Karma Environmental

Karma Environmental Services isn't the crew you call for a kitchen — it's the abatement outfit that shows up when a building turns up asbestos, lead paint, PCBs or contaminated soil and the material has to come out under state rules. The Quincy company works both residential and commercial jobs, and says it was established in 2011, about 15 years in the trade, with a client list it describes as MassDOT, DCAM, housing authorities and public school districts. Its Massachusetts Supplier Diversity Office certification as a Woman Business Enterprise checks out against the state registry and runs through September 2028. The first thing a homeowner should weigh is what state regulators have on file. MassDEP assessed the company a $17,355 penalty over asbestos-regulation violations during work at a commercial building slated for demolition; Good Jobs First's violation tracker dates that state action to December 9, 2021. OSHA's inspection database also carries a record under the company's name, with nothing stated there about how it ended. Neither settles how the crew works today, but in a trade whose entire point is containment, an asbestos-rule penalty is the thing to ask about directly. Customer voices are nearly absent. Google carries two ratings averaging 5★ — far too few to lean on — and the company's BuildZoom profile shows no reviews at all, beside 13 permitted projects, most of them 2023 single-family demolition permits in Needham that the site marks suspended. BuildZoom also lists a Massachusetts asbestos contractor license for the company, plus a Rhode Island commercial contractor license it flags as unverified and last showing a 2021 expiration. So: a firm with a real specialty and public-agency work it claims, and a state penalty against it, but almost nothing written by past customers. If you have an abatement job, ask how the 2021 MassDEP matter was resolved, ask to see the current Massachusetts asbestos license and insurance certificates, and request references from recent residential work — there's little written history to substitute for them.