Professor DeBacco
Research Article
Mills, E. (2012). The carbon footprint of indoor Cannabis production. Energy Policy, 46, 58-67.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301421512002285
Cannabis Energy Consumption
The emergent industry of indoor Cannabis production utilizes highly energy intensive processes and is highly inefficient.
In the United States, this represents an annual energy expenditure of $6 billion.
Carbon Footprint of Indoor Cannabis
One kg of final product is associated with emissions of 4600 kg of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere.
Aggregate U.S. emissions are equivalent those of 3 million cars.
Carbon Footprint of Indoor Cannabis
Growers need to consider all of the aspects of plant production that require energy.
Lighting is typically the highest, but with this there is also ventilation requirements that will also have energy demands.
Carbon Footprint and Energy Cost for Three Levels of Efficiency
(a)Indoor cannabis: carbon footprint.
(b)Indoor cannabis: electricity cost.
Assumes a wholesale priceof$4400/kg.
*Wholesale prices are highly variable and poorly documented.
Comparative Energy Intensities: by Sector (2006)
Cannabis production sector is the greatest energy consumer at nearly 20 megajoule (MJ) per $1000
Cannabis is followed next by paper at 14MJ/$1000
Comparative Energy Intensities: by U.S. building type (2003)
Cannabis production requires 8-times as much energy per square foot as a typical U.S. commercial building.
Specifically…
4x more than a hospital
18x more than an average U.S. home
Outdoor Growing is Not Energy Free
Shifting cultivation outdoors can nearly eliminate energy use for the cultivation process.
However energy is still ,required for water pumping vehicle transport during production and distribution remains part of the process, more so than for indoor operations.
A common perception is that the potency of Cannabis produced indoors exceeds that of that produced outdoors, leading consumers to demand Cannabis produced indoors.
Federal sources (National DrugIntelligenceCenter,2005) as well as independent testing laboratories(Kovner, 2011) actually find similar potencies when best practices are used.
Negatives of Outdoor Production
Outdoor cultivation can still have negative environmental impacts (other than energy use) such as…
Deforestation
Destruction of wetlands
Soil runoff
Pesticides
Over application of fertilizer
Link to Lecture Slides: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C6t5YItbKH5TVDfSETpRnYDdbm5s2H7_/view?usp=sharing
*Due to the description character limit the full work cited for “Carbon Footprint Analysis for Indoor Cannabis Production” can be viewed at… https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hhgzge5Rv4Yv12-amKN21-GXYoYdtaon/view?usp=sharing
