Galenas' vertically tiered, LED-lit, indoor cannabis plants sprout from soil locally produced from compost. After harvest, the Akron business ships the used soil to Michigan, where it recycles it multiple times in outdoor and greenhouse grow cycles.
Galenas' grow rooms encompass about 3,000 square feet of its roughly 11,000-square-foot facility. The cultivator cools rooms and dims and turns off lights as needed to keep plant flowers, or buds, compact to meet patient preferences — and it saves energy in the process. The team does not use pesticides on plants but feeds them with organic nutrients and amendments.
"We really intentionally went into what we are doing here in the state trying to be as thoughtful about what, not just our energy demand was going to be but, what our waste footprint was going to look like," says Geoff Korff, Galenas founder and CEO. Ohio's cannabis industry is primed to expand beyond strictly medical operations to serve a ballooning consumer base, following voters' decision to legalize weed in November 2023.
However, the industry — legalizing state by state and country by country — has riled some, including the climate-conscious. Estimates vary, but the industry likely produces somewhere between 0.07% and 0.1% of the nation's total carbon footprint — the higher end being comparable to three million average cars, with CO2 emissions of 15 million tons. A 2021 study from Colorado State University found that Colorado's cannabis industry contributes emissions comparable to trash collection and coal mining. The CO2 production of Oregon and Colorado's cannabis industries have been estimated at 6% and 3%, respectively, of the state's total emissions.
Read more at clevelandmagazine.com