Bringing to dry land all the problem-solving skills and tenacious survival instincts he honed out at sea, Eddie has become a respected visionary entrepreneur. 

He established Eco as a dry ice company back in 2009 and has built it into the multi-solution providing Eco Group of companies that it is today.

Being a proud father and grandfather inspires Eddie’s vision for Eco in two different ways. 

Believing that a business should embody the founder's vision and ethics, Eddie wants to build a legacy business in Annan that will last 150 years.

And with his family in mind, he is also in a hurry to find solutions that can help mitigate the climate crisis. A recent call-to-action post on his Linkedin account to fellow entrepreneurs and the construction industry certainly pulls no punches. 

The construction industry needs a wake-up call, and lobbyists need to stop recycling the same tired messages—because the same thinking only ever delivers the same results. What we’re doing is bigger than money or economics. This is about our children, our grandchildren, and generations beyond. Sitting on the fence and protecting your own interests doesn’t change a thing. Social media is full of opinions that mean nothing—what’s missing are real solutions. Get after it, Make change and get off the fence.

I have known Eddie and Group Opportunity Strategist Gary Robertson for a while now and I’ve seen and heard the term ‘explorers’ being used as a kind of unofficial title for Eco staff. Suspecting that it might have something to do with searching far and wide for solutions I asked Gary and VASO Chief Technical Officer Simon Parrish to confirm or deny my suspicions. 

The resolute determination to explore new innovations has created a real sense of mission. The suggestion of impatience in Eddie’s recent Linkedin post (fragment above) was perhaps prompted by the team’s untiring and dogged lobbying to have their VASO construction technology and methodology more widely recognised by the industry here. 

An Eco Group webpage describes VASO as an innovation that...

Helps the build environment deliver structures rapidly, responsibly and sustainably by precision manufacturing and innovative technology unlike anything else.

So VASO is made from panels and other shapes that resemble steel girders which are actually recycled glass! Moreover a scalable fabrication method has been developed that can be replicated in situ to drastically reduce the carbon footprint of materials transportation. And to top it off buildings can be constructed in a matter of days; buildings that are incredibly resistant to temperature change outside keeping them warm in winter and cool in summer.

There are several examples of VASO buildings and one of the first was a school in Norfolk. In readiness for its 10th anniversary, the team placed sensors all over the building. Eddie told me that it is the most efficient building far out-performing passive house standards. The live data being recorded and sent to the government shows that its interior temperature has never fluctuated by more than one degree.

And right now there are plans underway for a small development of VASO houses in Closeburn collaborating with Mike Steel from Nith Valley Leaf Trust.

Collaboration is a central tenet of Eco’s work ethos, and as explorers the Eco team reaches out around the world from their Annan base to find solutions and partners.

As a trawler captain, Eddie used to navigate rough seas and seemingly insurmountable waves. In seeking to bring changes to an industry like construction with its deeply embedded traditional methods he is indeed trying to surmount yet another massive wave. But as he tells me; ‘It’s a simpler task when you’re simply bringing the truth to people.’ 

And as if that challenge isn’t enough, straight after our interview, Eddie, Gary and Simon travelled by train to London to sign a deal that really highlights the ruggedness of the VASO recycled glass construction method and its incredible ability to sustain near constant ambient temperatures. They are researching how to construct buildings on the moon ?! 

Team Eco are now exploring off-planet opportunities and whilst doing so the Annan ‘explorers’ are just waiting for that watershed breakthrough moment back here at home. I wish them all the luck this planet can offer.

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