Sustainable Marijuana Growing: The Rise of Eco-Friendly Cannabis Companies

Massachusetts Farm Uses Best Practices

By: WeedClub Team, Wednesday, January 15, 2020 at 9:42 AM PT

We all know growing marijuana is a time-intensive, energy-intensive and resource-intensive activity. Cannabis cultivators are starting to take their grows "off the grid." Solar Therapeutics is one of the companies doing just that. Their mission is to cultivate cannabis in the most energy efficient ways and they're doing that by using their own power plant to generate all the energy required to power its 42,000 square-foot marijuana grow facility.

This isn't just about optics, baking sustainability into the core of the company is an investment. It's a way to reduce the company's carbon footprint and a way for the company to stay within compliance with Massachusetts regulations that encourage energy efficiency by growers. In the state, large cultivators cannot exceed 36 watts per square foot, unless a large grower is able to generate 80% of its energy from sustainable sources like wind or solar.

As other states start to adopt sustainability laws regarding cultivation operations, companies are experimenting with different ways to become more sustainable, including energy efficency and eco-friendly packaging. While this is still a newer practice, it's an emerging trend within the industry that startups should be aware of as they start to scale their operations.