New York officials are rolling out a broad plan to encourage environmental sustainability and set energy use standards within the state\u2019s legal marijuana industry. It\u2019s part of regulators\u2019 broader goal of promoting economic, environmental and social sustainability in the emerging sector.<\/p>\n
Over the past several months, the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) has put out new energy and environmental rules for both medical marijuana and adult-use cannabis businesses, and this week, it published an overview of several key initiatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Office has circulated regulations for both medical and adult-use licensees designed to minimize the adverse environmental impacts of the cannabis industry within the State,\u201d OCM said on a new sustainability webpage that launched on Monday. Regulators\u2019 initial focus is \u201con energy use standards and carbon and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions management, waste minimization, and the protection of air, water, and land, amongst other things,\u201d the announcement said.<\/p>\n
Among the initiatives detailed in the new guidance document is a program that requires cannabis licensees to install energy meters and track usage with a program called PowerScore.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe resource consumption metrics licensees report through PowerScore can be used to build a benchmark that can serve as a guideline for making future reductions in resource use and associated operating costs,\u201d OCM explained. \u201cThe Office will use the data reported by licensees through PowerScore to gauge the industry\u2019s adherence to State climate laws, identify areas for efficiency improvement to benefit the State and national industry, and guide future policy decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Licensees in both the medical and adult-use markets are also required \u201cto engage in resource tracking and reporting to develop a benchmark of their energy, water, associated emissions use.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regulators noted that New York\u2019s legalization law, the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA) prioritized environmental protection and improving the state\u2019s resiliency to climate change.<\/p>\n
Other energy-related regulations include more efficient standards for horticultural lighting systems and what OCM says<\/a> are \u201cnation-leading limitations on the use of refrigerants in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) and dehumidification equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n The new rules also prohibit fossil fuel combustion as a primary energy source for marijuana businesses.<\/p>\n Recently revised packaging, labeling, marketing and advertising (PLMA) regulations also emphasize the need to minimize packaging waste and support recycling, OCM said.<\/p>\n OCM officials discussed the sustainability measures at a Cannabis Advisory Board meeting on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t improve what you don\u2019t measure, and you can\u2019t track what you don\u2019t measure,\u201d OCM policy director John Kagia said at the meeting, according to Spectrum News 1.<\/p>\n Growers will have a year to submit their sustainability plans to state officials, while the energy tracking tool PowerScore will launch early next month.<\/p>\n Spectrum reported<\/a> that Kagia said growers must find a way to be energy efficient while not driving up product costs or making regulated stores less competitive against illicit sales.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re very intentional, very conscious about trying to keep the cost down because this is already a high-cost state to operate in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n On its new webpage, OCM framed sustainability as an important goal of marijuana studies, highlighting that state research licensees might want to investigate more sustainable packaging, how to reduce the use of plastic and how to best manage resource use to most efficiently cultivate cannabis.<\/p>\n Other options might include projects \u201cthat examine the role of cannabis in climate justice and foster economic development, job creation or technology advancements that can be translated to other State industries.\u201d<\/p>\n As for social and economic sustainability, OCM said the adult-use energy and sustainability regulations were \u201cdeveloped with consideration to legacy growers and less capitalized licensees.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis includes aspects like holding smaller-scale cultivation licensees to less stringent standards and allowing them two licensing periods to come into compliance with certain energy and environmental standards,\u201d the office explained. \u201cThis structure was designed to allow licensees authorized to cultivate the opportunity to determine if they are eligible to apply for and receive financial incentives from their utility services provider to exceed the Office\u2019s prescriptive energy standards.\u201d<\/p>\n OCM also partnered with the state\u2019s Energy Research and Development Authority and Resource Innovation Institute to offer free webinars<\/a> on cannabis resource efficiency.<\/p>\n Together, the new rules \u201cform an overall approach to environmental sustainability that is in alignment with the State\u2019s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA),\u201d OCM said in its new overview of the program.<\/p>\n The environmental impacts of cannabis cultivation have been topics of discussion by policymakers and law enforcement even before legalization, but the emergence of marijuana as a regulated industry has also allowed for better tracking and management of resource use.<\/p>\n Separate researched published earlier this year, for example, found that growing cannabis plants outside can drastically reduce environmental impacts compared to indoor production<\/a>\u2014lessening greenhouse gas emissions, soil acidification and the pollution of local waterways.<\/p>\n \u201cResults show that outdoor cannabis agriculture can be 50 times less carbon-emitting than indoor production,\u201d says the study, published in June by the journal Agricultural Science and Technology.<\/p>\n New York began setting rules meant to promote environmental awareness around cannabis<\/a> in 2022. The rules required businesses to submit an environmental sustainability program and explore the possibility of reusing cannabis packaging. Lawmakers there also explored promoting industry recycling programs<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0cannabis packaging made from hemp rather than synthetic plastics<\/a>, though neither proposal was enacted.<\/p>\n Across the country, California has taken some specific steps to ameliorate environmental concerns<\/a>. For example, officials announced in 2021 that they were soliciting concept proposals for a marijuana tax-funded program aimed at helping small cannabis cultivators with environmental clean-up and restoration efforts.<\/p>\n The following year, California\u00a0awarded $1.7 in grant money to sustainable cannabis growers<\/a>, part of a planned $6 million in total funding.<\/p>\n A 2023 report from the International Coalition on Drug Policy Reform and Environmental Justice, meanwhile, drew attention to the negative impacts of unregulated drug production in areas like the Amazon Rainforest and the jungles of Southeast Asia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Attempts to protect those critical ecosystems, the report warned, \u201cwill fail as long as those committed to environmental protection neglect to recognize, and grapple with, the elephant in the room\u201d\u2014namely \u201cthe global system of criminalized drug prohibition, popularly known as the \u2018war on drugs.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n And two years ago a pair of members of Congress who oppose legalization pushed the Biden administration to study the environmental impacts of marijuana cultivation<\/a>, writing that they had \u201creservations regarding marijuana cultivation\u2019s subsequent emissions and believe more research is needed on this industry\u2019s rapidly growing demands on our country\u2019s energy systems, along with its effects on our environment.\u201d<\/p>\n Hemp cultivation also has environmental considerations, but some indicators suggest the crop might have net positive effects on the planet. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced $6.2 million in grant funding to research hempcrete<\/a>\u2014a concrete alternative made with hemp\u2014and other agriculture-based building materials. Other government funding has gone toward researching construction insulation made from hemp<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a report on Europe\u2019s hemp industry boom, recognizing that the cannabis crop was an increasingly important economic commodity that could also help the region achieve bold climate-related goals<\/a>.<\/p>\n Federal Researchers Explore \u2018Paradigm-Changing\u2019 Approach To Detect Recent Marijuana Use Through Breath Tests<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post New York Marijuana Officials Lay Out Plan For Environmental Sustainability And Energy Use Standards In Legal Industry<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
New York officials are rolling out a broad plan to encourage environmental sustainability and set energy use standards within the state\u2019s legal marijuana industry. It\u2019s part of regulators\u2019 broader goal of promoting economic, environmental and social sustainability in the emerging sector. Over the past several months, the Office of CannabisContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77490"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77491,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77490\/revisions\/77491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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