Let’s face it… 2020 was extremely challenging for a whole host of different reasons we don’t need (or want) to rehash here.
But 2020 was also a good year for cannabis as 5 new States legalized, product sales skyrocketed as more and more people turned to the plant in order to deal with the stresses and pressure of our year, and cannabis officially become the #1 fastest growing job industry in the United States because of the explosion of industry growth around the country (and world).
2020 was also a strong year of growth for Green Flower as we made big strides in furthering our mission to educate the world about how to succeed in cannabis, while launching many new initiatives that had a big impact on the communities we serve.
To recap, here’s everything Green Flower accomplished in 2020.
Bringing Cannabis To Higher Education
It was a pivotal year of growth for bringing cannabis to higher education as we established 9 University Partnerships with forward-looking institutions around the country. Specifically, Green Flower is now powering the Cannabis Certificate Programs of these great institutions:
- Northern Michigan University
NMU is considered a pioneer in higher-ed cannabis programming, and they were the very first university in North America to offer a cannabis program. Their recognition that our programs would be the perfect complement to their bachelor degrees was a huge “stamp of approval” for us, and added incredible legitimacy to our offerings.
- UC Riverside
Our first public school in California and one with instant name recognition. To add further firepower to this partnership, UC Riverside immediately began the process of having our curriculum approved to be offered for-credit, which happened after the review and scrutiny by full-time faculty members and the university curriculum committee. Such approval is the ultimate validation of the quality of our Programs.
- Mt Aloysius
Mt. Aloysius is a respected faith-based university in Pennsylvania. For a Catholic college to take the leap in offering cannabis programming was also a significant moment in our development and made a statement about the acceptance of cannabis education.
- University San Diego
Our 2nd faith based school! The outstanding USD reputation and ranking, plus their desire to serve the southern California community, was very exciting for us.
- Florida Atlantic University
Florida is one of the fastest growing job markets in the country, and that’s why a partnership with Florida Atlantic University made so much sense. Moving into 2021, they will be offering all 4 programs in cannabis business, agriculture and horticulture, medical cannabis, and cannabis law and policy.
- University Wisconsin Platteville
Our first school in a state with zero level of cannabis legalization. And yet because of the university’s incredible reputation in agriculture, and their genuine enthusiasm for offering the programs and getting out ahead of others, we took the leap! From the day they distributed the press release about offering our programs, we knew this would be special. Within 24 hours of the press release we had over 200 inquiry emails about the programs and a great number of enrollments. Great proof of the demand for our programs no matter where you are.
- Northwest Missouri State
Did you know that Missouri State granted the most new grow-licenses in the entire country? This is why a partnership with NWMS made so much sense, and we’re looking forward to launching these new Programs in the beginning of 2021.
- St Joseph’s University
SJU is one of the top schools in Philadelphia and is a Jesuit affiliated institution. They are highly ranked and extremely well respected on all of the Eastern Seaboard. In addition, they are perfectly located to take advantage of the newly voted full legal cannabis status across the river in New Jersey.
- Western Washington University
Located right between Seattle and Vancouver, Washington boasts the highest cannabis consumption per capita in the country and was the first-ever state to fully legalize all forms of cannabis. We know there is tremendous pent-up demand in Washington and are expecting great enrollment numbers when they launch in March 2021.
New Partnerships
Our vision is to power cannabis education globally, and thus we developed a number of important strategic relationships this year to further this goal.
For Health, Safety, and Compliance: Green Flower became the official Approved Training Provider of FOCUS (Foundation of Cannabis Unified Standards) which develops health, safety, and compliance standards. This has resulted in 29 health, safety, and compliance courses that span across the retail, cultivation, manufacturing, and Laboratory sectors of the cannabis industry.
For Higher Education: Green Flower forged an exciting relationship with UPCEA (University Professional and Continuing Education Association) to produce a research paper specifically for higher-education about the current and future opportunities for colleges and universities to participate in the cannabis industry.
For Banks: Green Flower signed a partnership agreement with CBANC and ICS to produce a series of online trainings specifically for the banking industry. This also resulted in the creation of the Bank Education Center, a comprehensive learning pathway for banking institutions and professionals seeking to bank CRBs.
For Regulators: Green Flower signed a partnership agreement with AFDO (Association of Food & Drug Officials) to produce a series of training courses for local, state, and federal regulators across the country.
For West Virginia: Green Flower was appointed by West Virginia’s Cannabis Medical Office to develop state-mandated training for all new licensees carrying out ‘permitted activities” throughout the state.
New Courses, New Certificates, New Learning Centers
It was a big year of growth for the already robust Green Flower content library!
We launched 4 new Certificate Programs in Cannabis Business, Cannabis Extraction, CBD, and Cannabis Advocacy this year, bringing our total to 10 industry-leading Certificates at Green Flower. These beautifully designed curriculums taught by the industry’s leading experts are extremely popular, and were taken by thousands of people from all around the world.
Together with FOCUS, we invested heavily in building essential business training for onboarding, upskilling, and compliance needs within the industry. This resulted in a suite of different courses across all sectors of the industry, including training like: How to write effective SOPs, Principles of QMS, Importance of Process Mapping For Companies Seeking Certification, and more.
For investors, we launched the Investor Education Center, providing retail and institutional investors a centralized learning portal to make informed investment decisions across the cannabis supply chain.
Ganjier: The Cannabis Sommelier Certification
Although we began developing Ganjier in 2018, we officially brought this project to life in 2020.
That resulted in finishing the curriculum, launching the website, producing a series of incredible videos and articles featuring the Ganjier Council, and allowing the first group of people to submit their applications to become the world’s first Certified Ganjiers.
We’re grateful to announce the excitement and interest in this new trade Certification is through the roof, and we are very excited about getting our first 156 Ganjiers certified in 2021.
If you are not following this very special project, go sign-up for the interest list now, and make sure to follow us on Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Business Solutions To Train Your Team
Green Flower launched a Business Solutions division this year after continuing requests from industry executives seeking to improve their employee training, and create a more comprehensive training and development program internally.
We have now partnered with more than 40 companies within retail, manufacturing, cultivation, and labs, to bring industry-leading online training to forward-looking companies such as Kiva Confections, Wana Brands, Jushi, Acreage Holdings / The Botanist, Curaleaf, Glass House, and many more. We also expanded into Canada and Europe with international clients such as manufacturer Kierton.
Companies such as Cookies took it a step farther, utilizing Green Flower to power their social equity education programs, which we are very excited to roll out in 2021.
Listening to the needs of our clients, we started building personalized “learning paths” for more than twenty-five cannabis-centric job roles, including trimmers, dispensary agents, lab technicians, edibles chef, new executive, marketing professional, and many more! Each pathway covers 12 months of learning including onboarding, continuing education, and personal development for each identified role.
This allows companies to train every role in your organization with incredible pre-built courses and lessons. We also added a feature that allows clients to upload their own videos and training materials, to create a truly personalized learning experience.
Expect to see a continued emphasis on solving companies’ training challenges in 2021 with an increase in compliance content offerings, expanded job role learning paths, business-centric webinars, banking courses, and much more!
Learning Technology
Green Flower launched our new LXP (learning experience platform) with a whole host of awesome features you will love:
- Take a sample course free
- Browse content by Learning Center
- Preview every course before you buy
- Take individual Courses for just $47
Take some time to play around with the new LXP. So far, the feedback has been extremely positive!
Social Impact
At the beginning of the pandemic, Green Flower decided to allow anyone to take our popular Cannabis Fundamentals Certificate for free ($297 value), as a way to keep people learning and growing during this challenging time.
8,793 people took advantage of this opportunity, which translated into Green Flower giving away $2,611,521 in complimentary cannabis education to help our community. This made us feel good to contribute back in some small way during a global upheaval.
Green Flower partnered with Last Prisoner Project to donate $50,000 of cannabis education scholarships to expungement and re-entry participants.
Finally, Green Flower hosted the NORML’s 50th Anniversary Digital conference for free, to support this amazing organization and celebrate everything they have done for cannabis reform over the last 5 decades.
Our Hope For 2021
First and foremost, we hope you remain safe, healthy, and in good spirits. Like everyone, we’re looking forward to getting control of this Pandemic and moving into the next chapter of life where we can socialize, travel, work, and play again without fear.
Beyond that, our mission at Green Flower remains the same as it has been since 2014: to educate the world to succeed in cannabis.
So whether you’re looking to start a new career, expand your current one, learn the medical benefits of cannabis, start cultivating this special plant, build a thriving business, and anything else in the ever-expanding cannabis industry, Green Flower is here to help you succeed by providing you with the highest quality education and training.
Thanks for being a part of our community.
Much love,
Max Simon
CEO, Green Flower
P.s. If there’s something you’d really LOVE Green Flower to do for you in 2021, please post a comment below! We’d love to get that feedback and input from you.
