Our Mission: Simplify Waste Data Management
Built by industry veterans, our platform helps businesses simplify waste data management, track progress toward waste reduction, and reach their sustainability goals with easy-to-use reporting and clear environmental insights.
Experienced Professionals,
Unified by a Common Goal
We are sustainability experts with decades of experience in waste management, data analysis, and environmental compliance. Our mission is to help businesses track, manage, and optimize waste data for a greener, more sustainable future.
Our founders, Steve Means and Rick Penner, bring extensive expertise in the recycling and waste management industries. Steve’s background in the wood pallet recycling sector and Rick’s leadership in developing the Re-TRAC platform for waste reporting have shaped our commitment to providing businesses with actionable waste data.
We’re here to make waste management easier, more accurate, and more transparent, enabling companies to focus on achieving their sustainability goals.
The Values That Drive Us
Our business is built on a commitment to efficiency, transparency, innovation, and true partnership with our clients. These values guide how we help organizations manage waste data, improve performance, and make measurable progress toward their sustainability goals.
Operational Efficiency First
Sustainability and efficiency should go hand in hand. By simplifying waste data collection and reporting, we help organizations reduce waste, improve performance, and cut costs.
Transparency & Accuracy
We believe good data builds trust. Our platform ensures every data point is accurate, auditable, and reliable—giving clients the confidence to make informed decisions. We also support GHG emissions calculations in accordance with the GHG Protocol, enabling full transparency in environmental impact reporting.
Continuous Improvement & Innovation
We never stop refining how waste data is collected and analyzed. From automation to smarter analytics, we’re always innovating to uncover new efficiencies and deliver meaningful insights that drive progress.
Collaboration with Our Clients
Partnership is at the core of our approach. We work alongside your team to optimize waste management, streamline reporting, and deliver tailored sustainability solutions that create measurable impact.
OUR STORY
A Journey of Experience, Innovation, & Commitment
Our journey began with a shared vision between two industry veterans, Steve Means and Rick Penner, who recognized a major gap in the way businesses manage and collect waste data. With over 50 years of combined experience in recycling and waste management, they saw firsthand the complexity and inefficiency of existing reporting systems.
They set out to create a solution that simplifies waste data collection and processing, while delivering actionable insights to improve operational efficiency and support waste diversion. Today, Z3 Data leads in waste data automation, helping businesses reduce operational costs, achieve compliance, and drive meaningful waste reduction.
We take pride in leveraging our experience to turn waste management challenges into cost-saving, sustainable solutions.
Meet the Experts Behind the Solution
Steve Means
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Co-founder, President
With over 25 years of experience in recycling and sustainability, Steve brings a deep understanding of waste management systems. He’s dedicated to using his knowledge to streamline data collection and helping businesses to achieve their sustainability goals.
LinkedIn ProfileRick Penner
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Co-founder
Rick’s 30+ years of experience in the waste reduction and sustainability sectors make him an industry leader. He founded the first Habitat for Humanity ReStore and later launched Re-TRAC, a software service that helps local, state, and national governments in managing waste and recycling reporting programs.
LinkedIn ProfileWhat We Do:
Simplify Waste Data Management
Managing waste data shouldn’t be a burden. Z3 Data automates collection and standardizes reporting, turning complexity into clarity. The platform delivers accurate, reliable insights to track diversion, analyze costs, and stay compliant.
Standardized Reporting
Consolidate data from all your haulers into one uniform format, streamlining your tracking and reporting processes.
Time-Saving Automation
Automate repetitive data entry and processing, freeing your team to focus on strategic improvements and sustainability initiatives.
Tailored Analytics
Get actionable insights to optimize operations, implement sustainable waste solutions, and achieve waste reduction and diversion goals—backed by reliable analytics.
Compliance Assurance
Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local regulations, with audit-ready, easy-to-generate reports.
Support Third-Party Certifications
Collect and structure data to simplify sharing with certifications like TRUE, B-Corps, GreenKey, and more.
Proudly Affiliated With:
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some common questions that users may have about the platform:
Absolutely! The Z3 platform was specifically built to accommodate multiple locations and to group locations by district, geography, or brand. We encourage clients to use our tool to set goals for each location and to benchmark and compare performance across all locations easily.
Yes, the Z3 System supports API integrations or structured .csv exports for import into a wide variety of sustainability software solutions.
The Z3 service is structured to collect Hazardous Waste data. Note that our service does not meet EPA Uniform Hazardous Waste Manifest compliance requirements. We can, however, collect manifest data and summarize activity data.
Z3 can flexibly accommodate all material streams. Our service is harmonized with common materials lists developed by the US EPA and the GBCI TRUE program. We may add additional materials as needed and relevant.
Yes, Z3 Data eliminates the need for manual data entry or transfer. Zenbi automates the ingestion of invoice data and the Z3 team may work directly with your hauler to collect and ingest non-invoice data.
Send an email to [email protected] to set up a discussion and learn more.
The platform helps gather unstructured waste and recycling data, organize the data, and provide detailed reports and actionable insights. The reporting can be exported or transferred to existing sustainability systems. The Insights, including GHG emissions calculations, help organizations identify opportunities to reduce environmental impacts and optimize sustainability efforts.
The Z3 Platform is industry-agnostic. We provide services to organizations in a variety of sectors, including the hotel, brewery, manufacturing, distribution, and education sectors.