Acreage Pharms

The Client Challenge

Acreage Pharms Ltd. is a licensed producer of cannabis for the medical market under Canada’s Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR).  However, with the legalization of recreational cannabis in Canada, the company was looking to expand and construct a state-of-the-art production facility in time to meet expected consumer demand, both locally and internationally.  

The Startec Solution

Working collaboratively with Acreage Pharms, the Startec team designed and built a custom, industrial HVAC solution for their 40,000 sq. ft. production facility. Our team were able to discover and identify system efficiencies throughout the development process to deliver an innovative solution that ensured: 

• optimized climate conditions 
• precision control 
• reduction in energy usage by 20% as compared to that of a traditional Freon-based refrigeration system
• reduction in capital costs by 50% compared to competitor HVAC solutions

Being Everyday Mavericks, however, our team did not stop there.

Driven by the learnings we uncovered from this project, we have now started to apply these efficiencies to a second 140,000 sq. ft facility for Acreage Pharms and are planning for a further two future expansions. 

The Integrated service offering - our service doesn’t stop when the project ends

In the cannabis industry, uptime and product quality are of paramount importance. To that end, as part of our integrated service offering, we are working with Acreage Pharms to develop a custom, facility-specific, preventative maintenance program that reflects the specific demands of their business. This program will be fully serviced and supported by our industry-leading service team. 

Project Details

• Facility size:
  • Phase 2: 40,000 sq. ft
  • Phase 3: 140,000 sq. ft
• Industrial-grade, low charge Ammonia system utilized
  • The system employs multiple redundancies, minimizing the likelihood of downtime and maximizing the efficiency of maintenance
  • The proprietary cooling approach takes advantage of ambient conditions to maximize the efficiency of the cooling system