EnviroDog’s Web service helps companies dispose of waste
A Web-based tool launched by a Germantown firm in the summer of 2002 is already helping manufacturers and other companies that need to dispose of regulated waste products.
New regulations and the downsizing of departments devoted to managing waste mean that universities and schools, hospitals, commercial printers, railroads and airlines are all prospects for the new online service.
EnviroDog, which proprietor Roy Scharrer titled for the nickname used in the industry for plant environmental managers, uses an e-procurement model to connect companies that generate waste with contractors who dispose of it according to federal guidelines.
The fact that the transactions are recorded digitally allows the site to automatically fill out federally mandated reports documenting that refuse such as printing ink, oil, coolants, industrial wastewater and oily sorbent pads are disposed of properly.
Scharrer, who has worked in the waste management industry in the Minneapolis and Wisconsin markets, got the idea for Envirodog when he saw how companies were shrinking their facilities management staffs.
"In some places, the plant manager can be the safety director and the environmental manager at the same time," Scharrer said. In a time when corporate America was tightening its belt, facilities and waste disposal were easy targets for staffing and budget cuts.
"There is no cost-benefit equation to getting rid of waste," Scharrer said. "It just comes off the bottom line."
To Scharrer, that meant that a more efficient system that reduced internal expenditures on seeking bids and managing federally mandated paperwork — as well as external expense paying contractors — would be well-received by the market.
Studies by the Aberdeen Group and Forrester Research had shown that e-procurement could drive down purchasing costs by as much as 70 %.
In January 2000, he started work on a business plan and user requirement document for the site, hiring Fresh Spark Inc., of Sun Prairie to program the site. Since then, Scharrer has been pounding the pavement, selling the site to waste generators and to environmental firms who can bid on waste disposal jobs posted.
So far, about 35 companies are registered on the site as waste generators, and 35 companies are registered as service providers. Scharrer’s revenue stream comes from a one-time fee to create an account and a 6 percent commission on successful bids submitted through the system.
"As a one-person show, it is hard to get distribution," Scharrer said. "But I am really close to meeting my pro forma."
At least one southeastern Wisconsin property manager has had a positive initial experience using the EnviroDog system. Glen Michalsen, vice president of business loans at Bando-McLaughlin Small Business Lending Corp., Waukesha, is responsible for managing leased properties in southeastern Wisconsin.
"We broker space, primarily office, but also some warehouse and industrial space," Michalsen said. "We lease the space and hope the businesses buy their buildings."
The fact that Bando-McLaughlin has little involvement in industrial space — and certainly didn’t have environmental managers on staff — meant Michalsen was at a loss in the summer of 2002 when the tenant of one of the firm’s industrial sites left in a hurry, leaving drums of various waste products behind.
"I know Roy," Michalsen said. "We live in the same community, and I know he has been in waste disposal I talked to one of our listing brokers, and he said to look on the Internet and make a couple of calls. Roy said that using his system, we could put out a search and get bids from a bunch of different competitors, and that sounds perfect for someone like us. We aren’t familiar with disposal of hazardous substances."
Scharrer helped Michanlsen identify the substances that needed to be removed.
"Roy and Envirodog came in, analyzed what was there and made a complete inventory of the materials to the best of their knowledge," Michalsen said. "That is how we comprised the list for the software of what we wanted cleaned up."
Michalsen said three bids were returned, two from Wisconsin companies and a third from Illinois.
One of the benefits of the system, according to Scharrer, is that waste generators are anonymous. That is an asset for a company that has little knowledge about competitive pricing for waste disposal and might otherwise be at risk of being gouged by a disposal firm, Scharrer said.
"The bids were all over the board," Michalsen said. "These disposal firms — they might tend to inflate their prices a little bit because companies like us don’t have any idea of what they are dealing with or what the cost should be."
Another benefit, according to Scharrer, is that the typical timeline of submitting and receiving bids is compressed.
"I believe it was three to four weeks, and it was done," Michalsen said. "It was very smooth and timely for us."
Jan. 10, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
