Cannavative: Innovation Through The Scientific Method

Cannavative – Reno, NV

The idea of this innovative cannabis company came when its founder, Dr. Scott Wrye, wrote his first medical marijuana prescription for a badly injured patient in 2003. That life-altering event planted the seed which eventually grew into Cannavative more than a decade later. At the time of Cannavative’s establishment in 2015, it was Northern Nevada’s first-awarded legal medical cannabis production license and Nevada’s only facility with its own cultivation and extraction lab in one building.

The Place

Cannavative’s 55,000 square foot facility lies on eight acres of property just north of Reno — they also utilize about 10,000 square feet for their production. They operate flowering ‘pods’ consisting of 16 shipping container units, each with its own distinct micro-environment intended to replicate the best possible growing conditions for each individual strain. The smaller environments allow the team to make minor adjustments to cater to each strain’s specific needs, maximizing the quality of each batch. At any time, Cannavative staff can adjust humidity, CO2, moisture, temperature, light cycle, watering schedules and nutrient intake of any of their 26 proprietary genetics. There are also six more flowering rooms, two vegetative pods and a vegetative room containing the mothers and a clone nursery.

The Culture

“At Cannavative we adopted the slogan, ‘We Are Cannavative’,” says Kurt Ehasz, VP of supply chain. It’s in big, bold letters right when you walk through their front doors. “Of course, it’s about being a part of a team and having that support, but it’s also about being proud that we are innovators in our field and proud to say that field is cannabis,” says Ehasz. With the use of greenhouses and a state-of-the-art vertical grow system in the near future, not to mention over 250 days of Reno sunshine a year, the people there are smiling about something special going on at Cannavative.