Why Sustainability Eludes The Cannabis Industry
And what entrepreneurs can do about it.
Cannabis has a sustainability problem. This news may come as a surprise to you. Cannabis and hemp have been sold by advocates (like me) as a ‘green’ crop producing ‘green’ products. While that fundamental statement is true, public policy mistakes and market conditions have led to polluted outcomes on par with the coal industry.
When a pound of indoor dried cannabis flower has a larger carbon footprint than the longest roundtrip commercial airplane flights in the world, something feels wrong with that picture. Something is wrong with that picture.
It begs the question, why?
“There are a lot of pain points in the cannabis space, from packaging to certain cultivation methods,” said journalist Cara Wietstock at Greenstate. “But fixes are going to be complicated and multi-pronged.” She has written extensively on cannabis and sustainability.
“Look at cultivation: Growing indoors in states with heavy winter snow takes a lot of energy,” Wietstock said. “The most logical fix would be to have a farm in an ideal locale like Northern California wholesale cannabis to other states. Unfortunately, this would require multiple policy changes that would take years. My view is that there’s a lot of work to be done, and more barriers than doorways.”
While other factors like pesticides, water use, packaging, transportation, and land use play a part in the sustainability of cannabis, growing weed indoors is the primary driver of carbon emissions. Sungrown farmers in California have been practicing sustainable cannabis cultivation for decades, as chronicled in author Doug Fine’s 2012 book, Too High To Fail.
“Ever since I began my research into regenerative cannabis in California's Emerald Triangle in 2011 for my book,” said Fine, “I’ve strongly believed that healthy cannabis cultivated outdoors in a manner akin to organic produce is a win-win model.”
A lot has happened to cannabis cultivation since Too High To Fail was published. Legalization has swept across the nation and with it, a lot of indoor cultivation. The reason most legal weed is grown indoors is due to public policy requiring it, or zoning and other regulations that mandate it.
Elected officials and their regulators feel safer if their communities cannot see or smell cannabis cultivation. In many cases, those communities agree and demand cultivation happen indoors. In these communities the environmental impacts are not as strong as the stigma that weed is bad and needs to be hidden away.
Federal prohibition does not allow the state-level legal supply chain to engage in interstate commerce. That means high-quality outdoor California marijuana cannot be transported and sold in New York (except in the underground market). In a post-legalization reality, that hurts the craft farmer in the west by eliminating their market for weed in the east.
Even in California, sungrown craft farmers cannot sell directly to consumers—the regulations don’t allow it. They have to go through a licensed distributor or become a distributor themselves (not a farmers core competency). This does not incentivize outdoor farmers to plant more but strangles them by cutting them off from their fans and best consumers.
Market conditions also play a role as some consumers demand indoor-grown weed thinking it’s “better” weed (not entirely true). When policy and market conditions align like that, entrepreneurs don’t have much choice but to build indoor grows. As more jurisdictions legalize cannabis, this pattern is repeating itself over and over. Before anyone notices, the electrical grid is taxed, more fossil fuels are burned, and the problem just gets worse—and harder to fix.
Some companies are seeing the writing on the wall and taking action to get more ‘green.’ When I recently toured the indoor but regenerative Snowtill cannabis farm in San Francisco, there were no inputs used at all. No nutrients (other than worm poop and compost) and no pesticides. This reduces the carbon footprint of the farm significantly. They’re also in a mild climate that does not require as much power to grow indoors. While cultivating regeneratively indoors takes skill and practice, small farms like Snowtill are proving it can be done. Stoners seem to agree, as the brand is flying off the shelves at California dispensaries.
“Regenerative cannabis can win in the marketplace—just like craft beer will soon overtake mass market beer,” said Fine. He absolutely believes that craft cannabis can be the dominant choice for consumers over time. “Think Organic and Fair Trade. As a regenerative hemp polyculture farmer myself, I want to know who my farmer is, whether it’s for tomatoes, hemp or ganja. And where I live in New Mexico, our hemp and cannabis farmers do provide their harvests at farmer’s markets.”
The state of New Mexico learned from places like California to give farmers direct access to consumers. This will help the land of enchantment put more craft cannabis on dispensary shelves (or farmers markets) and contribute to a more sustainable industry.
On the other end of the supply chain, another company putting serious resources into becoming more sustainable is Pax. Pax is one of the world's largest manufacturers of vape pen hardware and accessories. Their sales are in the millions of units so they’re able to scale their green initiatives. Once a big ship like Pax can get pointing in the right direction with sustainability, a lot can be done.
Scott Collins, senior director of product and design, focused on two areas he’s pushing sustainability forward. “At PAX, our ethos is ‘durability over disposability,’ and we’re integrating sustainability into our design philosophy to create long-lasting products,” said Collins. “Our cutting-edge heating technology in all devices prolongs the life of cannabis products, bettering consumer experience and reducing material demand, thereby supporting industry sustainability.” Some of these measures include eliminating virgin plastics from all products and improving packaging materials.
Collins was also clear that public policy has to play a role in greening the industry. “Crucial to our strategy is the push for regulatory reforms to reduce unnecessary packaging, aligning our practices with those of established industries to decrease packaging waste,” he said. For those consumers (like myself) who struggle to open “child resistant” and other cannabis packaging, reducing some of that would work wonders for our fingers and our planet.
For all of this to work at scale, consumers have to demand sustainability. Consumer education is critical for the greening of the cannabis industry. Farmers like Fine are doing that with the power of storytelling.
“In my own work, I emphasize making consistent sustainability decisions in as many facets of life as possible,” said Fine. “My new film American Hemp Farmer follows three digital-age farming families for a year as they attempt to grow a healthy crop and business while fighting climate change. All three families are dedicated to sustainable values. I decided to make this film, by the way, after a wildfire nearly turned my family (and goats) into refugees.”
As America tries to survive another hot summer of wildfires and hurricanes, the urgency to green up all industries will get stronger. Against this dystopian backdrop, the cannabis industry works to get federally legal and sustainable at the same time. Not an easy task and yet, the planet cannot afford to give birth to another unsustainable billion-dollar industry. If elected officials, regulators, and the cannabis industry do not get it together, that’s exactly what the industry will become.
