Underserved Chicagoland business communities will benefit from quantitative category management and reuse networks.
CHICAGO, Ill. (September 17, 2021) — Rheaply, a climate tech company that combines a resource-sharing network with a user-friendly resource management platform, and EKI-Digital, a leader in the quantitative digital transformation space, today announced a partnership aimed to foster economic growth and development opportunities for underserved communities in the greater Chicagoland area.
In Chicago, as in many other cities, there exists a major opportunity to simultaneously establish sustainability programs and foster economic growth that benefits city residents. Rheaply, with its technology to operationalize and grow the circular economy, has helped scale local reuse to enable small businesses to reduce costs and avoid valuable resources being sent to landfills. Going forward, Rheaply will be expanding its scope to identify areas of opportunity where it can tap into local businesses to scale category management and better utilization of resources. Working with EKI-Digital, Rheaply will be able to accelerate these efforts by leveraging EKI-Digital’s Lean-Digital Delivery capabilities.
Together, Rheaply and EKI-Digital will operationalize scaled reuse and waste diversion. Creating this circular loop includes services Rheaply’s customers and partners can utilize to better operationalize their resource and inventory management processes. Below are a few key opportunities made possible by the partnership:
- Quantitative Category Management
- Organizations will gain the ability to use lean principles to understand resource utilization rates and make better procurement decisions.
- Inventory Management
- Organizations can contract out inventory management activities to local businesses that can help reduce the time & effort required to upload surplus into Rheaply’s Resource Exchange.
- Storage
- As organizations look to sell surplus resources and inventory on Rheaply, locally owned storage businesses can be utilized to help facilitate the transfer of resources/inventory from one business to another.
- Transportation/Logistics
- Local logistics companies can help with the transportation of purchased resources/inventory from one business or storage location to another.
- Maintenance/Service/Repairs
- As organizations have resources that require servicing, repairs, or maintenance, local businesses can be contracted to perform these services.
- Change Management and Strategic Reuse Plan Formulation
- Rheaply and EKI-Digital can partner with local experts to stand up policies, processes, and change management frameworks critical to creating a reuse program.
- Surplus Resource Sourcing
- Through Rheaply, local businesses and nonprofit organizations will be able to purchase used resources/inventory that can help cut down on overhead costs to maintain their business operations. Large organizations can also gain viable paths to help achieve “zero waste to landfill” goals.
“We are excited to partner with the Rheaply team, which I find to be a talented group of professionals with a compelling product,” said Robert Blackwell Jr., CEO and Founder of EKI-Digital. “We at EKI-Digital believe in using the scientific method to deliver ‘Digital Alpha,’ and who better to partner with than a company led by a scientist?”
“One of our core tenets at Rheaply is ‘be helpful,’” said Garry Cooper, CEO and Co-Founder of Rheaply. “Being able to partner with the EKI-Digital team and harness their expertise will greatly expand our ability to be helpful to our clients, which is always top-of-mind for us.”
Rheaply clients in the Chicagoland area will be able to experience the benefits of the EKI-Digital services starting in early 2022. To learn more about this network, reach out to partnerships@rheaply.com.
