Being in the indoor ag industry, Surna Cultivation Technologies view sustainability as an essential part of the company culture. "We believe in the importance of taking care of the planet we call home," the Surna team says. "That is why we are committed to making sure that we’re doing our part to protect the environment."
"Our commitment to sustainability includes improving the efficiency of our clients’ businesses, reducing our carbon footprint, minimizing waste, and supporting reforestation initiatives around the world."
Striving for efficiency
In 2006, Surna’s co-founders Brandy and Stephen Keen decided to do something about the lack of efficient, application-specific HVAC technology available to cannabis cultivators. Back then, growing indoors had not been a common practice outside of the illicit market cannabis industry, and due to its prohibition, it was not something that could be tested and innovated upon on a commercial market scale.
“My husband was a hobby gardener,” says Brandy. “But the technologies that were available to people in hobby gardening were so wasteful and silly. People were trying to cultivate indoors using things that wasted so much energy and took so much time and maintenance to manage.”
Since the company's founding, Surna Cultivation Technologies has strived to provide efficient equipment that provides indoor cultivators with HVAC designed specifically for their grow rooms. “Our job as engineers is to create the most energy-efficient environment possible,” says Troy Rippe VP of Operations and Development. “40-50% of your energy bill is consumed by the cooling, heating, and dehumidification system, so if we’re not designing the best systems possible for that operational expense, then down the road as prices go down and people are fighting to stay in business, you’re spending more money than you need to.”
While reducing a grow’s energy consumption can help lower their operational costs, it is also beneficial to the environment and surrounding community. For instance, High Desert Relief, an Albuquerque cannabis cultivator, reported 25% lower energy consumption after installing LED lights and a Surna climate control system.
While Surna Cultivation Technologies offer energy-efficient options for climate control, the company also aims to provide solutions that reduce water waste. Durango Cannabis Company located in Colorado is able to reclaim 98% of its water by integrating its irrigation and HVAC systems.
Reducing our footprint
"Not only do we offer energy and water-efficient climate control solutions to our clients, but we have also made great strides in reducing our own environmental footprint," they explain.
"Like many others, we transitioned our team at headquarters to work remotely in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the exception of those on the production floor. In 2021, we made the decision to continue remote work as part of our normal operations in the future. This decision was made to support our hard-working team as they enjoy the perks of working from home, as well as to minimize our footprint. In daily commutes alone, we have already saved over 11 thousand gallons of gasoline."
"In addition to remote work, we have moved other areas of operation to the digital space to reduce paper and plastic waste. Where possible, we now ship our equipment with a single sheet of paper with warnings and a QR code to access the full product manual online. When manuals can stretch between 20 and 100 pages, the number of trees saved adds up quickly!"
One tree planted
Planting trees is one of the best ways to combat the damaging effects of climate change. "That is why we’ve teamed up with One Tree Planted, a nonprofit with the goal to combat climate change by planting trees. For every commercial project contract signed, Surna Cultivation Technologies will give One Tree Planted funds to plant 20 trees. These contributions will go toward forest fire recovery efforts specifically."
For more information:
Surna Cultivation Technologies
1780 55th Street, Suite A Boulder, CO 80301
T: (303) 993-5271
F: (303) 955-2544
[email protected]
surna.com