Jack of All Trades or Industry Leader?

The "Green Industry" is in the goldrush stage. Right now there is a rush for companies to be green, to become green, to get green and to figure out if green is worthwhile. As companies grapple with the green revolution there has emerged a whole industry of green consultants and sustainability experts.

Like any emerging industry (think the dot.com rush) there are those who know what they are doing and those that are riding the wave, hoping to cash in. One of the trends that is interesting is the one stop shop, the consultants that offer everything from energy audits to sustainable purchasing plans to waste audits. These companies are experts in everything and offer a complete solution to your "green needs". Now we are not going to name any companies here (Google search: sustainable business or "green consulting") but we offer the following food for thought.

1. How are you an expert in everything? Other than some 14 year olds that I've met there doesen't seem to be too many experts in multiple fields. You might find someone that knows a lot about many things but they are likely not the top expert in every field. Keystone only does waste consulting, if you need someone to tell you how to save money on your energy bills we're not the folks to ask. If you want to save money on waste and reduce the amount of waste you produce please give us a call.

2. Have they really done it? Like, REALLY DONE IT?

There is a big difference between being pretty sure you would be able to do a waste audit if a client needed one (it's garbage, how hard can it be?) and actually having done it. Keystone does waste audits every day, we know what to look for, when to dig deeper and how to get results. The Environmental Waste Solutions system that we use has been in use since 1994 with thousands of audits completed all over North America.

3. How much does it cost? What if it doesn't work?

Most (not all) consultants charge a fee for their work in a business model where they provide recomendations in return for a fee. It's a knowledge exchange transaction. The consultant has expertise that they will apply to your business for a fee. This is a good idea because it's cheaper to pay them to apply their knowledge than for you or your staff to learn this knowledge. Pretty basic, they do the work and they expect to get paid. However there are a few problems with this model.

First of all the knowledge they give you is then yours to implement. This is fine as the knowledge is what you paid for. However, the implementing can require a whole lot more knowledge and skill.

For example, a green consultant says to you if your recycled your newspaper you would save $5,000 per year. They provide the name of the company that recycles newspaper, and you call them. Sounds good right?

So you call the newspaper company.....and then the questions begin. How much newspaper do you produce???? We will pay you X amount for this paper? (is this a good price? should we ask for more? what is the current market?) How often would you like your paper picked up?? What size bin do you need? Please sign our contract, don't worry about the fine print, it's a standard contract....

Keystone is different. First of all we don't charge an upfront fee. Why not? Well, we really don't feel right charging you for something that we're not sure about. What do we mean we're not sure? Well our business is based on saving money for our clients through reducing waste costs. And those savings are variable, some clients save 50% some clients save 33%, some clients save 0%. Our fee is based on a percentage of your savings, the more you save the better for us and the better for the client. We are also commited to makeing recomendations that we know will work for our clients. Why? Because if the don't, we don't get paid. Now a traditional consultant will get paid no matter what because the recomendations are paid for before they are implemented. They may not get the repeat business if their recomendations are a complete flop but they get paid for the intial recomendations.

So the choice is yours, go with a "green consultant" who may or may not be an expert in the field of waste consulting, pay upfront and hope that the plan works or....

Go with Keystone who is proven expert in the field of waste consulting and know that they will only get paid if their plan works..

What's the catch?

Often when we are confronted with a concept that seems to good to be true we look for the hidden catch, the fine print that contains the details. The "free gift" that comes with an hour presntation on a timeshare condo and a high pressure sales pitch.

Keystone offers a no cost/no risk waste audit for our customers. What's that you say? Nothing in life is free? Well, that is true. However in this case the no cost is not a hoax. We don't charge our customers to conduct waste audits. Why not? Our experience has proven that very few potential clients are interested in investing thousands of dollars in "consulting fees" with no gauranteed outcome. And due to the nature of the waste consulting business we can't provide an ironclad gaurantee that we will find savings. The majority of the time we find savings of 30%, sometimes over 50% and occasionally less than 10%. The only way for Keystone to be able to determine the savings is to perform the waste audit as every client is different.

So the waste audit is free but there must be a catch after that right? Some kind of tricky contract or huge fee that we must pay?


Not really, Keystone offers a business model where we share the savings that we achieve for our customers.

If you are paying $1000 per month now for waste and Keystone can reduce that cost to $500 then you keep $250 and Keystone recieves $250. Keystone signs contracts that range in length from 3-5 years depending on your existing contracts and other factors. And don't forget, when the contract with Keystone is compelete you keep 100% of the savings forever!

Bottom line: All of our clients spend less now than they did before. Do you really want to spend more than is necessary on garbage removal? Why would you?

What is a Waste Consultant?

Waste consultants are also outsourced service providers who make arrangements on behalf of others to handle, transport, dispose or recover controlled waste, but do not handle, transport or dispose or recover the waste themselves. Consultants may also provide consolidated invoicing and call center and/or web-based customer service.

The most important differences between waste brokers and waste consultants are ones of compensation and control. While brokers are paid by marking up a discounted rate they’ve negotiated for a client, waste consultants are most often paid for performance. For no upfront fees, the consultant will review the client’s waste program and attempt to design a more cost effective solution. The lower they drive an organization’s costs, the more they earn - and the more the client saves. Since they are highly motivated to drive costs to rock bottom levels, consultants are known for presenting creative, viable solutions.

Waste consultants are successful in reducing client’s costs because they have the incentive to focus on areas that firms have not had the time, talent, knowledge, or inclination to attack. Many waste consultants have waste industry or cost accounting background, and they zero in on the things that are often overlooked by line management and the things that nobody gets around to reviewing or changing due to more urgent or more critical pressures..

Any single one of these elements affords limited return to the organization if fixed, but combined all these savings and fixes afford massive returns to the company’s overall profits, both immediate and long term. Furthermore, since many consultants ask for no upfront fees, they bear all of the financial risk because they believe they will succeed in lowering costs..

Some larger waste consultant firms risk between $10,000 and $20,000 for every $100,000 the client spends on waste. When working with consultants, clients enjoy control just as if they were operating hauler-direct. This is because the consultant acts as the client’s agent while the client retains the ability to veto recommendations that may not make business sense.