Earth Day is coming up, bringing up the discussion of cannabis and the industry’s environmental impact. Due to being such a highly regulated industry, cannabis has become subject to scrutiny when it comes to waste. With individual, child-proof, or resistant containers for every individual SKU and secured exit bags, dispensaries create a lot of trash for the end user. On the production end, processing cannabis can take incredible power to process their products. From intensive light cycles to large amounts of water, nutrients, and other materials- it takes a lot to deliver quality cannabis. As we reflect on how we can do our part to reduce our carbon footprint, we also have some Earth-friendly suggestions for cannabis operators. After all, we’re an industry rooted in nature. We owe it to the Earth to do our part.
Reusable Exit Bags
Exit bags can be a massive spend for your dispensary and create lots of waste. In most areas, they must feature child-resistant locks to keep medicated products out of the wrong hands. These can sometimes be around or above $1 each, inevitably affecting your store’s overall margins. If you are in an area where it is not a regulation to use a new bag for every transaction, implementing a reusable exit bag program can be helpful. Some stores have even gone as far as offering incentives for bringing a bag back. Using the same bag ten times can net the user a pre-roll for a penny or some other bonus. This keeps your bag costs lower and encourages recycling amongst your clientele.
Safe Battery Disposal
A huge area of opportunity in cannabis is keeping unsafe batteries out of landfills. Unfortunately, disposable vape pens and 510 batteries for cartridges are huge contributors to toxic waste due to the batteries within them. Because of this, some organizations have stepped up to ensure the safe disposal of these products. Getting your brand or dispensary involved with a group like GAIACA can create a recycling program to dispose of vape products safely. GAIACA currently operates in California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada to ensure safe and complaint cannabis waste management. Some research can conclude what groups are trusted in your area to create a safe disposal system your customers can rely on.
The Power of the Sun in the Palm of Your Hands
The sun’s power isn’t just for iconic super villains– it’s a brilliant way to leverage clean, renewable energy for operations that require lots of it. Building solar panels on the roof can be an incredible way to farm power naturally for production and cultivation facilities. Certain areas may also offer tax rebates or cuts for participating in renewable energy initiatives, which makes this move particularly lucrative. For smaller operations like dispensaries, there are opportunities to also leverage. Creators have been developing solar panel art that looks similar to stained glass and generates energy. While something as small as a window panel may not keep all the lights on, you can use it to charge iPads that your staff uses for all ordering.
Digital Display Time
With strains, pricing, THC & terpene levels, and more changing daily, displays in your dispensary showroom floor will get swapped out a lot. If your store operation is printing each update and cutting it out and putting it on display, you’re spending a lot of time, energy, paper, and ink making that happen. Instead of utilizing these resources with every change, investing in digital displays or menus make the pricing and offerings easy to update, read, and access as a customer. They also connect directly to most menu services online, keeping your store up to date online and in-store. MJ Platform, for example, utilizes an open API software system and has over 80 partners in the current integration roster. This keeps the singular software constantly integrated with all available menu systems you could want.
We hope this past Earth Day was a success and that this guide helped you identify ways to optimize your operation! For other data-driven ways to optimize your operation, look no further than MJ Platform. To get a custom look at how our software can be used to grow your operation, connect with us for a live demo.
