5 Sustainable Business Tactics for Dispensaries

In the cannabis industry, it’s only natural to be thinking green. Grown from the earth, it’s in our industry’s best interests to be eco-conscious. The effects of climate change have the potential to have quite an impact on cannabis, and so sustainability is important when considering maintaining a work environment that will be best for the product and for the company. These are some simple and effective sustainable business tactics that can create a more eco-friendly dispensary and industry overall, while improving profitability.

1. Buy from companies that have minimized packaging

Regulations for grower/processors usually require child resistant packaging, and while that has many companies use plastic packaging, other companies have found alternative solutions that reduce their carbon footprint.

Some grower/processors have been able to reduce their amount of packaging with self-sealing packaging that doesn’t require any additional plastic, or only using recyclable and compostable packaging like paper, glass and cardboard. These seemingly small measures can add up to a big reduction in the amount of waste a company produces, and the less waste, the more sustainable a company will be, not to mention the cost reduction that impacts the bottom-line.

2. Buy from companies that are reducing their environmental impact.

Though the growing process of cannabis can require a lot of energy (which may have to do with individual state regulations on growing), consider looking at the growers/processors that were able to get creative and find sustainable ways to grow cannabis in mass. There are companies that have utilized solar energy as their source of power for indoor cultivation. Others have gone pesticide free. Still other growers find ways to conserve water. Insightinto each grower and processors' sustainable practices helps you choose eco-friendly companies who are doing good and have great products. Also, those savings could mean better margins for both producers and their retail partners.

3. Create a green team

Empowering employees to take the lead on sustainability is a great way to ensure that the whole dispensary is involved in going green. Communication will be key in incorporating new green policies, and it’s a good opportunity to offer employees leadership roles or even create a small team of employees to spearhead eco-practices, which can create a better sense of team involvement.

Including everyone in new green policies also opens the floor to new ideas that other employees may have, giving them the opportunity to have a shared voice in the growth of the business. A more engaged and motivated team pushes business growth.

4. Green your environment

There are a lot of seemingly small measures that dispensaries can take to green up their day that adds up to a large overall impact.  Being mindful of the use of electricity, like adding power strips and turning down heating and cooling systems, is not only good for the environment, but also saves a lot of money. Additionally, reusing, recycling and making efforts to reduce the amount of paper the dispensary uses is a great practice.

5. Good corporate governance

Looking over the financial health of the company is one way to ensure you’re providing value to your investors/owners. But sustainability provides a larger purpose for a dispensary, along with goals to strive for that support good business practices at the end of the day: efficiency, sustainable growth and value.

Perhaps more importantly, by adopting a sustainability strategy that is shared publicly, you can reap the rewards of hard-to-quantify benefits such as goodwill and a better reputation. If doing something that is good for the overall health of the company also raises its profile, then why not capitalize on that?

At the end of the day, there’s no downside to implementing sustainability business tactics at your dispensary. Emphasizing sustainability creates a company-wide sense of accountability that employees, as well as consumers, will want to support.