Business Central September 2021

66 | “We’ve built our business model from the ground up with sustainability in mind, with a focus on reducing water usage, reducing waste of all kinds and reducing our carbon footprint.” Leading the way in medicinal cannabis T T Karen Phelps Greenfern Industries managing director Dan Casey: “We believe we have a responsibility to set an example...” INDUSTRY Greenfern Industries G reenfern Industries has just been named New Zealand’s first Toitū car - bonzero certified medicinal cannabis and industrial hemp company. “The medicinal cannabis industry has quite a large environmental and carbon footprint due to high-energy inputs. “We want to be a world-leading example of sustainability in the industry and to help set the standard for environmentally friendly can- nabis and hemp production,” says Greenfern Industries managing director Dan Casey. Greenfern was started in 2018 when five school friends with diverse backgrounds (civil and electrical engineers, a tech/blockchain entrepreneur and a director of food and bev- erage of a Fortune 500 hotel chain) found they all shared a passion for renewable energy, in particular, hydro power and the health poten- tial of the cannabis plant. They decided to take on the new medicinal cannabis industry taking off in New Zealand. The company owns a hydroelectric power station on the Waingongoro River in Taranaki. “The highest overhead cost in a medicinal cannabis indoor growing operation is power. “While having access to cost-price power is a game changer for us in terms of how competitive it will make the price of our products, being able to grow our plants in a more environmentally friendly way is just as important to us. “We’ve built our business model from the ground up with sustainability in mind, with a focus on reducing water usage, reducing waste of all kinds and reducing our carbon footprint,” explains Dan. The Toitū carbonzero certification process saw Greenfern analyse all aspects of its organ- isational carbon footprint, develop a reduction plan and get independently verified by Toitū Envirocare. Dan says a large focus in obtaining the certi- fication was work completed on its hydroelec - tric power station. The station has been given the go-ahead by the Taranaki Regional Council to start generating power again after passing the final inspection of items that were historically in breach of resource consent conditions held by the station’s previous owner. The power station sits alongside Green- fern’s research facility, indoor growing opera- tion and processing facility. Greenfern is also setting up high-tech aer- oponic grow rooms at its Taranaki headquar- ters which will use less water, fewer nutrients and less electricity when compared to conven- tional hydroponic cannabis grow rooms. “With the medicinal cannabis industry having such a large environmental footprint globally, it seems wrong to introduce conven- tional cannabis production systems to New Zealand. “We believe we have a responsibility to set an example in sustainable and carbon-neutral cannabis production for this budding new industry in New Zealand.” The hemp grown by the company is harvest- ed for its seed which is then processed and sold for use as a high protein meat substitute due to be launched to the market shortly via a joint venture with Sustainable Foods Limited, which holds the rights to commercialise the intellectual property created by Greenfern and Massey University. Greenfern will supply all the hemp needed to manufacture the products. Greenfern also produces a hemp-based body care range MaTo and hemp-based beer utilising by-prod- ucts from the seed processing. While food and other products have been the initial focus to provide solid revenue for the start up business the long-term goal is medicinal cannabis products. Dan says that Greenfern Industries utilises the latest research and works with various institutes to implement research programs that give scientists and New Zealand-based students the chance to explore a new field while gaining work experience in the new industry. Greenfern currently has several novel research initiatives around the country. It also has a medicinal cannabis product that will be prescribed to patients by their doctor awaiting Ministry of Health approval. It is also targeting the Australian market, importing medicinal cannabis products to distribute via its own label through various supply chains.