Doing a little reading tonight and these words came into my mind about what Ive been doing. I dont normally share but decided to anyway #greeningcorporatecannabis Vote with your dollars. Its a phrase that started to be used in the 80s and has been gaining popularity ever since. Voting with your dollars means that you spend your money with companies that you believe in. Companies that share similar values with you and are using their dollars to support manufacturers that pay good wages to their employees, bring to market products that are concerned with its environmental impact and support their consumers and the communities they live in. Some of the largest corporations that have found success with this approach are The Body Shop, thebodyshop, Ben and Jerrys, benandjerrys, and Toms of Maine, tomsofmaine, to name a few. Over the last couple decades these companies have proved that there are plenty of consumers that when given a choice over products with similar qualities they would prefer to spend their money with the company whose values they agree with. At Forever Flowering Greenhouses our values were the root cause to the formation of this company. Over a decade ago while sitting on a rural piece of land in the Mendocino, Ca hills I realized that there was a cycle that was not being completed in my community. Everyone I knew was living on the land, eating and farming organic, wearing hemp and driving cars powered by Biodiesel or used vegetable oil yet everyone also had a barn full of energy consumptive HID grow lights burning through the night powered either by diesel generators or grid-tied power companies. It occurred to me that though we were a big part of the solution we were also a big part of the problem. See the article titled Energy: Up in Smoke, evan-mills/energy-associates/Indoor.html, as it breaks down the amount of energy it takes to produce one gram under grow lights. My life was suddenly set on a new course of action. To produce the highest quality end products without jeopardizing yields, while using the most conscious growing methods and keeping with my values of energy efficiency, keeping a minimal carbon footprint, reducing waste, growing organically, recycling and giving back to the community that I was a part of. This was the birth of Forever Flowering. Now that we have begun our 9th year of business I can look back with pride over the decisions Ive made and the course I set my company on and the perseverance to keep that course. Dont get me wrong, we are far from my ideal but I truly feel that FFG has made and continues to make a large impact on the direction of this industry. Because of our efforts to provide only the highest quality products that will last longer than most comparative materials we have diverted hundreds of thousands of square feet of cheap blackout tarps and greenhouse covers from the landfill. We have opened the door for people to come out of the closet and step into the light, sunlight, eliminating millions of KW hours of unnecessary grow light usage. Due to our focus on energy efficient products and kit designs we have reduced the need for energy consuming fans. Our attention to proper ventilation has reduced the amount of mold and mildew present in our customers crops allowing them to cut back or eliminate fungicides, herbicides and pesticides. We recycle shipping boxes, merge shipments, recycle in the office and reuse what we can when we can. FFG has worked strongly with Non Profits like Common Vision, commonvision.org, that brings the knowledge of growing food into inner city schools and plants orchards in these schools to later be implemented into the schools food program. Weve donated greenhouses to local schools, supported and sponsored local events for food sustainability, support local businesses and radio programs and give free seminars on growing in greenhouses and utilizing the technology of Light Deprivation. All these steps have not allowed us to be the cheapest product on the market and frankly that is alright with us. We have never wanted to be in a price war with what we are doing. FFG is born of the industry and serves those who understand that. These days our shpeel has changed a little bit as many of our customers investors we speak with do not share these same values or at least do not prioritize them. The good thing is that our values-led directives also save money in the long run and reduce monthly overhead and this is exactly what these money people do want to hear. And in the end its a Win/Win/Win for us, our customers and the environment/community. This year we are proud to be recognized by Clean Green Certifications, cleangreencert, as a company that is making an effort to be carbon footprint aware and creating products to help their customers be more green in their business and farming practices. I guess you can say that we here at FFG are focused on the bottom line. The bottom line being the horizon line. Because we are focused on the future, not short-term profits, our impact on it and the contributions we can make to help shape that. Thank you to everyone that aligns with our principles, supports our visions and lets us be a part of yours... lightdep
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 07:53:22 +0000
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