Easy Engineering: How do you see sustainability and what are your efforts in this direction?
iDig: Here at iDig, our business is built upon the ever-increasing need for fuel consumption reduction. Our technology has the distinction of enabling the often-overlooked demographic of small businesses around the world to take part in sustainable development simply by saving them money on gas and, in turn, reducing their carbon footprint.
E.E: Tell us about the sustainable solutions that you offer (if any).
iDig: We offer solar-powered, automated excavator guidance that eliminates the need for manual grade checking, permitting the operator to dig exclusively from his cabin. This reduces the frequent starts and stops that go hand in hand with manual grade checking, and it enables faster work. iDig is the most affordable system of its kind on the market today. The equipment pays for itself within the first 3 to 9 months. It has the added benefit of keeping workers safe on-site because, with iDig, there’s no need to descend into trenches.
E.E: Do you offer solutions for reinvigorating old equipment with new solutions?
iDig: That’s exactly what we do: Our iDig system is easily removable and transferable from machine-to-machine. One iDig can serve an entire fleet of excavators because it stores each machine’s calibration data. Having an iDig system allows operators to add cutting edge technology to machines they might once have considered outdated, reducing the temptation to retire a machine early just to keep up with the latest trends.
E.E: Tell us about sustainability in production & distribution.
iDig: First, we put our vendor’s packaging to good use by using it to ship our product to clients. Also, we have no problem reusing cardboard boxes when we ship our logo merchandise. Gone are the days when a box that was anything less than perfect was unacceptable. Of course, there comes a time when the box has seen better days, but most cardboard boxes are reusable three or four times before it’s time to recycle.
E.E: Tell us about R&D and innovation.
iDig: The race to eliminate fossil fuels is so intense that it’s easy for anyone to feel like they’re not doing enough. Here at iDig, we know our solution alone isn’t enough to save the
planet, but it makes a difference – and it does so in an increasingly large demographic that doesn’t necessarily prioritize green tech. So, we have that to be proud of as we look towards evolving our technology to reduce fuel consumption even more.
E.E: How do you promote this clean culture in your company?
iDig: When we talk about sustainable development, we tend to think about behemoth companies with the means to purchase the next generation solution, such as an electric excavator. For a significant portion of our end-users, any given sustainability solution is simply not an appropriate choice: To justify the expense, it must offer more than pure and simple eco-friendliness. So, we provide them a solution that saves them time and money. It’s a sort of indirect promotion, but that’s really where a lot of our end-users are at in terms of their company size and the services they provide.
E.E: Tell us about preserving resources and driving circularity.
iDig: Here at iDig, we ask our clients to pay for logo merchandise that’s normally given out for free within the industry. To us, this represents a step towards waste reduction because all to often, we see heaps of free merchandise being thrown out or given to people looking for a baseball cap rather than what that cap is advertising.
E.E: How do you drive focus on sustainability of operations?
iDig: As we watch the world’s weather patterns change, we are confronted with the necessity of drawing attention to the cause, keeping our product line evolving in the right direction and continuing to do right by our clients. All this starts with keeping operations smooth and circular: From production to marketing, we work hard to reduce waste and increase efficiency.
E.E: Tell us about sustainable energy solutions used.
iDig: In a nutshell, we’re replacing a portion of the end user’s machine fuel consumption with solar. Some only notice the difference in their bank accounts and we like to remind them that their savings represent a service to mother nature.
E.E: How do you see sustainability in the future?
iDig: We hope to develop our products to increase savings, improve performance and, most importantly, to give solar energy an increasingly large role in how our products work.