The Valens Company

The Challenge

Manufacturing cannabis derivatives — such as oils, concentrates, edibles, topicals, vapes and more — is both an art and a science. It requires the environment in each of the facility’s rooms to be ultra precise to ensure a high-quality product.

The Valens Company contracted Kimco to install a building automation system that would not only give the company that level of precision, but could also reduce or prevent HVAC downtime and save Valens money on heating, cooling and water usage. Given the level of precision required, Kimco needed to deliver a custom-built solution for the facility.

The Kimco Solution

Kimco worked closely with Valens scientists to understand the specific requirements of the extraction facility’s cleanrooms. Cleanrooms, usually associated with the pharmaceutical, high-tech and medical manufacturing industries, have class ratings that indicate the number of airborne particle counts within a cubic unit of air, and the goal is to carefully maintain the rooms’ air quality, humidity, temperature and pressurization.

Kimco also worked with a team of contractors and engineers to develop a customized solution that met these stringent requirements. Working with a mechanical contractor, Kimco determined the best place for the HVAC equipment was on the exterior of the building, to be fed into the facility; this way, when the system needed maintaining, future technicians would not contaminate any of Valens’ rooms with dust or dirt.

Kimco’s building automation solution, which featured Delta Controls’ technology, gave Valens facilities staff real-time control over the building’s environmental conditions, analytical logging and alarm notifications should the temperature, humidity or air quality fall out of the appropriate range. The system has saved Valens’ downtime and reduced HVAC costs at the facility.