// SUSTAINABILITY //
Finding a Better Way
Cannabis & Tech Today’s 2020 Sustainable Leadership Award winners share their advice for creating a more resilient industry. By Ebby Stone What does sustainability mean to you? For Cannabis & Tech Today, it means fostering an industry that will thrive while preserving the natural resources necessary for continued growth. For 2020’s Sustainable Leadership Awards, we chose three applicants setting the standard for sustainable energy consumption, packaging, and stewardship. Graham Farrar, president and chief cannabis officer for Glass House Group, discusses why environmental stewardship is central to his company’s mission. Brain Domann, sales and marketing director for Humidi shares solutions to the industry’s packaging problem. And Derek Gould, director of marketing and communications for Solar Therapeutics invites you to join him in creating a more eco-friendly future. In this special feature, we’ll shine a spotlight on how they’re leading the charge, what’s most important to them, and how all companies, big or small, can work toward more sustainable operations.
Glass House Group President and Chief Cannabis Officer Graham Farrar Cannabis & Tech Today: What is Glass House Group’s approach to sustainability? Graham Farrar: We try to really advocate for this low-touch agricultural approach we practice. Cannabis in agriculture is a bit of an outlier, in that it’s a highlyregulated business with a lot of friction, a lot of costs, but you’re not in the single-digit margin
Humidi Sales and Marketing Director Brian Domann C&T Today: How is Humidi helping tackle some of the industry’s environmental issues? Brian Domann: What we really sought for and our ultimate goal has always been, how can we have a net positive impact on the environment? And while we initially wanted to incorporate 32
Cannabis & Tech Today // Spring 2021
percentage like a lot of ag is — where they’re really struggling to stay alive — which allows us to do things like invest in using beneficial insects instead of pesticides.
tomato guys because they can
There’s a positive circle that starts with that, which is, if we spend twenty grand a month with the beneficial insect’s guys, and then some other companies do, and then the [insect company] can scale up. As they get bigger, the price comes down, and then maybe now it’s available to the
much bigger, and then the insect’s
hemp into our packaging, we also really needed to have a strong product that would be durable and have the shelf life of a traditional product and provide that same protection, integrity for the cannabis, or any of the products that are stored in our packaging. And that’s why, ultimately, we went with canolabased bio plant materials.
compostable in a home compost heap. There are no microplastics leftover and the product will act as a food source for bacteria that are naturally occurring in the soil.
It is the only product on the market that can be fully
afford it now — and then the tomato [industry] is 1000 times bigger than cannabis. So if that industry can take even just a little bit, the size of it makes it that price comes down and then more people can get access to it. So you can start this virtuous cycle. I think cannabis can help blaze that path for the rest of agriculture, which will end up making a lot more difference than we do.
C&T Today: How do you envision the future of cannabis packaging? BD: I’d love to envision the future being a net-zero impact on environmental production, which it’s always hard to get there. But I
