms, gaining offices across the Midwest, and expanding in clientele and broadening industry expertise.  Hard Hat began to grow beyond its civil and environmental engineering roots into process engineering and program management.  

The Change

In June 2008, Hard Hat experienced another major change, acquiring Ely Energy of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a custom-engineered fabrication shop that served the synthetic natural gas and oil markets.  The combined two companies were rebranded as Aether DBS, a “Design/Build Services” company focused on creating custom-engineered modular treatment systems, gas blending, and ammonia solutions for industrial clients.

The Future

Toward the end of 2012, Aether DBS decided to focus their full attention on the manufacturing side of the business in Tulsa. This change allowed Hard Hat senior project managers the opportunity to spin the consulting team from the parent company and return to the Hard Hat Services brand, focusing on the company’s roots of value added engineering, project management, construction management and field services. With a team lead by principals that were with Hard Hat since 2001, the company retained its character, culture, business approach, and expertise.

Still headquartered in Naperville, Illinois, Hard Hat Services is growing again, adding capabilities and business units, innovating service approaches and diversifying into markets to better serve the clients of yesterday, today and the future.