1. “Always do what’s right.”
Our proudest moment of 2020 was the adoption of our new tag line, “Always do what’s right”. It’s true that the tag line sounds more like a value statement, but that’s OK to us! At Cypher we live and breathe our core values. So much so that they help guide and influence every decision we make. This impacts not only the development of the solutions we offer, but how we treat people, the planet, and give back as an organization, with a major focus on ESG – Environmental Social Governance. For us it represented a new simplicity in the way we conduct ourselves on a day to day basis, centered around a guiding philosophy to always make the right choices.
We look forward to rolling out some new great programs centered around this philosophy in 2021!
2. Our First Major ESG Donation
As a result of a contract awarded to Cypher to provide dust control for Baffinland Iron Mines, we were able to partner with Baffinland and a Nunavut Sealink & Supply Inc. (NSSI), to provide 38,000 liters of DUST/BLOKR® to the community of Pond Inlet, at no cost to the community! The community of Pond Inlet is nestled just outside of Milne Port, the only waterborne access point to the mine.
The product shipped from Cypher and arrived to Pond Inlet in 2020, but will not be applied until 2021 due to weather, so we’re excited to share more about the results once the product has been applied and is benefitting the community! When questioned about the upcoming project, His Worship Joshua Arreak, Mayor of Pond Inlet, said, “I strongly believe that this endeavour will greatly benefit our community”.
3. Mining Indaba Experience
2020 was Cypher Environmental’s biggest year at Mining Indaba with the Gold Sponsorship of the Canada Pavilion! Representing one of the largest investments we’ve made to date on exposure at an international mining event, we felt the timing was right to build on some of the great momentum built in recent years in Africa. Making it even more special was the presence of a small army of Cypher distributors from around the world who joined us to help tell our story, and create some great memories along the way.
A very special part of our trip to Cape Town this year was the boat ride we hosted, coined the “Johnny Clegg Memorial Boat Tour”, to enjoy the scenes of Cape Town and listen to the music of the late Johnny Clegg, who sadly passed away in 2019. His music holds significant inspiration to us as he too lived and breathed his own core values, many of which are shared by us – think, “Always do what’s right.”
4. Passing the Boeing Conformity Test
Aviation is the latest industry that Cypher Environmental has invested in creating a more sustainable approach to the design and management of runway and helipad infrastructure. We were thrilled when our products met all four criteria, which enabled us to get a passing grade and successfully meet stringent conformity standards. With these results, our aviation-based customers will have the assurance that their aircrafts will not be harmed and that they are always meeting the highest safety standards.
We’re definitely excited to grow this market and help the industry take a greener path to the development of their runway related infrastructure!
5. First Virtual Distributors Meeting
With the challenges of this year’s pandemic, many of our travel plans were cancelled and we were not able to meet with our distributors from around the world as were used to. Cypher prides itself in the strong relationships it holds with all of our partners, so we quickly adapted to Facetime and Zoom to maintain these connections.
Therefore in lieu of not having our Annual Distributors’ Meeting in person this year, we were all reunited in December for our first ever virtual distributors’ meeting. This was mainly due to the pandemic and inability to meet in person. However we received such positive feedback that these have now become quarterly events in perpetuity, on top of meeting in person annually! The focus this year was largely maintained around ESG and how we can collectively work as a group to make a global impact. It was also a great opportunity for our team to learn about what’s going on around the globe, as well as educate and update our partners about Cypher products and opportunities.
We had so many great accomplishments in 2020 that it was difficult to list them all! So the above are just a few highlights that stood out to us in making 2020 a special year.
While this year brought many exciting opportunities and achievements for the Cypher team, the Global Pandemic has posed many challenges. As innovators, we are used to adapting which has allowed us to persevere through these times, all while staying true to our core values. We are thankful to our team, our distributors, partners, and customers as we look forward to a brighter 2021.