Cypher’s network is made up of many educated and passionate professionals. Ivan Heron, Director of Eco-Road Hero Pty Ltd. is no exception. Located in the sunshine state, Queensland, Australia, you’ll find Eco-Road Hero working hard to deliver triple bottom line benefits of reduced costs, better air quality, and improved productivity. Eco-Road Hero also lives by Cypher’s tagline to always do what’s right.
Eco-Road Hero Pty Ltd
Founded by a man passionate about the environment and enthusiastic for the mining industry, Ivan Heron started Eco-Road Hero in 2019.
With over 20 years of experience in the mining industry, Ivan spent much of his career working for one of the largest mining companies in the world. He spent several years focused on improving the workplace as the Principal Advisor for Productivity Improvement where his work focused on fuel efficiency, productivity enhancements, emission improvements and cost savings. His deep technical knowledge delivered significant bottom-line savings to both his employer at the time and many of these initiatives were embraced widely in the mining industry.
A conversation in 2018 with Andrew Lindsay brought Ivan to Winnipeg to check out Cypher Environmental’s products. After researching the results from the Xilinhot, China project, conducting a due diligence check with Brandon University, and seeing the company culture at Cypher Environmental, he decided that being a distributor for Cypher Environmental would mean working towards making the world a better place while increasing productivity and safety on worksites and in the community.
With Ivan’s background in the mining industry, specifically in production and cost-savings, he saw that Cypher’s technology was a slam-dunk.
“The case study in Xilinhot, China, was quite impressive. By decreasing the rolling resistance, these haul trucks could get in an extra trip per day. It costs about the same to do 21 trips as it does 20, but an added haul per truck, per day over a year is a massive increase.”
He built Eco-Road Hero on the same foundation as Cypher Environmental: give back and help the environment, while creating safer, cleaner, and more productive dirt roads.
“Cypher has an inclusive and sustainable culture where everyone’s input is valued,” says Heron.
After being with Cypher for some time now, Ivan is happy he trusted his gut.
“Cypher Environmental has a great network of distributors. We have a group chat where we all share information and marketing ideas. Todd and Andrew always encourage people to bring new ideas to the table and collaborate,” Heron says. “It’s a welcoming and innovative environment.”
Projects
Racehorse Track
While expanding on the mining industry he already knows, Ivan and his team have also tapped into a niche category in Australia that has firm guidelines for dust emissions: horse exercise tracks.
A 2018 economic impact study stated the thoroughbred racing industry was worth $9 billion dollars in Australia and provides more than 70,000 full-time jobs.
The Eco-Road Hero team met with the owners of an 800-meter long sand-based exercise track for thoroughbred racehorses in Southern Australia. The area was in an extreme drought and water for dust control was scarce and expensive. Along with adhering to the strict dust control standards, their main priorities were animal welfare and rider safety, while working with a limited budget.
Eco-Road Hero worked with the customer to develop DUST/BLOKR® application procedures with their equipment. This resulted in a reduction of their annual water usage of 14 mega-liters per hectare.
Heron says, “The best testimonial you can get is them buying more product,” which is exactly what this client plans to do after seeing successful results with DUST/BLOKR®.
Racehorse track treated with DUST/BLOKR® to eliminate unwanted dust.
Agricultural Arterial Road
In Central Australia, the local government organization responsible for road maintenance on an important agricultural arterial road had to undertake intensive maintenance every 6-8 months. The road is located in a tough environment being in the tropics and is exposed to monsoon weather patterns. The road is well made but has a high clay sub-base and hence prone high maintenance needs.
The road traffic load is predicted to increase with additional infrastructure and development in the local area. Eco-Road Hero worked with the government organization to provide a sustainable and practical solution for their road stability needs.
Beginning as a qualification project, ROAD//STABILIZR® was applied to 5% of the road during a planned maintenance activity. Currently, the road is being monitored to demonstrate the benefits of ROAD//STABILIZR® to the client.
Based on feedback from other ROAD//STABILIZR® roads in places, like Guinea, which has similar weather conditions, and Canada, where Cypher Environmental has several years of customer data, the trial sections should demonstrate a significant reduction in maintenance costs for the client. Detailed data is expected in 2021.
A key part of this trial was being able to integrate the ROAD//STABILIZR® into the client’s procedures for road maintenance, as this is important for a high-quality and sustainable application.
Ivan Heron’s passion for the environment, partnered with a goal to work in a positive workspace lead him to start Eco-Road Hero. Being an expert in productivity and cost-savings, Cypher was confident in his choice to be a distributor. Ivan is happy to provide world-class, environmentally-friendly road improvement technology that provides cycle time reduction in haul trucks, reduction in road maintenance effort, reduction in water usage and operating costs, and fuel efficiency benefits.
You can follow Eco-Road Hero on LinkedIn, or on their website here.