Business
How To Shrink Marijuana’s Carbon Footprint
The challenges of growing marijuana sustainably are real, and becoming increasingly challenging as powerful companies buy up growing operations.
Cannabis grew on its own, without the help of mankind or fossil fuels, for thousands of years. Just as the plant is generally eco-friendly, cannabis consumers are often environmentally savvy consumer. You can see glimpses of this in the often-recycled or zero-waste packaging some cannabis brands. But how to shrink marijuana carbon footprint while supporting a booming customer base?
Currently, the carbon footprint of cannabis high, and keeps growing as the industry continues to expand in states and in product sold. The answer to this question lies in the way marijuana is grown.
We asked Heather Dunbar, the Director of Marketing and Communications for the non-profit Sun+Earth Certified, some questions about the current state of marijuana’s carbon footprint, and what needs to change in order to make it smaller. Sun+Earth Certified growers, according to the organization’s website, are all holistically, responsibly and restoratively grown. In other words, the goal is to give back to the environment, rather than diminishing it..
We wanted to know how to curb, or even reverse the current issues with marijuana cultivation and its use of fossil fuels. But as marijuana continues to grow into a major player in business and industry, is it possible to change the tide and return to a climate conscious method of pot growing? Or is it destined to continue to morph into a major consumer of fossil fuels.
Use the Sun — It’s There and It’s Free
Perhaps the most fundamental reason for this major shift in fossil fuel energy use within cannabis farming is how each plant gets its light. Since the dawn of the plant, cannabis has relied on the sun to get its much needed rays of light. Now, however, outdoor cultivation occurs in a small minority of marijuana growing operations. “Nationally, 80% of cannabis is cultivated indoors with sophisticated lighting and environmental controls designed to maximize the plant’s yield,” according to Politico.
So instead of getting natural light, companies are using indoor farms to reduce the number of variables, which helps create a stronger yield of potent bud, but at a financial and environmental cost. This is why Sun+Earth Certified aims to use sunlight to feed to plants, rather than electricity. “These methods are good not only for the environment, but for the bank account too,” said Dunbar. “Regenerative methods use natural sunlight and avoid the high cost of expensive energy bills that come from using high-intensity lights.” After all, as important as environmental concerns are, knowing there is potential money savings is a great way to encourage change.
But it is not easy to sway the big growers who have built major indoor facilities that run like clockwork to churn out harvest after harvest of reliable buds. But this methodical consistency comes at a cost. “Large indoor grows require a massive amount of energy with high-intensity lights and HVAC systems that run 24/7, which has a major environmental impact and huge carbon footprint,” Dunbar said.
Use Environmentally Pesticides and Materials
Not only can unregulated and man-made pesticides be dangerous to our bodies, as we have previously reported, but these toxic pesticides are also bad for the environment. “Synthetic petroleum-based pesticides and fertilizers have a major negative impact,” said Dunbar. “By reducing, or ideally eliminating, the use of these products, one’s carbon footprint is drastically reduced.”
Fertilizers are also an area of opportunity for marijuana growers to reduce their footprint. Composting and creating one’s own fertilizer is not only cheaper, but it means you don’t need to purchase fertilizer that has traveled on a truck for hundreds or thousands of miles. Some of the fertilizers available for purchase might even have some damaging effects on the environment and climate change as well. As Dunbar explains, “Petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers not only disturb the soil biology negatively, but also use large quantities of fossil fuels.” This is why her company encourages making one’s own fertilizer. It helps save money, and the environment.
Small and Sustainable Farms Are a Great Way to Lower Carbon Footprint
Dunbar and Sun+Earth Certified work closely with many smaller growing operations, and it is these smaller operations where there is some hope for environmental stability. The concept is that these farms work together, as a collective. “Farmers share best practices, join collective forces, work together to bridge the gap from farmer to consumer, amplify the message of regenerative cannabis cultivation, and strengthen communities,” Dunbar said. She explains that the goal is that this low-waste, regenerative way of farming will spread to other growing operations who want to do the right thing but just don’t know how.
While this seems like a noble and optimistic plan, it is clear that there is a limited time to make these changes happen, especially as small cannabis farms continue to struggle. “The farmers who have been doing right for generations are having an incredibly hard time making ends meet. Currently there is no profit margin and some farmers are closing up shop,” Dunbar said.
Dunbar looks at her own state of California, where the power grids are already becoming very stressed and overwhelmed. “If large industrial grows continue to produce record amounts of cannabis using an enormous amount of energy, this will continue to strain the grid,” she said.
The challenges of growing marijuana sustainably are very real, and becoming increasingly challenging as powerful companies buy up growing operations. The industry using vast amounts of water and power. With federal legalization, outdoor grows will significantly reduce the carbon footprint.
Still, for such a vast carbon footprint problem, the solution is rather simple in the end. As Dunbar said, “It is time to grow it in a way that is aligned with nature and what makes sense for a sustainable and regenerative future: growing under the sun and in the soil.”
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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