CMTA is a mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering firm founded in Louisville, Kentucky in 1968, now operating nationally as part of Legence. It is best known for net zero energy design, particularly in K-12 and higher education, where it has delivered dozens of schools that generate as much energy as they consume. That work has pushed the firm toward geothermal, high-efficiency envelope coordination and detailed energy modeling as standard practice rather than premium add-ons. CMTA served as MEP engineer on the $306 million Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital critical care tower in Richmond, Virginia, a project carrying 44 ICU beds, six operating rooms, two cardiac catheterization labs and a relocated rooftop helipad. The firm also runs commissioning and energy performance contracting practices for institutional owners.
CMTA marks 58 years in the industry and describes itself as the only U.S. firm delivering MEP engineering, energy performance contracting and zero energy or zero carbon buildings under one roof. Six expertise groups carry that: consulting engineering, performance contracting, zero energy design, technology, commissioning and acoustic design.
The reach is national. More than fifty offices sit behind the Louisville headquarters — Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbia, Duluth, El Segundo, Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Plano, Raleigh, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Golden among them, with clusters in Florida, North Dakota and West Virginia. Corporate offices are at 10411 Meeting Street in Prospect, just north of Louisville.
Ownership changed the firm’s scale. CMTA is a Legence company; Legence listed on Nasdaq in September 2025 and comprises fifteen businesses and over 10,000 people. CMTA itself keeps its brand, offices and engineering leadership.
What sets the practice apart is that it argues from measured data rather than modelled intent. The firm holds more than 25 years of actual utility data from its own design portfolio and feeds those numbers back into new work. The published tallies: 12 million square feet of zero energy design, 7 million square feet of zero carbon design, 130 million square feet of decarbonised buildings and campuses, 50 million square feet operating below 35 EUI, roughly 8,000 miles of geothermal piping, 200 megawatts of renewable energy, 7,000 EV charging stations and about 1,000 ENERGY STAR certified projects. It also reports securing some $300 million in project funding on behalf of clients.
Its own building makes the case. The Prospect headquarters became the first WELL Gold Certified zero energy building in the United States in 2020, and is instrumented specifically to give CMTA engineers real operating data to show clients.
Regional work runs deep in Kentucky and beyond. Richardsville Elementary was the first zero energy school in the country. Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport carries what the firm calls the largest airport geothermal system in the United States, plus a 6.75 MW generator plant microgrid and a new operations and data centre. Ogden College Hall at Western Kentucky University is described as the nation’s first WELL certified university lab building. Others include Churchill Downs, Lynn Family Stadium, the Kentucky Exposition Center, the Kentucky International Convention Center, Norton Brownsboro, and district-wide performance contracts for Warren County and Nelson County schools.
Markets span K-12, higher education, healthcare, federal, aviation, advanced manufacturing, life sciences, mission critical and data centres, sports and entertainment, hospitality, media production, local government and workplace.
