https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/karmakoalapodcast/episodes/2025-03-07T03_19_58-08_00
Part 2 of my conversation with Evan where my learning curve gets even steeper than the first episode.
We cover a lot of topics in 30 minutes including..
The energy use applied to processing cannabis and hemp and especially so for human consumption products. At the moment, Evan believes, it’s almost impossible to define what that usage is.
The cost of industrialized cannabis production as the leading current model
The way companies are structured can hide the realities of energy use
Indoor vs outdoor, energy use vs land use and a 1000 other things to think about
Renewables
Cannabis industry greenwashing
What doe process change mean for cannabis production
The energy use applied to growing different cultivars
That’s just the start.
In a few months time we’ll talk again about possible policy options and realistically what they can achieve
As i said at the top a very steep learning curve for all of us.
Listen to the first podcast and read Evan’s report here
Evan Mills
Evan Mills is an Affiliate and recently retired Senior Scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), operated by the University of California–one of the world’s leading research centers on energy and environment. He was past leader of LBNL’s Center for Building Science, which represented the work of about 400 people.
Mills is a member of the international body of scientists under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC collectively shared in the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 with former U.S. Vice President Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr.
While completing his Bachelors of Science degree in Conservation and Resource Studies at U.C. Berkeley in the mid-1980s, he studied and taught about green buildings with Sim van der Ryn. He received a Masters of Science degree in 1987 from U.C. Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group (where he is now a Research Affiliate) and a Ph.D. from the Department of Environmental and Energy Systems Studies under Thomas B. Johansson at Lund University in Sweden in 1991. In Sweden, he worked closely with the Swedish State Power Board (Vattenfall) and the Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development on national energy planning projects, while serving as an energy advisor to the Swedish Parliamentary Working Group on Energy Futures.
He spent most of his career at LBNL. His closest mentor and collaborator there was Art Rosenfeld, for whom he served as his Deputy Director of the Center for Building Science, later leading the Center. He also consults widely for private industry and the public sector.
His research centers on the impacts of climate change mitigating those impacts through reduced emissions and loss prevention. His specialties are energy efficiency in buildings and industry and the intersection of energy technology, global climate, and risk management. His interests further center around pinpointing “sleeper” uses of energy and empowering policymakers, consumers, and non-traditional market actors to capture improved efficiencies, reduced greenhouse-gas emissions, resilience, and other non-energy benefits.
Research communication to stakeholder groups is a key focus. Mills has published nearly 400 technical articles and reports and has contributed to 13 books and many articles in the popular press. He has been a speaker in 20 countries and 57 cities.
For more information see http://evanmills.lbl.gov
