So, what does that mean? In short, it’s a lot of greenhouse gasses pumped into our already loaded skies, from Southern California .
Indoor growing is widely expected to become the majority growing method as its light, climate and other quality controls make for much-desired, crystal-covered, high-THC buds.
“It’s a good study,” said Shawn Cooney, an indoor farmer in Boston and founding member of the Sustainable Cannabis Coalition, emphasizing the Colorado study’s effort to document not only energy use but also how that energy is produced where the farm is located.
While scientific studies looking at the impact of the still-emerging cannabis industry can motivate growers, consumers and policymakers to shape the market for a more sustainable future, growers are already motivated to reduce their energy use.
While outdoor and greenhouse farms are where the majority of cannabis is grown, a lot of communities don’t want to see, smell or worry about kids getting into an outdoor cannabis patch.
“You guys out West have such a different perspective on things, because it’s been so normalized out there for so long,” Barch said.
Barch agrees that encouraging or allowing outdoor and greenhouse growing is an important step in combating cannabis’s energy problem.
Switching to LED lights — which are much cheaper to operate and let off much less heat than the standard high-pressure sodium lights — requires a lot less energy to control heat in a building, he said.
“The industry is really taking it upon itself to tackle this issue,” he said.
On that front, Cooney from Sustainable Cannabis Coalition said his group is working to provide cannabis growers with tools and standards that help them to know and document their greenhouse gas position.