Company Tantalus Labs, dubbed by some as “Tesla of Cannabis” has built monstrous greenhouses for marijuana legal farming in Canada. They want to be very modern and use latest technology but stay as close to nature as possible. Marijuana will be sun-grown so using natural light in connection with high-tech environment keeping technology… They say their “Sunlab” project facility has been designed during 2 years by industry expert. It is almost ready and will produce first cannabis in 2018.
Their argument is that marijuana production in current form isn’t environmentally friendly at all.
The carbon cost of a joint is a staggering ~5000 times its weight, and that is before it’s even smoked.
That is because today about 90% of the cannabis grown in North America is cultivated indoors. Indoor room are associated with heat and energy-intensive air conditioning units.
The result: one kilogram of indoor cannabis requires the energy equivalent of 4600 kilograms of carbon output, or driving a car across Canada 11 times.
California, where dispensaries are prolific, is a prime offender. The Okanogan Cannabis Association estimates that 3% of the energy in that state goes to cultivating cannabis. That is likely far more than Californians use to illuminate their homes.
Sun grown resin done properly cannot be beat! we can do our best but noway are we giving the spectrum or power the sun can inside. Really like how clean and nice their greenhouses look! Hope to see many in the years to come!
Those are some very eye popping numbers indeed and are definitely a huge wake-up call to me.
I’m thinking about shutting down my flower room for the summer, maybe I can offset my footprint a little with more outdoor action this year
I recently did some work in a very large scale Floriculture Greenhouse here in Colorado and it really demonstrated to me the incredible opportunities that a GH provides.
In all reality with a good plan and materials the requirements for environmental control are not nearly as complicated as I thought. Irrigation is fairly simple as well… I certainly hope to see more dispensaries and other commercial growers take advantage of all the opportunities that Greenhouses can provide. The up front cost is an issue, but i can’t imagine furnishing a complete warehouse grow operation is cheaper than building some green or hoop houses…
The next step in global legalization is everyone coming out of our basements/garages/closets and getting our favorite plant some sunshine!
Man, I wish I could put a big ol’ clear house on my in-laws rural property. I wonder what kind of sales pitch it would take…
Outdoor sungrown cannabis does have a carbon footprint, as soon as you burn it dudes. Looks like the numbers came from Al Gore, quite a bit to debate there. There’s no doubt that Tantulus is concious of wastefull growing techniques, but look at all that metal and plastic used and the destruction of any soil web existing under this greenhouse comes at a Carbon footprint cost. I wonder if they mention that in the gloating? Even growing geurilla style with no additional soil or water leaves a carbon footprint, unless it is left to rot in the ground. And planting trees or paying for a company to do it does not ever balance the equation. These guys are a bit better but, shaming others in the biz is just advertizing strategy. IMO
