Safety Consulting Companies in Texas: How to Pick the Right One

The right safety consulting company in Texas covers both OSHA and TCEQ/EPA requirements, works with you as an ongoing partner instead of handing over a one-time audit, and follows a defined process you can see and track. That’s the short answer. The rest of this guide explains how to check for each of those before you sign anything.

Key takeaways

• Safety consulting, OSHA consulting, and EHS or HSE consulting describe the same core service: finding and closing your OSHA, EPA, and TCEQ compliance gaps.
• Most Texas manufacturers need both workplace safety (OSHA) and environmental (TCEQ and EPA) coverage. Many consultants only handle one.
• A comprehensive OSHA inspection of a manufacturing facility typically ends in $35,000 to $90,000 in fines.
• A full-time, qualified safety and environmental manager typically costs $175,000 to $250,000 a year. A consulting partnership costs a fraction of that.
• Ask every consultant the 7 questions below, especially what happens after the first audit.

In this guide: What safety consultants do · OSHA and TCEQ coverage · 7 questions to ask · Consultant vs. in-house cost · Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Waco · FAQ

If you’re searching for safety consulting companies in Texas, something probably just happened. A customer asked for your written safety program, your insurance carrier flagged your loss runs, or you heard about a shop down the road that got a surprise OSHA visit. I get it. I’ve been exactly where you are, and I can tell you the consultant you pick matters a lot more than most owners realize.

Here’s the problem. Most small and mid-sized Texas manufacturers never got trained to handle OSHA, EPA, and TCEQ requirements. You were trained to make a great product and run a tight shop. So when it’s time to hire help, you’re trying to judge expertise you don’t have, and every consultant’s website says the same things.

And the stakes aren’t small. As of 2026, a single “serious” OSHA violation carries a maximum penalty of $16,550, and willful or repeat violations can reach $165,514 each (OSHA adjusts these every January; see the current OSHA penalty amounts). That’s before TCEQ shows up, before the legal bills, and before the OSHA press release that customers and job applicants can find online for years.

Pick the wrong safety consultant and you end up paying twice. Once for the binder that sits on a shelf, and again when an inspector finds that nothing in it was ever put into practice. Believe me when I tell you, the cost of figuring this out after OSHA shows up is always worse.

Before you start calling around, it helps to know where you actually stand. Our free, 2-minute OSHA Inspection Readiness and Compliance Risk Calculator gives you a readiness score and an estimate of your penalty exposure, so you’ll walk into every consultant conversation knowing what to ask about.

What Does a Safety (EHS) Consulting Company in Texas Do?

A safety consulting company in Texas helps manufacturers and contractors find their OSHA, EPA, and TCEQ compliance gaps, then builds, trains, and manages the programs that close them. The good ones don’t just hand you a report. They stay involved until those programs are actually working on your shop floor.

You’ll see this work called a lot of different things: safety consulting, OSHA consulting, environmental, health and safety consulting, and in industry shorthand, EHS or HSE consulting. It’s the same core work. The label matters a lot less than whether the firm covers both the safety side and the environmental side of your business.

A real safety consulting partner typically handles:

• Compliance assessments against the OSHA, EPA, and TCEQ rules that actually apply to your operation
• Company-specific written programs, not a generic manual with your logo on the cover
• Employee training that your people actually understand, which is what OSHA requires
• Routine on-site inspections with written findings and corrective actions
• Environmental compliance, such as hazardous waste, stormwater, air permits, and Tier II reporting
• Help during and after an OSHA or TCEQ inspection, including closing out citations

Do Texas Manufacturers Need Both OSHA and TCEQ Compliance Help?

Yes. Most Texas manufacturers answer to OSHA for workplace safety and to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and the EPA for environmental requirements like hazardous waste, stormwater, and air permits. A safety consultant who only covers OSHA leaves half of your exposure untouched.

I learned this the hard way. Before I started Berg, I owned an energy services company. We got a surprise OSHA inspection, and we failed. I’ll never forget writing that check to the U.S. Department of Treasury. It was humbling. I wasn’t mad at the agency. I was embarrassed, and even more than that, ashamed, because I’d unknowingly put my own employees at risk. Then I ran into trouble with TCEQ too. Not because I didn’t care. Because I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

That’s why “do you cover environmental?” should be one of the first questions you ask. If you’re not sure what applies to you, start with these common Texas environmental compliance requirements. Keep in mind that a good Texas consultant will also know how to use the Texas Environmental, Health and Safety Audit Privilege Act, which can protect your company when an environmental audit turns up past problems. If you need help on the environmental side, see our Texas environmental compliance services.

What Should You Ask Before Hiring a Safety Consultant in Texas?

The best way to compare safety consulting companies in Texas is to ask how they work after the first audit, not just what they’ll find during it. Here are the seven questions I’d ask if I were in your shoes again.

1. Are you local to Texas? A consultant who knows TCEQ, Texas industry, and can actually walk your floor in Austin, Houston, Dallas, or San Antonio is worth more than one who flies in once a year.
2. Do you cover both safety and environmental? Almost every manufacturer needs both. Most consultants are strong in one, rarely both.
3. Is this a one-time audit or an ongoing partnership? A report that shows up and disappears is how binders end up on shelves.
4. What’s your process? Ask them to walk you through it step by step. If they can’t describe a defined, repeatable process, they’re making it up as they go.
5. How will I know where we stand? You should get a live, scored view of your program, not a guess and not a stack of paper.
6. Who decides what we handle in-house? A good partner lays out the options and lets you choose how much your team takes on.
7. Can I talk to a manufacturer like me? Ask for references in your industry and your size range, then call them.

Don’t get me wrong, there are capable people out there in every category. My point is that these seven answers separate a consultant who’ll check boxes from a partner who’ll actually stick around and follow through.

Is a Safety Consultant Cheaper Than Hiring an In-House Safety Manager?

For most Texas manufacturers with 20 to 250 employees, yes. A qualified, full-time safety and environmental manager typically costs $175,000 to $250,000 a year in salary, and an ongoing consulting partnership costs a fraction of that. A hire alone also doesn’t make you compliant.

I’ve spent over 22 years recruiting, vetting, and managing safety professionals, and hiring for this role is harder than it looks. Résumés are full of certifications and acronyms, and if you’ve never hired for the job, it’s tough to tell who can actually run a program. And the soft skills that make safety stick, like influencing leadership and building culture, are rare.

Having said that, some companies get it right. But the odds are stacked against you, and I’ve seen plenty of owners land in what I call the illusion of compliance. We wrote more about that in why hiring an in-house safety manager doesn’t automatically make you compliant. If you already have a safety person, the issue usually isn’t them. It’s that one overloaded person is covering a job that really takes a team.

If you want to keep safety in-house, FACTORY-Safe Mentor builds your program and mentors your safety person to run it, with an experienced Berg consultant checking their work. If you need an experienced safety professional on-site, see our EHS and safety staffing.

Safety Consulting in Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Waco

Berg Compliance Solutions, LLC is an Austin-based safety and environmental consulting firm that has served as the safety department for Texas manufacturers since 2013, covering OSHA, EPA, and TCEQ requirements under one ongoing partnership. We work with manufacturers across Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Waco, in industries like metal fabrication, food processing, electronics, medical devices, plastics, and chemicals.

It usually starts with a FACTORY Risk Assessment, a full review of your OSHA, TCEQ, and EPA requirements, including shop floor hazards, written programs, and training, plus an estimate of your fine liability. From there, FACTORY-Safe is our ongoing partnership, available on-site in Texas or virtually. Clients track everything in Safety Trac, our web-based platform, so they always know their score.

The results are real. An Austin sign manufacturer with no prior safety structure reached full OSHA compliance within 12 months and has renewed every year since. A Fredericksburg machine shop facing OSHA citations corrected every violation before the deadline and qualified for OSHA’s expedited settlement offer. You can read the details in our compliance case study success story.

“If you’re thinking you don’t need the expertise Berg has to offer, spend a few days getting up close and personal with the EPA, OSHA, or TCEQ’s websites… The problem is, small companies cannot afford to pay an entire salary to have one person amass the expertise that Berg has in its stable of subject matter experts… Teaming with Berg is making the load of becoming a safe and compliant company much, much lighter.”

Daryl Lanaville, Plant Manager, Solaris Oilfield Infrastructure

Frequently Asked Questions About Safety Consulting in Texas

How much does a safety consultant cost in Texas?

The cost of a safety consultant in Texas depends on scope, whether it’s a one-time audit or an ongoing monthly partnership, and whether environmental compliance is included. For most small and mid-sized manufacturers, an ongoing consulting partnership costs a fraction of a full-time safety manager, who typically earns $175,000 to $250,000 a year. A comprehensive OSHA inspection that goes badly can cost $35,000 to $90,000 in fines alone.

What’s the difference between EHS, HSE, and safety consulting?

EHS stands for environmental, health and safety, and HSE is the same idea with the words reordered. Both describe consulting that covers OSHA workplace safety plus environmental requirements from the EPA and TCEQ. “Safety consulting” is often used for the same service, but some safety consultants only cover OSHA, so ask whether environmental compliance is included.

How do I find a good safety consultant near me in Texas?

Look for a safety consulting company with a local Texas presence, experience with manufacturers in your industry, and coverage of both OSHA and TCEQ requirements. Ask for references from companies your size, and ask how the consultant works after the first audit. Firms that offer an ongoing partnership and a defined, repeatable process tend to deliver lasting compliance.

What’s the difference between a one-time safety audit and ongoing safety consulting?

A one-time safety audit identifies compliance gaps and delivers a report, but the company is left to fix the problems on its own. Ongoing safety consulting includes the audit and then builds the written programs, trains employees, runs routine inspections, and keeps the program current as regulations change. Most small manufacturers lack the staff to act on an audit report alone.

Do small manufacturers in Texas need a safety consultant?

OSHA and EPA requirements apply regardless of company size, and a major fine can hurt a small manufacturer far more than a large one. Small manufacturers rarely have the staff or time to build and maintain compliant programs themselves. A safety consultant gives a small company access to that expertise without a full-time hire.

Can a safety consulting company help after an OSHA citation?

Yes. A safety consulting company can help a manufacturer correct cited violations, document the fixes, and meet OSHA’s abatement deadlines. In one Texas case, a specialty machine shop corrected every violation before its deadline and qualified for OSHA’s expedited settlement offer, which reduced its fines. Learn more about our OSHA inspection and citation help.

Does OSHA’s free consultation program replace a private safety consultant?

OSHA’s free On-Site Consultation Program is a helpful resource, but it doesn’t build, manage, or maintain a manufacturer’s safety program over time. It also doesn’t address environmental requirements from the EPA or TCEQ. Most Texas manufacturers still need an ongoing partner to run the day-to-day work of staying compliant.

Talk Through Your Options Before You Hire Anyone

If you’re comparing safety consulting companies in Texas right now, I’d be glad to be a second set of eyes. On a short call, we’ll look at what your operation actually triggers on the OSHA, TCEQ, and EPA side, where your biggest gaps probably are, and what kind of help makes sense for a company your size. Even if you end up going a different direction, you’ll walk away knowing exactly what to ask any consultant you talk to. No pitch, no obligation. Book a free consultation with Russell and let’s figure out where you stand.

Russell Carr is the Founder and CEO of Berg Compliance Solutions, LLC, which has helped Texas manufacturers with OSHA, EPA, and TCEQ compliance since 2013. Before that, he spent 22 years owning four small businesses in high-hazard industries, where he failed a surprise OSHA inspection and rebuilt his own safety programs from scratch. He’s since served as an expert witness in environmental enforcement cases and helped hundreds of manufacturers build programs that hold up. If he could figure it out, you can too.