Too often, individual remedial technology "silver bullets" have fallen short of the regulatory goals required to achieve site closure. Too often, individual vendors have competed against each other, claiming that their proprietary silver bullet (technology service or product) would be faster, better and more cost-effective without actually fulfilling all of their marketing claims. Too often, environmental consultants working on remedial action feasibility studies for their clients have only focused inside individual remediation technology boxes without looking "outside-these-boxes" for optimal soil and groundwater treatment approaches that could be achieved by bundling complementary technologies applied in a sequential fashion.

In the past, single technology solutions were often adequate to complete simple, easy to remediate environmental projects. However, the mantra today is to "do more with less, while still achieving closure." This means that complex environmental projects, which require closure of sites with recalcitrant stubborn contaminants, must be completed faster, better and more cost-effectively. Firm fixed price contracts are sending a clear message to environmental contractors that "means and techniques" are the responsibility of the environmental contractor. Clients are becoming increasingly more interested in solutions, not individual treatment technologies.