The Best Eco-Friendly Cannabis in California

While the cannabis growing industry uses much less water than its farming counterparts, it still creates a fair amount of waste. Think discarded stems and leaves, spent vapes, and plastic product packaging. It also uses a great deal of energy.

That’s why we want to shine the spotlight on our favorite eco-friendly cannabis brands, who are going the extra mile to protect the planet.

Eco-friendly Cannabis: Brands that Are Doing it Better 

From sustainable farming practices to innovative packaging to smart technology that reduces energy consumption, these growers are using only the greenest practices to grow your ganja.

Aster Farms

[caption id="attachment_1089" align="alignright" width="402"] Julia Jacobson is one face of the Aster Farms brand, and deeply dedicated to sustainable cannabis[/caption]

Leading the pack is Aster Farms, a family-owned marijuana grower based in Mendocino County in California and Upstate New York. For starters, they cultivate bud outdoors in live soil, and rely on no-till techniques to reduce carbon output. They also use a hybrid of solar and grid electricity.

Compared to indoor operations, Aster Farms has created far, far less harmful emissions in the year 2021. They also have a robust composting program, which helps them reuse all of their plant waste on their farm. Impressive.

Aster Farms also strives to decrease their use of single-use plastics. Instead, they select reusable materials whenever possible. Materials like glass jars for flower and tins of pre-rolls that you can buy at the store. They also ship their products in bulk in tote bags.

Sol Spirit Farms

Also family-owned and located in California’s famous Green Triangle region is Sol Spirit Farms, a marijuana grower committed to protecting their patch of earth and beyond. They consider themselves lucky to live where pesticide drift won’t impact their carefully cultivated plants.

Sol Spirit Farms employs regenerative farming techniques. This means they focus on keeping soil healthy and nourished, protecting plant and animal biodiversity, safeguarding water sources, and, in general, restoring the earth. The idea is to counter climate change, one bud at a time.

As for product packaging, Sol Spirit Farms uses sustainable materials. They also use glass as opposed to plastic in an effort to reduce solid waste. In fact, they won the Emerald Cup in 2022 for best eco-conscious packaging, which is quite the feat!

You can even visit the farm and glamp at their vacation rental, where you will enjoy organic farm-to-table produce at mealtime and more.

Jetty Extracts

Jetty Extracts has always been an operation that doesn’t use pesticides or fillers. In particular, they wanted to create the cleanest possible weed vape – and they succeeded. In 2022, Jetty took home second place at the Emerald Cup for their solventless cartridge.

This eco-friendly extraction process means Jetty doesn’t rely on butane or propane, meaning they produce less waste. Additionally, the cannabis extract maintains the pure characteristics of the weed that it comes from, such as scent, color, and flavor. 

Jetty even got an OPal certification for their products, which is akin to the standards organic products have to meet – and that’s something Nate Ferguson, co-founder and chief product officer at Jetty Extracts, is proud of. As he has said, “Jetty's OCal certification is a testament to our consistent efforts to create the cleanest, most sustainable and innovative products on the market and we're committed to meeting the growing consumer demand for transparent cannabis products."

Almora Farms

Almora Farms acknowledges that there is a magical quality to growing weed, a farm-to-table practice they take seriously at their sunny California location. There, they rely on organic protocol and living soil to cultivate plants, which starts with detailed attention to seed genetics. 

When it comes time to harvest their marijuana, Almora Farms hand-trims their crops. This means each bud is plucked without harming any part of the plant. They even offer an inside glimpse into their farm at harvest time on their website, adding transparency to the mix.

Among their products – which are carefully packaged in glass and paper materials as opposed to problematic plastics – Almora Fams has a line of live rosin options; this means they are extracted via an environmentally conscious, solventless process. Again, this reduces butane and propane waste. 

Eco-friendly Stewards of the Planet

All of these companies show that the cannabis industry can be the leader when it comes to sustainability and environmentally friendly practices. Further, the weed and products these trailblazers produce is top-notch, showing that being green pays off.