Author: Evan Mills
https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-mills-743ba4b/overlay/photo/
Introduction
Two-thirds of the 24,000 t/year of legal and illicit US cannabis cultivation takes place indoors. Industry-wide life cycle emissions are 44 Mt CO2e/year, equaling thoseof6Mhomesor10Mcars, 90%of which is associated with factory-farmed products. Energy use is four times that of beverage and tobacco or pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing. Maximal reductions can be achieved by a policydriven shift toward more outdoor cultivation, but this requires addressing market distortions and harmonizing drug and environmental policy.
Highlights
Theenergy-intensive cannabis industry is a major emitter of greenhouse gases
Life cycle assessment finds that outdoor cultivation could trim emissions up to 76% d
This approach requires less land than solar PV footprint for indoor cultivation
Legalization alone will not achieve these savings; other policies are needed
The full paper
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