A symbol of our commitment to environmental sustainability: the Monarch Butterfly. This one stopped by and said hello to one of our cultivators while they were tending the plants this past summer.

Furthering Our Mission Through Social, Environmental, and Economic Responsibility and Sustainability

Champlain Valley Dispensary is pleased to announce that we are now members of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR) and the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce (LCRCC). Our organization is rooted in the welfare of our patients, staff, and the communities they live in. Social, economic, and environmental responsibility have been key components of the Champlain Valley Dispensary mission since day one. Just last month our heads of Cultivation and Production attended the Cannabis Certification Council’s Cannabis Sustainability Symposium in Worcester, Massachusetts. The event was an excellent review of the industry’s key environmental challenges. It also confirmed for us that the practices we regularly implement at CVD have set us upon the right path for a sustainable and socially responsible cannabis industry here in Vermont.

We are proud of our advanced management practices and ongoing investments in energy efficiency, water management, and waste minimization. Three things that further separate CVD from the crowd:

1. An impressive Integrated Pest Management System (IPM). We developed this program in conjunction with the State Department of Agriculture, Food and Markets in strict adherence with EPA standards.
2. Thoughtful sourcing. We use Vermont ingredients in our products as much as possible – like Jasper Hill Farm Cabot Cheddar in our famous Cheese Nibs and Vermont Compost for our outdoor organic grows.
3. A Vermont-proud past, present, and future. We are the only independently owned cannabis company in the state — for Vermont by Vermonters.

From our ongoing efforts toward cannabis reform, to easing the cost of medical cannabis for military veterans, Champlain Valley Dispensary’s work is fundamentally committed to making cannabis-derived medicine available to all who need it. We were the first medical dispensary in Vermont to be awarded a license (check out Our Story). Six years later, we continue to lead the way as the state’s principal advocates for sensible reform.

We’ve made marked progress and yet there are still many issues to overcome. For instance, decriminalization. Even expunged possession records can be flagged by the federal government when an individual applies for employment. We’ve seen it firsthand and believe that this roadblock to employment in a legal market is something to contest. People who have been locked up should not be locked out. Our fair hiring practices also include giving unprejudiced consideration to people who have been historically marginalized as full participants in the workforce, offering a corrective to what should never be a thing in the first place. Furthermore, we are proud to report out of our 70-employee company, 46% are female, 52% are male, and 2% are gender neutral. Half of our leadership team is comprised of women and several others are in key managerial and supervisory positions throughout our departments.

So much continues to change in the cannabis space. We take our position as leaders in this field very seriously and want our fellow Vermonters to understand the true scope of our efforts to do right by them. Check out our official blog often to learn more about CVD’s prioritization of social, economic, and environmental responsibility – and what we’re doing, specifically, to further our mission in the most responsible ways possible.