The recent world wide boom in the cannabis industry, has created a
sense of urgency for many prospective licensed producers in their desire
to “fast-track” the construction of their grow and processing
facilities. This fast track pursuit to establish their operation without
delay, has resulted in a detrimental lack of attention to specific
design requirements for high quality cultivation and processing of
cannabis resulting in sub-standard building systems and inferior
end-product quality.
The desire for a quickly constructed building, combined with the
general lack of experience with the many ownership teams in
understanding the importance of proper building system design,
specifically related to cannabis production, has created numerous
situations where the licensed producer has had to inject stifling “post
construction” capital into their facilities in an attempt to rectify
issues that have proven to be damaging to their product quality, and in
some cases affecting all aspects of their operation.
The hastiness by which many producers have elected to assemble their
projects, utilizing outside consultants and project team members that do
not have a strong record of experience and success with cannabis
facilities, has created the various issues which they now must rectify
in order to achieve any chance of producing a quality product for the
public. The requirement to now retrofit their facility to meet the
necessary standards expected in producing pharmaceutical grade medical
marijuana, can be disastrous to most owners, resulting in a challenging
financial impact as well as undesirable disruption to their fully
operational facility.
Despite the many guidelines and regulations issued by the regulatory
leaders in the worldwide cannabis industry, there continues to be a lack
of clarity from these regulatory bodies on the best practice approach
to what is required in terms of facility requirements to produce high
grade cannabis products. The search for this information can be both
frustrating and daunting as there is tends to be either a lack of
information or misleading information in the marketplace as to the
“best” approach to facility design.
Every ownership group, upon initiation of their project, must
understand that seeking out and securing a project team to design their
facility, a firm that has all required expertise internally within their
wheelhouse, is critical to the success of their business overall. The
most desirable firm understands the fundamentals in cannabis facility
design, commencing with an optimized functional layout of the facility,
which takes into account the most systematic and efficient workflows for
all aspects of the operation and integrates engineered mechanical and
electrical systems layouts.
These foundational elements, combined with comprehensive
recommendations and specifications for all interior and exterior
building components and equipment that meet pharmaceutical and food
grade regulatory requirements, will deliver the most economical yet most
efficient solution to ensuring that a high quality end product is
achieved and that the business remains profitable and successful for the
long term.
We will continue to explore additional challenges and insights on
developing optimal cannabis building solutions in our next blog…
THERACANN BUILD TEAM
By Robert Mulyk – Director of BenchmarkBUILD for TheraCann International.
For more information on the Cannabis Facility Building design and our services, please contact Robert Mulyk, Director of BenchmarkBUILD for TheraCann International.