Innovation

The waste that Cannabis packaging creates is one of the main issues that prevents Cannabis sale and use from being fully sustainable and Garden Remedies came up with this innovation to address it. Garden Remedies is a Cannabis company that serves the Massachusetts community. This innovation, happening at all three of their retail locations, allows the packaging of their Cannabis to be recycled instead of thrown out. Customers bring their used Cannabis packaging back to one of the Garden Remedies stores, preventing it from going to a landfill like it normally would. While it is possible that customers could try to recycle the material themselves, it is often hard for them to determine if their local recycling centers take Cannabis packing.

Garden Cannabis offers a streamlined approach to this issue, as staff are trained in recycling used Cannabis packaging and can guarantee that it will be recycled correctly. Samantha, their sustainability specialist, spearheaded this initiative with encouragement and support from the Garden Remedies employee sustainability committee, as the group wanted to see Garden Remedies doing more to expand their sustainability efforts. So far, the efforts have been successful. Each of the stores is seeing 30 gallons of used Cannabis packaging being brought into their store to be recycled each month.

Inspiration

This innovation was inspired solely by the employees of the company which I found really inspiring. You often hear stories where innovation is brought about by leadership or the C-suite, but in this case, one singular employee brought about a sustainability movement within Garden Remedies that led to this innovation. A new employee of Garden Remedies, passionate about sustainability, put up posters in their office buildings advertising a lunch meeting to talk about what could be done to make Garden Remedies a more sustainable company. This one meeting became a weekly one, which led the way to new sustainability efforts from Garden Remedies and the hire of a sustainability specialist, Samantha.

Samantha was the one who came up with the idea for the innovation of recycling used cannabis packaging at their stores. She was inspired by the desire to make the Cannabis industry a more sustainable one. As one of the main environmental issues with Cannabis is the waste the packaging produced, she decided to start this initiative with the hope of encouraging other Cannabis companies to follow suit. This has happened, as there are now coalitions throughout the United States composed of Cannabis companies that are committed to reducing cannabis packaging waste, one of which Garden Cannabis started.

Overall impact

The overall impact of this innovation has been significant so far! As of right now, each store is collecting 30 gallons of waste and their main flagship store is collecting double that. This is a great start as this innovation was only launched about a year and a half ago. Garden Remedies now has a section on their website where they proudly advertise their efforts, one that includes a guide to how to recycle the packaging at their store. This section showcases many ways that Garden Remedies is trying to make Cannabis production and sale more sustainable. It is hoped that this section of the website makes Cannabis users aware of how to lessen their environmental impact.

The innovation of Cannabis packaging recycling has inspired other sustainable initiatives from Garden Remedies. Garden Remedies recognizes that Cannabis has other negative environmental effects like the amount of energy it takes to run the lights that grow the Cannabis. They are going to be converting all their high pressure sodium lights that use a lot of energy into LED lights, as cannabis growing accounts for 10 percent of industrial energy use in Massachusetts alone. The innovation of recycling Cannabis packaging has led to all these other long term sustainability projects for Garden Remedies, which will have an impact on the environment in the long-term

Business benefit

The innovation benefits the business in a couple of ways. Because the business implemented this recycling program in all of their retail locations, they have seen an increase in customer loyalty. This is because their customers are coming back into their stores to recycle their packaging, meaning customers are visiting their retail locations on a more regular basis. This innovation also helps the customers feel as though they are a part of something good, something bigger than themselves! This has, in turn, led to increased social media interaction from customers as well.

Samantha, the sustainability specialist at Garden Remedies, shared that it has also helped the company with the issue of talent acquisition. As you probably know, talent acquisition and finding good talent can be a challenge for many businesses today. Samantha mentioned that many prospective employees of Garden Cannabis saw the initiative on their website and said they chose to interview and/or possibly work at Garden Cannabis specifically because of their commitment to sustainability and their innovative way of recycling the used Cannabis packaging.

Social and environmental benefit

This innovation, recycling Cannabis packaging, benefits the environment by creating less waste that would usually end up in a landfill. Landfills have many damaging effects to the environment, including their release of methane gas which causes pollution, and the destruction of natural habit needed to create them. As you may know, plastic, which is what cannabis packaging is made of, takes years to decompose, even though it provides just seconds of disposal use. By recycling Cannabis packaging, fewer resources are needed to produce new packaging. This helps conserve resources such as energy, water, and raw materials. In terms of how this innovation helps society, recycling cannabis provides jobs for people. It can stimulate economic growth not only within the cannabis industry and at Garden Cannabis retail stores but also within the recycling industry as a whole.

Interview

Samantha Woodman, Senior Sustainability Specialist