Redefining Green: Waste Reduction for Sustainability
While cannabis has been considered “green” for decades, the legal, commercialized industry today has adopted the moniker, but unfortunately not the carbon footprint. Aside from your friendly neighborhood home-grower, commercial cannabis operations have never really been sustainable. Regulations forcing heavy waste, the demand for mass production, and the perceived costs associated with sustainable operations have put commercial growers between a rock and a hard place.
Fortunately, many cannabis operators have reached the first step in the sustainability revolution: self-awareness. Most operators are aware of the harmful practices going on in their facilities leading to pollution and waste. While it may seem like a daunting task, it’s important to remember that sustainability is not an all-or-nothing undertaking. Investing in simple solutions builds momentum and leads to a more sustainable operation.
Dedicated both to cannabis and leading initiatives to improve sustainability practices within the cannabis industry, ancillary vendors and cannabis operators alike are teaming up to mitigate unsustainable practices, promote incremental changes, and ultimately live up to the “green” moniker.
Operators focused on simple solutions to the biggest sources of waste are reaping the benefits of high-quality cannabis while reducing their environmental impact.
Major Sources of Waste
Commercialized cannabis struggles with sustainability from cultivation to production, distribution to retail. The most significant sources of waste being:
Pesticides
In some cases, harsh chemicals and pesticides are applied to cannabis crops to protect against potentially devastating pests and diseases. Pesticides applied to cannabis plants can contaminate water, soil, and other vegetation.
Chemical Fertilizers
Most cannabis cultivators use petrochemical fertilizers. Parallel to food crop agricultural, chemical fertilizers are the standard due to their fast-acting nutrient release. Killing micro-organisms and destroying soil longevity, chemical fertilizers hinder long-term sustainability of entire regions of the world.
Packaging
Shackled by regulations that vary from state to state, operators must follow strict packaging guidelines that overwhelmingly favor single-use plastic packaging, including childproofing, special labeling, and durable materials. This leads to minimal recycling and more landfill waste
Plant Waste
Due to concerns that cannabis waste may be redirected to illegal channels, cannabis plants cannot be composted or disposed of as-is. To legally dispose of cannabis plants, operators need to make the waste “unrecognizable”. This often requires adding harmful chemicals and being sent directly to landfills.
Sustainable Swaps: Industry Practices Gaining Traction
While established industries continue decades-long unsustainable practices, the budding cannabis industry has already begun tossing aside borrowed, unsustainable practices and look for viable alternatives to reduce waste and improve sustainability.
There are five key methodologies cannabis operators are implementing to reduce waste, address climate change, and improve cannabis sustainability.
Commercial agricultural practices are unforgiving on the environment with the use of harsh chemical pesticides and fertilizers. These chemicals strip soil of nutrients, reduce water retention, destroy ecosystems, and inhibit crop (think Dust Bowl). Regenerative farming strives to maintain soil quality, stabilize biodiversity, and promote healthy yields.
To repair the soil damaged during harvest, commercial farmers turn to artificial fertilizers and chemicals. In regenerative farming, operators focus on iterative improvements throughout the entire cultivation process to help prevent nutrient loss, strengthening the soil web, and reducing the need for artificial chemicals.
Although awful for the environment, plastic is unavoidable especially with certain compliance requirements. While unavoidable in certain circumstances, operators can still make a significant impact when switching from petroleum-based plastics to a more durable, recyclable glass bottles whenever possible.
Take advantage of the sun’s natural power, saving money on electricity bills and increasing energy efficiency. Many outdoor grows practice regenerative farming processes that compound the impact on sustainability efforts.
Solar Energy
For many cannabis operators that are already up and running, sustainability initiatives may seem impossible without tearing everything down and rebuilding. Luckily solar energy is viable solution for many established operations. Reducing carbon emissions and operating costs, many cannabis cultivators, manufacturers, and dispensaries have turned to solar to keep the lights on.
Technology
You don’t know what you don’t know, making data the greatest asset to sustainability. Basic track-and-trace is already required for compliance, so cannabis operators might as well leverage that data and take it further to benefit their business and ESG efforts. From AI to RFID, data sensors to ERP, there is plenty of technology and software available to support sustainability.
Thanks to major companies leading by example, the cannabis industry is experiencing a cultural shift to more environmentally sustainable practices. Groups like Buddies Brand are growing outdoors and implementing cannabis-specific ERP software to take a data driven approach to sustainability. To hear more about Buddies Brand, checkout the SCC Podcast “Podcast 16: Furthering Sustainability using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)”. Another fantastic example, Trulieve is taking what they already have and making incremental changes that provide a big impact: switching to LED lights, investing in a reverse osmosis system to reduce water waste, and becoming ISO certified. To read more about Trulieve’s efforts, read the SCC Blog “Retrofitting Buildings for Sustainable Cannabis Use”.
A Growing Industry Needs Sustainability
As more states legalize and federal legalization looms, the severity of the implications of the waste problem will only multiply over the next decade without significant changes to industry standards and environmental regulations. It’s up to operators to set the bar and create the standards necessary for a sustainable industry.
