Sustainability Series- Part 5 (Conclusion)
Final Thoughts on the Sustainability of Legal Cannabis
In the previous four articles, we’ve examined the environmental impacts of cannabis packaging waste, pesticide use, and energy consumption for indoor grow operations. This article will summarize the prior information, while offering final conclusions and suggestions for the future of the cannabis industry.
Cannabis legalization has opened many doors, facilitating ease of access to the highest-quality forms of one of nature's safest drugs. While legalization is working to undo many of the harms inherent within the war on drugs, it has yet to resolve the sustainability challenges facing a rapidly growing cannabis industry. The future of this industry will ultimately require creativity and innovation to remain sustainable.
Alongside the solutions proposed earlier in this series, there exist a myriad of technologies that can help catalyze environmental sustainability. For example, the implementation of LED lighting, although costly upfront, represents an alternative environmentally-friendly solution to the use of natural sunlight. LED grow-lights, depending on the model and condition, can cut grow-room energy consumption in half. Such a reduction carries a two-fold benefit: it tremendously reduces the fossil fuel footprint of a grow operation, and it increases long-term profit margin by reducing the overhead costs of high energy consumption.
Additionally, the application of natural pest-repellants can virtually eliminate the need for harmful pesticides in most instances; cinnamon, clove, and peppermint are three especially useful herbs for repelling cannabis pests. Some producers use ladybugs because they feed on spider-mites (one of the most prevalent cannabis pests, particularly in the Pacific Northwest). Growers have been developing creative methods for overcoming obstacles since the days of prohibition.
In regards to packaging waste, Oregon has more lenient packaging requirements, and cannabis can be weighed and sold in-store. This vastly expands the waste-reduction ability of dispensaries, and other states may eventually mirror such lenient regulations. This could allow dispensaries to offer compostable and/or reusable containers in order to virtually eliminate plastic waste..
Another feature to consider is technological innovation, and the continuously expanding artillery of solutions available to industry leaders. The technology accessible to growers has advanced rapidly in only the last fifty years, and likely will continue to become more energy efficient with time. Once unheard of, novice growers can now purchase fully-operational and self-regulating grow tents the size of a small closet. We can only imagine the options available to growers in the next several decades. Technological possibilities, from energy sources to equipment, may change so drastically in the next few decades that the concerns addressed in this series become irrelevant. Only time will tell…
As the cannabis industry continues to grow and multiply every year, with more and more states legalizing cannabis, the environmental harms we’re currently witnessing can only worsen unless mitigated by either technology or policy. As consumers, we have the ability to support businesses that prioritize environmental-friendliness, whether in the cannabis industry or elsewhere. In this way, the cannabis industry can set a precedent for environmental stewardship that echoes into other sectors, helping to protect the Earth for generations to come.