Cannabis Industry Energy & Environmental Sustainability

Protecting the environment and improving the State’s resiliency to climate change are two key intentions of the Marihuana Regulation & Taxation Act (MRTA), which legalized adult-use cannabis in New York State (NYS) and brought the Medical Cannabis Program within the regulatory authority of the Office of Cannabis Management (the Office).

The 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. With an initial focus on 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. These regulations form an overall approach to environmental sustainability that is in alignment with the State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). Additionally, they bolster the three pillars of sustainability: economic sustainability, environmental sustainability, and social sustainability.

The Office supports an environmentally sustainable cannabis sector in New York State through initiatives including:

Energy Use Standards and Emissions Management

Energy use and the associated emissions can be a primary source of adverse environmental impacts, particularly in indoor and controlled environment cannabis production. Prescriptive energy regulations, planning, data collection, and benchmarking form the base of the Office’s approach to managing the cannabis industry’s energy use. Both medical and adult-use licensees are required to maintain and submit plans to the Office related to monitoring and managing resource consumption and control emissions of carbon and other GHGs to minimize any adverse environmental impact of cannabis production.

Energy use and associated emissions regulations include, but are not limited to:

• The installation of energy meters;
• Efficiency standards for horticultural lighting equipment;
• Nation-leading limitations on the use of refrigerants in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) and dehumidification equipment; and
• Prohibitions on the use of fossil fuel combustion as a primary energy source.

Waste Minimization

After energy use and associated emissions generation, waste generation ranks among the top areas of concern for adverse environmental impacts in the cannabis industry. Waste streams are targeted by the Office’s approach to limiting the level of waste sent to landfills by licensees as well as the requirements laid out in the Packaging, Labeling, Marketing and Advertising (PLMA) regulations. The State’s PLMA regulations require a greater focus on sustainable packaging and post-consumer recycling than in other states and industries.

The Office has taken a two-tiered approach to minimizing the amount of waste generated by the State's cannabis industry by focusing on two primary sources:

• Waste generated through cultivation and processing; and
• Waste generated by consumer packaging.  

Protection of Air, Water and Land

The Office’s energy and environmental standards take a holistic approach to resource protection and land stewardship. It accomplishes this by building on the State’s existing environmental regulations and emphasizing best management practices identified by regulators and businesses in other legal states and grey markets. This approach includes crafting cultivation tiers to encourage lower energy-use outdoor and mixed light production over more energy-intensive indoor production.  

Licensees in both medical and adult-use cannabis markets are required to engage in resource tracking and reporting to develop a benchmark of their energy, water, associated emissions use. Licensees authorized to cultivate will meet these requirements using the PowerScore platform.

Promoting Social and Economic Equity

The Office’s adult-use energy and environmental sustainability regulations were developed with consideration to legacy growers and less capitalized licensees. This 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. This 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’s prescriptive energy standards.

The Office has also partnered with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority  (NYSERDA) and Resource Innovation Institute to develop and deliver free webinars on cannabis resource efficiency specific to the Office’s regulations to elevate understanding of efficiency issues without additional cost to the licensee.

Research

Continuous improvement over the status quo is a cornerstone of sustainability. The Office’s research license provides the State’s cannabis industry the opportunity to examine novel methods for minimizing the adverse environmental impacts of the cannabis industry while using cannabis as a tool to improve the State’s resiliency to climate change.

Areas of research that could support the cannabis industry's sustainability include, but are not limited to:

• Sustainable packaging innovation including hemp-based, compostable, reusable and recyclable packaging and localized supply chain development;  
• Novel waste management approaches that reduce plastic packaging, lower the environmental impact of vaporizer batteries and hardware, and address secondary uses for spent grow media and biowaste;
• Cannabis resource efficiency, including lighting and energy efficiency, water usage, emissions reductions, grow media and regenerative methods, and the use of supplemental carbon dioxide; and
• Projects that 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.

The Office has specified PowerScore as the approved platform to meet resource tracking and reporting mandates for medical and adult-use licensees authorized to cultivate.

Cannabis production has a reputation for being resource-intensive, but that reputation may be unfounded since the product’s status as a Schedule 1 drug has limited research into metrics such as energy and water use. The motivation behind resource tracking and reporting requirements in the medical cannabis regulations and of the adult-use cannabis regulations is to better understand current resource consumption metrics.

The Office has specified PowerScore as the approved platform to meet resource tracking and reporting mandates for medical and adult-use licensees authorized to cultivate. Licensees will not have to pay to use the PowerScore platform.

The 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. The Office will use the data reported by licensees through PowerScore to gauge the industry’s adherence to State climate laws, identify areas for efficiency improvement to benefit the State and national industry, and guide future policy decisions.  

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Energy and environmental sustainability plans are another key feature of the Office’s approach to environmental impact management.

Both medical and adult-use licensees will be required to maintain such plans throughout their licensure and shall be required to submit them at various stages of operation, such as upon license renewal.

• Adult-Use Energy & Environmental Plan – The Site, Operating and Environmental Plans section of the adult-use regulations outlines the components licensees need to maintain and submit as their Energy and Environmental Plan to demonstrate they have met or exceeded the energy and environmental standards outlined in the Energy and Environmental Standards section of the regulation’s General Operating Requirements and Prohibitions Part. This includes but is not limited to maintaining and submitting information about horticultural lighting efficiency, odor control technology and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) and dehumidification equipment.

VIEW ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL PLAN GUIDANCE

 

• Medical Energy & Environmental Planning – Registered organizations (RO) are subject to varying energy and environmental planning requirements depending on when they entered the NYS market and whether they decide to engage in adult-use business activity. Those ROs choosing to transition to the adult-use market (i.e. Registered Organizations with dispensing and Registered Organizations non-dispensing, or RODs and RONDs, respectively) must meet certain requirements including submitting an Energy and Environmental Plan, as described above, to bring them into compliance with adult-use cannabis regulations. Those that do not wish to transition shall adhere to energy and environmental planning requirements as outlined in the Energy and Environmental Standards and Regulations of the Medical Cannabis regulations.
   
• Medical Cannabis Product Packaging Recycling Plan – All ROs must submit and maintain a Medical Cannabis Product Packaging Recycling Plan, to be updated at least bi-annually as part of the registration renewal process. The Medical Cannabis Product Packaging Recycling Plan details each RO’s efforts towards recycling medical cannabis packaging, including but not limited to recycling education programs for patients, placement of recycling bins at dispensing sites and expanding the use of recyclable packaging.
   
• Adult-Use and Medical Cannabis Sustainable Packaging Plans – The Office has taken a strong stance on curbing the impact of consumer packaging waste, a significant contributor to cannabis industry waste. All licensees authorized to engage in the packaging and labeling of adult-use cannabis products are required to submit an Environmental Sustainability Product Packaging Plan and all licensees authorized to engage in the packaging and labeling of medical cannabis products must submit an Environmental Sustainability Program Plan for medical cannabis product packaging. These packaging plans describe the licensee’s steps towards reducing the level of cannabis consumer packaging waste that is landfilled or incinerated.

Please email [email protected] if you have any further questions or call us at 1-888-OCM-5151 (1-888-626-5151).