Software Company Launches Environmental Impact Calculator

A Minneapolis-based IT asset disposition (ITAD), electronic waste (e-waste) and resale management software company has created a portal for its clients to calculate the environmental impact of recycling and resale based on industry standards.

Makor Solutions recently launched the Customer Impact Portal (CIP), a component of its Makor ERP system, that provides ITAD, reseller and e-waste companies with centralized inventory and sales management capabilities utilizing tools to automate the complex process of asset recovery and e-waste recycling.

The new CIP calculates the environmental impact of all processed materials using two mechanisms—the carbon dioxide (CO2) savings and raw materials extracted based on the e-Stewards Global Impact calculations for recycled materials and the CO2 savings for resale material that is based on the calculations from the Swedish Environmental Institute.

“The Customer Impact Portal enables our customers to engage in a quarterly business review with their customers on all key performance indicators that drive the business relationship,” says Mark Chodos, CEO of Makor Solutions.

This includes financial analysis of business transactions, inventory reporting and resale value analysis, security assessment of overall standing and service level commitments met against targets. Also included is the environmental impact analysis for corporate reporting.

“The Impact Portal is a game changer for ITAD and e-waste companies,” says Chodos. “They have the tools to be transparent and open with their customer, building that loyalty factor, and also justifying how they are adding value in the relationship with rebates and environmental impact savings.”

Steven Kaufman, CEO of Urban Mining P.B.C., a Jacksonville, Fla., company that specializes in secure data destruction, says his company utilizes the new CIP to follow through on its commitment to transparency, while helping to validate and verify the efficacy of its efforts.

“In the end, it’s one of the reasons our clients are able to have absolute confidence in what we do and how we do it,” he says. “We have an unequaled commitment to transparency—what happens to our client’s equipment, where it goes, what’s the real recovered value and what’s the actual impact or benefit of our collective recycling efforts.”

Previously, the company would generate the information from the portal manually, for each individual client.

“This was time consuming and made it impractical to prove this information on a regular basis, for every client,” says Kaufman. “The portal has eliminated the need to generate this information as a ‘one-off’ for each client and provide every client instantaneous, real-time data. It has helped support our commitment to providing complete transparency and lead the industry in this regard.”

Because generating these reports manually for clients was taking a lot of time and resources, Kaufman and his team reached out to Makor to ask if this was something that could be created as custom reports or as an element of the ERP system.

“One of the great things about Mark and his team is their ability to say ‘yes’ and work to understand our needs and the potential value of what we are looking for,” says Kaufman. “We worked with Makor to outline what the CIP would look like and what it would need to provide. From there, they took it to a whole new level and created the portal.”

Other Makor Solutions customers also use the portal for internal sales team reviews of customer standing and by engaging with customers in quarterly business reviews.

“Responsible electronics recycling has a measurable impact on the circular economy and results in meaningful environmental stewardship,” says Carson Maxted, program manager of the Oregon State Contractor Program for Electronics Recycling. “Being able to include the additional benefits that reuse and resale activity deliver is in demand and will bring value to customers in all industries. The Makor ERP Customer Impact Portal automates all of this, delivering the results in real time.”