Rheaply introduces re-commerce for every business. By combining smart inventory management and connected nationwide marketplaces, Rheaply puts reuse back on the table.

In 2016, the scientific community faced the critical issue of valuable lab equipment and consumables going to waste despite facing resource limitations. This underutilisation posed a significant problem, as these resources could have been reused by researchers in need. Overall resource consumption and waste production, contributes to environmental degradation and climate change through the extraction, production, and disposal processes associated with these resources.

In the US alone, the furniture market size is estimated to be worth around $12 billion dollars and climbing. Furniture is recycled at less than a 1% rate, which means that a mere $3 million of that $12 billion is being recaptured and re-utilised.

Dr. Garry Cooper identified a need to bridge this gap by creating a platform to connect scientists with surplus resources, to those in need.

In response to the pressing issue of high-quality lab resources being discarded instead of being reused, Rheaply, Inc. was introduced as a pioneering solution. As a privately held B2B Software as a Service (SaaS) company, Rheaply is a market solution that combines an asset management system with an online marketplace, The Rheaply Platform, and enables organisations to manage and transact physical assets more effectively, eliminating unnecessary waste and spend.

Their mission is to facilitate resource exchange through advanced technology to enhance asset recovery and promote the internal reuse of physical assets within vast organisations. The platform is a progressive web application tailored to serve various sectors, such as the built environment, from higher education and government to biopharma, the built environment, and retail organisations.

With Rheaply, organisations can easily inventory their Furniture, Fixtures & Equipment (FF&E) through their mobile-friendly platform or through Rheaply field services. Then, they can rasily search for available, reserved, or in-use resources.

As an example, in 2021, as the RUSH University Medical Center was in the midst of planning the demolition of one of the older buildings, they left behind tons of office furniture. Through surveying and cataloging items that remained, the RUSH team identified more than 27 tons of furniture in the building that totaled an estimated value of nearly $200k. By partnering with Rheaply, the RUSH University managed to exchange at least 1,023 items, to save $244k, recapture value and divert 53 k+ lbs of waste from landfill

Besides, with the cost of goods increasing and lead times extending longer and longer, reuse allows organisations to make the most out of existing resources that are available. For instance, the RUSH Medical Center saved $244k.

Overall, the impact of Rheaply's platform is evident in its achievements:

- Over 1 million items have been posted for exchange.

- Rheaply has successfully integrated over 3,000 ecosystem partners, including five government entities subscribing to the site.

- In the previous year alone, the platform facilitated the recapture of assets valued at $2.4 million.

- Weight-wise, 491,000 lbs of resources were recaptured last year.

- Their efforts have led to an avoidance of 151,000 lbs of embodied carbon in the same period.

Image retrieved from the Rheaply website