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Annthropocene Magazine reports on the first comprehensive study of indoor pot farm emissions and uncovers a giant climate hot spot

Cannabis growing regulations often focus on drug policy, producing unintended environmental consequences

Since individual U.S. states began legalizing recreational cannabis about a decade ago, the industry has become a lucrative but greenhouse gas intensive slice of agriculture: Producing a kilogram of dried cannabis bud can result in carbon emissions equivalent to driving a car more than 9,000 miles, a new study of indoor growing operations reveals.

“More and more states are legalizing and decisions around how [cannabis] will be cultivated need to include environmental considerations,” says study team member Jason Quinn, director of the Sustainability Research Laboratory at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. The new study is the first comprehensive analysis of greenhouse gas emissions from large indoor growing operations typical of commercial producers for the legal market.

Quinn and his team gathered information on the impacts of lighting, indoor temperature and humidity control, ventilation, water, fertilizers, fungicides, and waste disposal associated with indoor cannabis production. They calculated the greenhouse gas emissions per kilogram of dried bud for each of 1,011 different locations across the country.

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