For Todd, what began as industry awareness quickly became something more personal.
From an inherited business foundation, Cypher has evolved into a global clean-tech company, and a case study in how responsible growth actually happens inside imperfect systems. Despite operating internationally, the company remains rooted in Winnipeg, something Todd says reinforces a long-term, community-minded perspective on business and environmental responsibility.
You rarely set out to revolutionize an industry. More often, you inherit something unfinished, a business, a culture, a set of assumptions, and try to reconcile what exists with what kind of future you want to help build.
This is where Todd Burns, CEO of Cypher Environmental, found himself when he took over his father’s similarly named business, Cypher International.
While many new leaders seek to rebrand as a cost-effective way to leave their mark, Todd went much further, reshaping the company’s mission not only to pursue bigger business opportunities, but to do so with intense ethical rigour.
On that mission, Todd relaunched Cypher into a global company, with projects from Northern Manitoba to South America and Africa, places where decisions about dust suppression, road stabilization, and infrastructure maintenance carry significant environmental consequences.
When he took over, the company was a small operation, doing things the same way they’d been done for a generation. What Todd would do is take his own sense of mission and use it to create a powerful business strategy that not only differentiates his soil stabilization and dust control solutions but also makes them more environmentally and economically sustainable.
Part of that mission was sparked by a striking contradiction: chloride road salts widely used for dust suppression and de-icing were officially classified as toxic in Canada decades ago under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, yet they remain extensively used in infrastructure projects worldwide.
That instinct, stubborn, and deeply personal became the foundation for what Cypher Environmental is today, a company working globally to reduce the environmental impact of road stabilization, dust suppression, and infrastructure operations.
And along the way, Todd learned something most successful climate-conscious entrepreneurs understand: Doing the right things is rarely the fastest path to growth, but when positioned properly, environmental sustainability can supercharge business sustainability.
This led to the company’s mantra: “Always do what’s right.”
The Contradictions That Built Cypher
Todd’s story begins with two very different influences.
From his father came an entrepreneurial instinct, persistence, and the drive to build something of his own. From his mother, longtime Winnipeg Humane Society executive director Vicki Burns, came a deep compassion for animals, ecosystems, and the broader natural world.
“When they say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, there are some similarities between my dad and me, but honestly, I’m much more similar to my mom.” These influences didn’t cancel each other out. They fused. Eventually shaping a company focused on making one of infrastructure’s more environmentally challenging practices cleaner.
“I always wanted to be involved in a business that allowed me to make a living while making the world better,” Todd stresses.
At first glance, that might sound like the familiar tension between profit and purpose. But Cypher’s trajectory suggests that framing can be misleading. For Todd, purpose doesn’t compete with profitability; it drives it. And profits, in turn, allow that purpose to scale.
Businesses often talk about finding the “flywheel” to success. At Cypher, that flywheel is cyclical: purpose fuels profit, profit expands impact, and impact reinforces purpose.
Today, Cypher operates in industries often considered environmentally challenging, such as mining, infrastructure, aviation, and forestry. Yet for Todd, focusing on reducing harm where impact is greatest is the most pragmatic, measurable and cost-effective pathway to impact.
Being “Green” Isn’t Enough
Todd takes on a peaceful, slower tone when he talks about his love of forests.
Admittedly a “tree hugger,” he didn’t need convincing that protecting ecosystems matters. But building a company taught him something harder: personal conviction doesn’t automatically translate into market adoption.
One of his clearest lessons is simple but uncomfortable for many climate-focused entrepreneurs. Sustainability almost never closes deals.
As Todd explains, “You can get your foot in the door by saying you’re environmentally friendly. But when push comes to shove, you have to show how it saves money.”
That is an evolution in thinking needed to survive in any business. Educating potential clients about lifecycle economics became critical.
When the full operational picture of Cypher’s products is considered, environmental performance often strengthens the business case rather than competes with it.
For example, at a Canadian pipeline project in BC, Cypher’s regional distribution partner (Mountainside Environmental) performed a cost-benefit analysis on a 130 km treated stretch. The operation saved approximately a billion litres of water (943.8 million litres) in six months and cut total costs by an estimated $6 million.
The bulk of those savings came from a massive reduction in diesel usage, which also resulted in the avoidance of an estimated 6,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions on that single project.
Doing what’s right isn’t simply being green for its own sake.
It means creating measurable impact that withstands real-world scrutiny, scales commercially, and continues to improve environmental outcomes over time. Failed green companies don’t help the planet. Viable ones do.
“You can get your foot in the door by saying you’re environmentally friendly. But when push comes to shove, you have to show how it saves money.” – Todd Burns
Impact Often Happens in Imperfect Industries
It’s easy to focus sustainability efforts where change is easiest, and Todd understands that working with mining operations, infrastructure development and industrial transportation aren’t seen as comfortable spaces for sustainability conversations. Yet for Todd, they offer some of the largest opportunities for measurable improvement.
For many business owners, this is an important reframing.
Net-positive growth doesn’t always look pristine. Sometimes it looks like incremental progress inside high-impact environments.
And while some may see an oil field or a mine only as negative impacts, the reality is more complex. Many countries and industries will continue relying on these resources for years to come. Beyond fossil fuels, numerous minerals are essential to the green transition itself, from battery production to renewable infrastructure.
Extraction is not going to disappear overnight; in many cases, it will never disappear. That raises a pragmatic question for climate-focused businesses:
What creates more impact: fighting for change that may never fully materialize, or helping existing industries become dramatically more efficient, less polluting, and more responsible today?
Todd has chosen the latter path. It’s not always glamorous. But it’s where large-scale environmental gains often happen fastest.
Real Competitors Aren’t Other Companies. It’s Defaults.
Salt for roads. Oil for dust control. Endless water trucking. Practices everyone recognizes as problematic continue not because they’re familiar, but, in many cases, because they’re mandated.
Todd’s frustration is pragmatic, not ideological: “I don’t know of any other industry, product, market where there’s a federal government saying ‘this product is toxic,’ but it is the only product you’re allowed to use. Because they mandate its use in [government] tenders.”
This remains true even in Cypher’s home province of Manitoba, underscoring a challenge many climate-focused businesses face. Innovation exists. Viable alternatives exist. Yet procurement systems, risk aversion, and institutional habit often slow adoption.
Part of the issue is perception.
Traditional solutions frequently appear extremely inexpensive in the short term. Water may be locally accessible. Salt is abundant and historically cheap. Some dust suppression methods rely on industrial byproducts that seem economical because their broader environmental costs aren’t included in the purchase price.
But the full economics tells a different story.
Todd explained how a whole variety of costs are often ignored in the tender process. Some examples include how salt pollutes groundwater, accelerates corrosion of vehicles, infrastructure, and equipment; how water-only dust control requires repeated applications; and how this increases diesel use, labour hours, and operational downtime. Then there are oil-based solutions for road stabilization, which carry environmental liabilities, cleanup risks, and long-term ecosystem damage.
Todd sees this as a classic lifecycle blind spot: “You can’t just look at day one. You have to look at what happens three months, six months, a year down the road.”
That’s where alternatives often prove competitive and, in Cypher’s case, cheaper while also reducing environmental harm. But getting buyers to evaluate those longer timelines requires education, data, and patience.
The real sales effort isn’t always technical or financial, but often educational.
Changing defaults requires:
- evidence accumulated over time
- clear economic storytelling
- trusted partnerships
- and, often, visible success elsewhere first
That’s the longer game Todd is playing. Demonstrate value consistently, let results speak for themselves, and allow success itself to shift perception.
Because once the default changes, adoption tends to accelerate quickly.
Where Systems Still Fail
Earlier, I deliberately referred to Cypher’s slogan as a mantra. Todd is a committed mindfulness practitioner, dedicating time each morning to quieting mental noise, setting intention, and reframing obstacles as opportunities rather than injustices.
For Todd, that shift in mindset played out very concretely. Early on, much of Cypher’s effort focused on government clients. On paper, it made sense: public infrastructure projects are large, consistent, and often publicly committed to environmental responsibility.
In practice, it was often frustrating.
“[Many governments] don’t even know alternatives exist. And when alternatives do get created and exist, they just turn a blind eye because that requires process change and SOP changes, changes to everything. And so the old-fashioned way of just continuing to pollute is what we continue to do.”
Rather than continuing to push against the current, Todd reflected and redirected attention toward the private sector. There, discussions around operational expenditure versus capital expenditure, lifecycle savings, and efficiency improvements resonated more readily once data was presented clearly.
From an outside perspective, it’s also surprising.
Cypher shows that, with the right incentives, dirty industries can often make greener choices than the governments that fund innovations and green tech.
That pivot led to a boom in business and an international focus. Todd learned that trying to force change in inert systems can drain a company’s limited business development resources, leading owners to fight the current rather than navigate it.
Importantly, Todd continues working with government panels and advisory groups to advance clean technology adoption, while remaining realistic about timelines, but as he learned, expecting government adoption to drive near-term corporate survival is risky.
With mindfulness, Todd turned frustration into opportunity: “I just flipped the script. Instead of having all this negativity and harsh feelings and losing sleep at night… I’m inspired by it. This is the change I want to create. And so instead of being frustrated… I just flipped it.”
His long-term strategy is simple. Success attracts attention. Attention builds credibility. And over time, credibility can help shape reform.
“I just flipped the script. Instead of having all this negativity and harsh feelings and losing sleep at night… I’m inspired by it. This is the change I want to create. And so instead of being frustrated… I just flipped it.” – Todd Burns
Scaling Responsibly
As Cypher grows globally, the company is also confronting its own environmental footprint, something Todd speaks about with measured honesty.
Clean technology doesn’t exist outside logistics, supply chains, and industrial realities. Shipping products internationally, sourcing materials, and scaling operations all carry impacts that have to be acknowledged.
Early on, one practical step was to design products as concentrates rather than shipping diluted solutions when possible. That reduces freight weight dramatically and avoids transporting unnecessary water. It’s a simple shift that lowers both cost and emissions.
Cypher has also invested heavily in building local distributor networks. This shortens delivery chains, allows faster response to client needs, and begins shifting operational responsibility closer to where the benefits are realized. It’s not perfect; distribution still requires transportation, but it’s measurably better than centralized export alone.
The next phase is more structural. The company is actively exploring regional manufacturing in markets where demand supports it.
Producing closer to end users reduces Scope 3 emissions, stabilizes supply chains, and aligns environmental claims with operational reality. Todd is candid that this step is driven by both sustainability and practicality: global growth eventually requires local production. Doing it intentionally allows environmental considerations to shape expansion from the start.
Partnerships are another emerging piece of the strategy.
Cypher is working with organizations that can integrate environmental performance data directly into operational decision-making. The goal isn’t merely to claim environmental benefit but to quantify it in ways customers and regulators increasingly expect.
None of this suggests the company has arrived at a perfect solution.
Todd tends to frame it differently: you don’t start perfect. You start better than what existed before, then you improve relentlessly through data, transparency, and iteration.
“I have to sleep at night, and I have children, and I’m cognizant of the world that I’m going to leave to them.”Growth, in this model, is a necessity. “I need to leave the world a better place than the way I found it.”
Values as a Business Operating System
Todd is quick to clarify that the mantra “always do what’s right” isn’t about perfectionism.
“If the whole team understands your core values, decision-making becomes easier. Most things become a yes or a no.”
For Cypher, values function less as branding and more as operational infrastructure. They guide partnerships, hiring decisions, product development, and long-term strategy. When sustainability is embedded at that level, it stops being another marketing layer. It’s a vital part of how a company actually runs.
But values often increase pressure. Todd speaks openly about early payroll stress, slower growth compared with less constrained competitors, and the emotional toll of maintaining environmental integrity in markets that don’t always reward it.
“Choosing the ethical path can feel like you’ve got one hand tied behind your back.”
He returns again to, “always do what’s right.” Like a breath in and slowly out.
Two figures have shaped this mindset in particular: Nelson Mandela and South African musician Johnny Clegg.
Mandela’s refusal to emerge from decades of imprisonment seeking revenge, choosing reconciliation instead, stands, in his words, as “the greatest anti-bullying story in history.” It models how conviction and patience can transform systems without hardening into bitterness. Johnny Clegg, meanwhile, represents cultural bridge-building. A white musician performing in Zulu during apartheid, often at personal risk, he challenged divisions not through confrontation alone but through connection.
These influences don’t make the work easier, but they provide a philosophical anchor and showcase a resilience that remains inspiring for Todd.
“Choosing the ethical path can feel like you’ve got one hand tied behind your back.” – Todd Burns
The Human Side of Climate Leadership
You don’t always get to choose the industry you enter. Sometimes you inherit it.
Todd chose to improve it. In that effort, he found a kind of blue-ocean opportunity, an industry dominated by environmentally costly defaults, where his engineered improvements can simultaneously save businesses money and reduce environmental harm.
Step by step, partnership by partnership, project by project, progress compounds.
Todd still finds clarity in those forest walks.
The difference now is that he’s learned how to translate values into data, economics, and measurable results.
In the end, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree: entrepreneurial drive fused with environmental compassion still shapes how Cypher grows today. And in that balance lies a broader truth: profitability and responsibility don’t compete; they’re built, decision by decision.
Todd’s story shows that climate leadership rarely arrives fully formed. It develops in the tension between ambition and practicality, between ideals and operational reality.
The companies making measurable progress aren’t waiting for perfect policy or flawless markets. They’re improving what exists, demonstrating value, and letting results shift defaults.
That kind of progress may look incremental from the outside, but at scale, it’s often where the most meaningful environmental gains occur.
