How To Make Your Cannabis Facility More Resource Efficient
January 28, 2021 As a cannabis cultivation facility operator, it can be challenging to get objective guidance on resource efficiency, including how to navigate regulations and energy codes. Resource Innovation Institute (RII) is a non-profit that creates tools and resources on best practices for resource-efficient, productive, and profitable cultivation operations. We were founded in Portland, OR, in 2016 to address the environmental impacts of the cannabis industry.
For all of 2020’s challenges, RII has grown this year due to the increasing interest in horticultural efficiency. Since bringing on our first Technical Director, we have scaled up our scope and diversity of services, and accelerated the delivery of our educational curriculum. With the award of a three-year USDA grant, in 2021 we are expanding to serve growers of non-cannabis crops operating all kinds of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) facilities.
This year, we moved our Efficient Yields educational events to a virtual platform and offered three series for cultivators and supply chain partners in Michigan and Massachusetts. We offer video content on our YouTube channel so greenhouse growers can easily access our expert tips on how efficient LED lighting, HVAC, and dehumidification equipment and controls can improve profits and plant vitality and get information about how to maximize utility rebates and incentives. Do you need help interpreting a regulation or understanding how to maximize utility incentives? Schedule a consultation with us; we exist to provide dedicated support for cultivators like you.
In 2019, RII released Best Practices Guides for LED Lighting and HVAC. In 2021, it will reconvene the HVAC and Lighting Working Groups to expand these guides to emphasize non-cannabis crops.
Photo courtesy of RII
Benchmark Your Productivity
PowerScore is RII’s specialized resource benchmarking platform for cultivation operations, currently emphasizing cannabis though relevant to any producers. PowerScore Grow uses a free, confidential, and voluntary survey that takes user-reported information and generates individual facility records with performance benchmarks to inform growers about their efficiency and productivity key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure operational excellence in several categories (energy, water, and waste), displayed as percentile rankings compared to peer facilities. The collection of validated and aggregated PowerScore records – called the Ranked Data Set – is used for these peer facility comparisons.
In 2020, we expanded our PowerScore resource benchmarking platform in a number of exciting ways, and in 2021 we will upgrade it further. This year we launched PowerScore Pro, which enhances performance benchmarks by analyzing them as portfolios for dashboard reporting and competitive comparisons against the Ranked Data Set, creating value for multi-site producers, supply chain partners, utilities, and investors.
We provide free benchmarking services to cultivators of any crops in any setting. Our technical staff can help you or your project team create performance benchmarks for your company for portfolios of projects for multiple years of data, and identify KPIs that would be most cost-effective to target for improvements. Contact our Technical Director to schedule a benchmarking session.
Resource Innovation Institute’s YouTube channel features expert tips on how efficient LED lighting, HVAC, and dehumidification equipment and controls can improve profits and plant vitality, as well as how to maximize utility rebates and incentives.
Photo courtesy of Fluence by OSRAM
Working for the Industry
In 2020 we hosted the first Indoor Agriculture Energy Solutions conference and launched our Utility Working Group; our December 2020 Utility Program Design and Market Engagement Primer will guide utilities and their efficiency programs for cultivators of all crops in greenhouse and indoor environments so they can better serve you.
Our Working Groups are creating valuable guidance for growers and market actors like utilities and engineers. In 2020, we created our Water Working Group to help us develop the Cannabis Water Report, and also launched our Data, Policy, and Controls Working Groups. The Data Working Group will inform improvements to PowerScore, the Policy Working Group will help us inform governments with a Policy Primer containing recommendations for regulating resource consumption in CEA facilities, and the Controls Working Group will collaborate on a best practices guide for cultivators using infrastructure to automate and control their lighting, HVAC, dehumidification, and water management systems. In 2021, our new Facility Design and Construction Working Group will collaborate on a best practices guide for building professionals and our new Carbon Emissions Working Group will create and analyze new KPIs for carbon efficiency and productivity in PowerScore.
The future may be uncertain, but it is crucial that all crops grown in greenhouses are able to be as resource-efficient and productive as possible, both to succeed and to mitigate the industry’s impacts on climate change. RII is here for you, transforming the market by accelerating and validating the best practices for operating CEA facilities no matter the crop or the growing environment. Contact us today for free technical assistance and resources to improve productivity in your greenhouse.
Tools for Best Practices
In 2020, RII published several market intelligence reports for members: The Benchmark and The Landscape. The Benchmark shares insights from the PowerScore Ranked Data Set and offers special features of the latest research and case studies from facilities in regions across North America. The Landscape covers the latest activities in governments, utility programs, and standards organizations relevant to CEA operators.
RII’s Technical Advisory Council ensures guidance is vetted across multiple disciplines, brand-agnostic and peer-reviewed, and organizes into Working Groups to help craft best practices guides, industry reports, and upgrade tools and resources. Research reports like the 2018 Cannabis Energy Report and the 2020 Cannabis Water Report and RII best practices guides inform the marketplace and help controlled environment agriculture operations become more efficient and productive. We invite greenhouse growers to join RII and contribute to and benefit from these efforts.
We know that efficient equipment itself does not necessarily create efficient operations. Our guides are written from your point of view, addressing your most challenging issues. In 2019, we released our Best Practices Guides for LED Lighting and HVAC, and in 2020 released our first state-specific guide for Massachusetts growers. In 2021, we will reconvene our HVAC and Lighting Working Groups to expand these guides to emphasize non-cannabis crops.
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