zAnthony Franciosi of Honest Marijuana Company: Five Strategies Our Company Is Using To Tackle Climate Change & Become More Sustainable
An Interview With Penny Bauder
Parents should talk the talk with their kids — Communicating with kids about the climate crisis is essential. And it is a crisis, make no mistake! There is a tendency to want to shield our kids from everything but the reality is that they are more connected and more engaged than many in previous generations, giving them the resources and tools to be able to actively participate in something that directly affects their future. It’s important for parents to open that dialogue.
As part of my series about companies who are helping to battle climate change, I had the pleasure of interviewing Anthony Franciosi.
Anthony Franciosi, the founder and head grower of Honest Marijuana Company, https://honestmarijuana.com/, which utilizes all-natural cultivation methods to produce only the finest organic and eco-conscious cannabis products. HMC’s marijuana is packaged in earth-friendly recyclable tin cans with pure nitrogen to ensure only the highest level of integrity and quality. The company also makes Honest Blunts, the first-ever organic hemp-wrapped, machine-rolled blunts and are the inventors of patented Nanobidiol Technology which offers high bio availability for a faster, more pure experience. Honest Marijuana Company is fully committed to running an organic, environmentally-sound business, promising zero waste and minimal draw on community and natural resources.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I was 18 when I moved to Steamboat Springs, Colorado and got a medical marijuana card so I could begin growing. Cannabis had already been a part of my medical journey in dealing with sports injuries that I sustained in high school. It made sense, given my medical use, to be able to grow my own. At this same point in my life, I was working as a landscaper so it wasn’t a stretch to do a little growing on the side and to create a supply line for dispensaries near me, with the extras that I didn’t personally need. One thing that inspired me is that the people I worked with, both in landscaping and in the dispensaries, advised me to look to organic growing techniques to create a more natural product. This idea resonated with me a lot, so that became the goal with Honest Marijuana Company: clean, organic products that consumers could believe in.
What is the mission of your company? What problems are you aiming to solve?
The vision for Honest Marijuana Company is to provide the most pure marijuana possible, leveraging science and the latest technologies and thinking in organic growing. The point is, as always, to create new and interesting products for our customers to enjoy and consume safely and effectively.
The inspiration came from the location itself. After all, Steamboat Springs is perfect just as it is: beautiful rivers, meadows and mountains, and a strong community commitment to ecologically sound practices in everything that is done.
To that end, we are committed to minimizing the impact of our grow facilities on the environment. That means goals of zero waste and only minimal impact to local natural resources.
Can you tell our readers about the initiatives that you or your company are taking to address climate change or sustainability? Can you give an example for each?
In terms of climate change, our goal is to not contribute to the crisis. It’s a philosophy that infuses everything we do and every decision we make, with regards to the company. A critical example is how we dry our plants. All of our plants are air dried with an oven, in which any hexane and butane (bho) created is recycled to minimize our impact on the earth’s atmosphere. It’s important for us to be able to show that you can grow a crop like cannabis without damaging the environment further.
From a sustainability point of view, we operate in ways that create the least possible ecological damage. How? By using techniques that put the environment first: everything from the light sources we use to mimic natural light that draw 30% less power to minimizing the consumption of local water in our processes, and the resulting wastewater. Even our soil, once depleted, is recycled to a landscape company to create compost and reuse in projects. Organic soil and fertilizers, a water chilled climate control system that uses 30% less power than a standard HVAC… the list is long!
How would you articulate how a business can become more profitable by being more sustainable and more environmentally conscious? Can you share a story or example?
A cannabis business, and really any business, that wants to leverage organic practices and sustainability will be riding the wave of the future. For some reason, that is sometimes translated into a sense that the business will by default be unprofitable, as if it is too niche or boutique to be launched on a large scale.
That is patently false, however, and the proof is in the growth we have seen at Honest Marijuana. Ultimately, the consumer is becoming more discerning and looking to only put things in their body that are healthful and clean. That’s true for lettuce and tomatoes in their salads, as well as marijuana.
The added benefit, beyond not creating a footprint that will damage the planet, is that organic marijuana is superior both in terms of taste and effect. Once a consumer is educated to that notion, there is no going back!
While federal standards for cannabis aren’t yet in place, organizations like the Cannabis Certification Council (CCC) are making a difference by showing the appeal of organic labelling and marketing. Their #WhatsInMyWeed campaign has been remarkably effective at growing education around organic, sustainable products and practices. And since the CCC is a non-profit standard-holding advocate for clean and sustainable business practices in the cannabis industry, they have credibility that makes all the difference.
The youth led climate strikes of September 2019 showed an impressive degree of activism and initiative by young people on behalf of climate change. This was great, and there is still plenty that needs to be done. In your opinion what are 5 things parents should do to inspire the next generation to become engaged in sustainability and the environmental movement? Please give a story or an example for each.
- Parents should talk the talk with their kids — Communicating with kids about the climate crisis is essential. And it is a crisis, make no mistake! There is a tendency to want to shield our kids from everything but the reality is that they are more connected and more engaged than many in previous generations, giving them the resources and tools to be able to actively participate in something that directly affects their future. It’s important for parents to open that dialogue.
- Parents should listen — As much as parents might want to control the discussion on this topic, it’s equally important to listen to what kids already know, how they feel, what messages they’ve already received and what they think they can do to make a difference.
- Parents should clarify myth from fact — In listening to the kids, parents will be able to see where maybe the information they’ve gotten from social media or other sources isn’t quite the whole story. Watching documentaries and discussing them is a great way to get everyone in the family on the same page and listening to scientific facts. It’s a perfect opportunity to help kids learn to distinguish credible sources from the lesser ones.
- Parents should walk the walk — All the talk doesn’t mean much to kids if it isn’t followed by an example of leadership. If you want kids to do the right things, parents need to show them the way. It can start with small things like recycling properly, turning off lights in rooms that aren’t in use, using more energy efficient items around the house. Over time, that can progress to decisions being made about big ticket purchases like cars (electric, or even not having one at all), vacations (keeping it local), and so on.
- Spend more time in nature — A great way to “keep it local” is to spend more time in nature. It’s hard for some kids to appreciate what exactly they’re fighting for if they never spend any time in nature. Maybe the next holiday should be a camping trip?
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
Only two come to mind, but they are words to live by in business, particularly when it’s a business in a newer industry and market, like cannabis:
1. Think before you say “Yes” —
It’s in the nature of an entrepreneur to say yes to things, even making commitments without having the first foggiest clue how to get it done. A “can do” attitude is a good thing but it can also land you in some sticky situations if you don’t take the time to think through your decisions before saying “yes”. Example? In one early case, I spent months negotiating with a large chain of dispensaries and in my desire to get the deal done, I made some concessions in distribution that I didn’t think through. The result was that I created a lot more work for myself, for less profit. It was an unsustainable relationship at the time that left me wondering: if I hadn’t been so eager to please and say yes, could I have negotiated a better deal? At the very least, I wouldn’t have ended up spending so much time and energy on this one client and would have had more time for other potential opportunities. I’ll never know but that experience shaped my thinking in future negotiations!
2. When hiring, skip your friends
This is a tough one to say because of course we all want to work with people we know and trust implicitly, but there is a huge downside to this and that’s when things go wrong. Whether that’s from your perspective as the employer in that they aren’t working as you thought they would, or from their point of view, that the job isn’t what they expected. It puts a lot more strain on the relationship than you would experience if you were hiring strangers. Sadly, sometimes those relationships break down and don’t ever go back to what they were before. It’s not worth sacrificing a good friendship for the sake of filling up your candidate pool!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
That’s an easy one: the company’s Chief Financial Partner Serge Chistov. Serge’s wife and my mom worked together, which is how I knew him. One day, I was telling him about my plans and experiences with growing. He was interested enough to come out to Colorado to see things first hand and has since become one of the company’s biggest supporters, driving the marketing and brand strategy in a way that is completely in tune with my thinking. Serge has tremendous experience in other industries and those successes made his contributions very valuable to me. His support has helped me move forward with my mission to create clean, high quality marijuana products that are good for the environment and the people who consume them. Serge has a way of being very direct and usually right with his advice and assessments. It’s one of the things I most value about our relationship.
You are a person of great influence and doing some great things for the world! If you could inspire a movement that would bring the greatest amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
If more businesses and entrepreneurs matched desire for profitability with passion, a moral high ground and, of course, a strong, viable, marketable concept, we would really see innovation explode in a manner that is good for the marketplace as well as the planet.
Do you have a favorite life lesson quote? Can you tell us how that was relevant to you in your own life?
Patience is a virtue. If you believe in and are fully committed to your mission statement and have the product to back it up, you can win over time. We have put blood, sweat and tears into the Honest Marijuana Company vision, but success has not come quickly or easily. But the commitment to purity keeps driving and motivating us and we’re seeing the results now.
What is the best way for people to follow you on social media?
@honestmaryj on Facebook
This was so inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Anthony Franciosi of Honest Marijuana Company: Five Strategies Our Company Is Using To Tackle… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.