PFAS: Green Potential, Persistent Peril

The Investment Opportunity of The Silent Threat in Your Water

Imagine this: It’s a crisp Saturday morning, and you’re sipping coffee from your favorite mug, brewed with water from your kitchen tap. Your kids are playing in the backyard, splashing in a kiddie pool filled from the garden hose. Later, you’ll head to the grocery store, picking up packaged snacks coated to resist grease and water.

Sounds like a typical day, right? But woven into this everyday scene is a hidden threat - one that’s been part of your life for decades without you knowing it. It’s called PFAS, and it’s not just a chemical problem; it’s a story of science, regulation, and opportunity that’s reshaping the world. It’s a critical environmental challenge that resonates with the goals of climate-focused investing.

Equity investors are always on the lookout for the next big thing: a market with growth potential, driven by real-world needs. PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, is such an opportunity. These “forever chemicals” are everywhere: in your water, your food packaging, even the firefighting foam at the airport. They’re persistent, they’re problematic, and they’re creating a multi-billion-dollar market for solutions. But this isn’t just about numbers. It’s about the water you drink, the products you buy, and the future you’re building for your family. Let’s connect the dots between PFAS, your daily life, and the investment landscape, weaving a story that’s as personal as it is profitable.

The Invisible Invader: What Are PFAS?

Picture yourself as a customer at your local supermarket, grabbing a microwave popcorn bag or a non-stick pan. These products owe their convenience to PFAS, a family of over 12,000 synthetic chemicals developed in the 1940s. PFAS are miracle molecules: they repel water, oil, and stains, making them perfect for everything from Teflon pans to waterproof jackets, fast-food wrappers to firefighting foams. But there’s a catch. PFAS don’t break down. Ever. They linger in the environment, in wildlife, and—yes—in your body. Studies link them to health risks like cancer, thyroid disease, and immune system issues.

Now, think about your role as a client of your city’s water utility. You trust that the water coming out of your tap is safe. But PFAS have been detected in drinking water across the U.S. and Europe, often at levels exceeding safe limits. Remember Erin Brockovich or more recently Dark Waters? PFAS is the new battleground, with communities demanding action against contamination from industrial sites, airports, and landfills. For climate fund investors, PFAS pollution is a critical issue: it degrades ecosystems, disrupts water resources, and undermines sustainability goals. Solutions that address this crisis are a natural fit for funds prioritizing environmental impact.

The Market: A Growing Giant

The PFAS solutions market is a cornerstone of environmental progress, driven by the need to detect, treat, and eliminate these chemicals.

Since their introduction in the 1940s, PFAS have contaminated over 2,800 sites across all 50 U.S. states, from military bases to rural wells, and rivers and soils in Europe.

The Environmental Business Journal estimates the total addressable market (TAM) for PFAS  in the U.S. could reach upwards of $200 billion over the next 20 years, up from $160 billion a few years ago and $120 billion earlier, reflecting a deeper grasp of PFAS’s pervasive reach. This TAM spans many segments. Think of consulting and advisory, testing, remediation, and destruction, each with its own growth trajectory, each unlocking new opportunities as the scope of this crisis, decades in the making, comes into sharper focus.

Early on we can expect a surge in consulting and advisory services as manufacturers, airports, municipalities and many others lean on experts to assess their PFAS exposure. Companies with industrial sites or federal contracts are racing to understand their risks, driving demand for firms offering strategic guidance.

Simultaneously, testing is ramping up, with labs investing in specialized equipment to detect PFAS at parts-per-trillion levels—a challenge requiring unique, costly systems not widely available. The U.S. PFAS testing market, valued at $379.2 million in 2023, is projected to hit $969.5 million by 2030, with a CAGR of 14.3%.

Over the next several years, remediation will take center stage as municipalities and industries deploy treatment systems to clean water and soil. The U.S. remediation market is already worth $2 billion annually, with global PFAS treatment markets expected to reach $10 billion by 2030.

Ultimately, destruction technologies will emerge as the long-term solution, permanently eliminating PFAS rather than merely containing them.

This phased progression: consulting and testing now, remediation soon, destruction later, creates a multi-decade investment runway.

In Europe, the EU’s proposed PFAS ban accelerates these trends, mirroring U.S. growth.

As an investor, you’ve seen markets driven by necessity. Think for example about renewable energy or cybersecurity. PFAS is no different. Every contaminated site needs testing, every water system needs filtration, and every manufacturer needs PFAS-free alternatives. This is a market where demand is guaranteed, and the stakes are personal.

The Investment Case: Where the Opportunities Lie

For investors, PFAS solutions represent a compelling area for fund managers to evaluate, addressing a persistent environmental threat through innovative technologies. The companies highlighted here are active in PFAS solutions, but it’s worth noting that PFAS is only one part of their broader portfolios, which often span diverse environmental, industrial, and technological services.

Here’s how:

• Consulting and Advisory: Facilities like manufacturing plants and airports require expert guidance to assess PFAS exposure. Tetra Tech excels here, leveraging its “Leading with Science®” approach to conduct site investigations and risk assessments for the DoD and municipalities, informing remediation strategies, alongside broader environmental consulting services. Montrose Environmental provides advisory services, offering compliance support within its wider environmental solutions portfolio. AECOM, a global infrastructure consulting firm, offers engineering and consulting to identify and treat PFAS in water and wastewater. Bureau Veritas supports site assessments for PFAS contamination, such as at airports, and provides regulatory guidance for compliance with U.S. and EU standards, within its global testing, inspection, and certification portfolio. WSP Global conducts site investigations, risk assessments, and compliance support, including screening ~100 airports and advising California’s State Water Resources Control Board, within its environmental and infrastructure consulting services.
• Testing and Detection: Water testing laboratories rely on advanced tools to monitor PFAS contamination in wells and municipal supplies. Agilent Technologies and Thermo Fisher Scientific lead with their dedicated systems detecting PFAS at parts-per-trillion levels, meeting EPA and EU standards. Waters Corporation provides turnkey PFAS analysis solutions, including mass spectrometers for environmental and food testing, within its broader laboratory equipment offerings. The global environmental testing segments are growing at double-digit rates, driven by regulatory mandates. Montrose Environmental complements them with its Ultratrace lab, analyzing over 70 PFAS compounds, including air emissions from industrial sources as well as ensuring compliance for clients like the Department of Defense. Intertek Group adds compliance testing for consumer products, ensuring PFAS-free supply chains. Bureau Veritas offers accredited PFAS testing for 40 compounds and provides PFAS-free sampling materials within its environmental and consumer product services.
• Water Treatment: Municipal utilities deploy filtration systems to meet stringent PFAS limits. Ecolab offers its Purofine™ PFA694 ion exchange resin, treating over 11 billion gallons of contaminated water globally. Xylem provides MitiGATOR™ systems for municipalities and military bases, while Veolia Environnement delivers BeyondPFAS solutions, including foam fractionation for industrial wastewater. These firms are investing billions in R&D, securing long-term contracts. Montrose Environmental adds its patented FOAM-X™ ion exchange system, treating landfill leachate and drinking water to non-detect levels, as can be seen for example at Waste Connections’ Champ Landfill. Tetra Tech designs the largest U.S. ion exchange plant for Orange County Water District, restoring contaminated wells with 25 million gallons daily capacity.
• Remediation and Destruction Methodologies:

Remediation and destruction rely on a range of technologies, each addressing PFAS’s unique challenges. We are talking about technologies like Granular activated carbon (GAC), a bit like a scaled-up Brita filter which uses adsorption to capture long-chain PFAS in drinking water but struggles with short-chain variants and requires disposal of saturated carbon.

Ion exchange resins, such as those from Ecolab and Montrose, employ adsorption and absorption, targeting both long- and short-chain PFAS, though saturated resins need disposal. Reverse osmosis (RO), used by Xylem, filters PFAS but leaves 20% concentrated “dirty” water, often paired with GAC or ion exchange. Foam fractionation, deployed by Veolia, spins water to separate PFAS’s hydrophobic head from its hydrophilic tail, offering a cost-effective solution for long-chain PFAS.

Pentair offers PFAS filtration products for residential and commercial water, certified to reduce PFOA and PFOS, within its broader water treatment portfolio. ARQ manufactures activated carbon for PFAS treatment, one of the EPA’s recommended technologies, as part of its environmental solutions.

Kuraray, via its subsidiary Calgon Carbon Corporation, provides activated carbon filters for PFAS removal and PFAS-free surface technologies, aligning with remediation and substitution, within its chemical and polymer portfolio. Industrie De Nora offers SORB FX (ion exchange) and SORB CX (GAC) systems for PFAS removal, with piloting of regenerable ion exchange and electrochemical advanced oxidation processes (EAOP) for destruction, within its electrochemical and water treatment portfolio.

Disposal however still remains a hurdle: Incineration faces EPA scrutiny over emissions, while landfilling risks leachate contamination.

Hazardous waste management facilities handle PFAS-contaminated materials from industrial sites. Clean Harbors incinerates PFAS with 99.9999% efficiency, and Republic Services isolates waste in landfills. Jacobs Solutions specializes in soil remediation, using innovative immobilization techniques.

Emerging destruction technologies, like Tetra Tech’s electron beam (eBeam) and IBA’s particle accelerators, aim to permanently destroy PFAS, but they’re still pre-commercial, promising a future where “bury or burn” is obsolete.

• Substitution: As a customer buying PFAS-free packaging, you’re part of the shift led by Kemira. Their bio-based barrier coatings replace PFAS in food packaging, aligning with EU bans and U.S. state laws. This segment is nascent but poised for explosive growth as consumer brands pivot.

The investment scale is significant. The U.S. Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act allocated 10 billion dollar for PFAS cleanup, with states like Michigan and New Jersey adding billions more. In Europe, the EU’s REACH framework is pushing 100billion Euro’s in compliance costs by 2030. For investors, this translates to stable, high-margin opportunities in companies with proven PFAS solutions.

Click here to download the valuation table of the PFAS solution providers in PDF

The Regulatory Rollercoaster: Trump’s Impact

Regulation shapes the PFAS market, creating both challenges and opportunities. And PFAS has been such a regulatory hot potato, and the new Trump administration, inaugurated in January 2025, is shaking things up.

Remember that in April of last year, the Biden-era EPA set a groundbreaking National Primary Drinking Water Regulation, limiting six PFAS compounds (e.g., PFOA, PFOS) to 4 parts per trillion—the strictest standard globally. This rule forced utilities to install filtration systems, boosting demand for companies like Ecolab and Xylem. States like California and Maine went further, banning PFAS in consumer products by 2030. In Europe, the EU’s 2023 proposal to ban all PFAS by 2025 sent manufacturers scrambling for alternatives.

Under Trump, the landscape shifted. Trump’s team, prioritizing deregulation, has dialed back some PFAS rules. In February 2025, the EPA paused enforcement of the 4 ppt limit for smaller utilities, citing compliance costs. The Department of Defense, a major PFAS polluter, received exemptions for AFFF cleanup, slowing contracts for some of the waste players. Yet, the core PFAS regulations remain intact: states and the EU are holding firm, and public pressure is unrelenting. Think of your kids drinking from a school fountain: parents won’t tolerate inaction on forever chemicals.

This regulatory landscape underscores the resilience of PFAS solutions, with testing and remediation firms thriving on state and global mandates, offering investors stable opportunities to evaluate. Companies like Agilent and Thermo Fisher are mostly insulated, as monitoring is non-negotiable. Treatment companies like Ecolab, Xylem, and Veolia face short-term volatility but thrive on state and EU mandates. Disposal giants like Republic Services and Clean Harbors handle PFAS waste that can’t be ignored, regardless of federal policy. The Trump rollback creates uncertainty, but it also opens undervalued entry points for investors who see the bigger picture: PFAS isn’t going away.

A Story of Impact

As an investor, you’re not just looking at the financial data, PFAS is part of a narrative that touches your life.

It’s why you read about companies like Arcadis, designing ozone fractionation systems to clean groundwater or IBA’s cutting-edge research.

Markets are often influenced by factors such as fear and necessity. PFAS combines both. It’s the fear of health risks in your water, your food, your clothes. It’s the necessity of cleaning up a mess decades in the making. All of the companies mentioned before are helping to write the next chapter. Their stock prices may dip with regulatory noise, but the underlying tailwind for these stocks are tied to a problem that won’t vanish.

The Road Ahead:

The story is unfolding, and we are at an inflection point. The market is growing, with U.S. and European demand projected to double by 2030. Regulations, even with Trump’s tweaks, are tightening. States like New York and California are setting their own PFAS limits, and the EU’s ban is on track. Public awareness is surging, fueled by lawsuits and media coverage.

And the current volatility creates opportunities. The Trump administration’s regulatory pause may soften short-term stock gains for related companies, but these companies have diversified revenue streams and global reach, weathering policy shifts while capitalizing on state and EU mandates. Meanwhile, testing giants like Agilent and Thermo Fisher are immune to deregulation, as labs must still monitor PFAS levels.

Conclusion: Be Part of the Solution

The PFAS story is also your story. It’s the water you drink, the ecosystems you protect, the future you champion. As a climate investor, you’re positioned to support a transformative market through funds that may choose to address PFAS pollution. Companies like Agilent, Ecolab, Veolia, Jacobs Solutions, Montrose, Tetra Tech, and IBA are tackling a crisis that threatens our planet, offering fund managers opportunities to align with environmental priorities. The market is vast, the need is urgent, and the regulatory landscape, while complex, ensures long-term demand.

So, the next time you pour a glass of water or check your portfolio, think about PFAS. It’s not just a chemical, it’s a call to action. By supporting climate funds that may address PFAS solutions, you’re contributing to a sustainable future, writing a chapter in a story that matters.

Your coffee mug, your kids’ pool, your grocery cart, … they’re all part of this narrative. Be the investor who sees the dots and connects them, for profit and for purpose.