As growing operations continue to come under the microscope of public and regulatory scrutiny over environmental matters, effective management of resources such as water and energy will only become more important. Nothing is guaranteed. Water scarcity and energy shortages may not be a problem for you today, but it is likely they could be obstacles to the growth of your business in the future. It is never too early to implement strategic management policies around these resources with an eye toward conservation and resiliency.
“If indoor growing is to be the solution for our food security and food safety, then looking at the segment holistically around the need for energy is critical to ensure a sustainable segment,” said Travis Graham, Global Segment Leader-Horticulture at Schneider Electric, who made up part of the energy management panel at GROW Executive Summit.
Part of determining the need for energy, or water, starts with a growing operation tracking and collecting its usage data because it sets the foundation for a strong strategic management plan. CEA growers have some work to do in this area, said Derek Smith, Executive Director of the Resource Innovation Institute, a leading non-profit for energy and water benchmarking that is actively sharing best practices for water and energy efficiency with CEA growers. Smith told attendees at the 2021 GROW Executive Summit that only about 59% of CEA farms track their energy usage and only 40% can produce credible data on their energy use.
With the success of CEA drawing more attention, Al Zylstra, Manager of DRAMMwater, a segment of Dramm Corporation, said during his water management presentation at the Summit that growers should prepare for increased interest from the public and the government about their sustainability efforts. They will not only need to get better at telling their stories, but also, in a world rife with misinformation, they’ll need to back up their claims with irrefutable facts.
On the water management side, Zylstra says the good news is CEA water use makes up a small part of the 70% of freshwater resources used globally for agriculture, that is, primarily for raising livestock and crops. The bad news is he still sees some CEA operations that waste as much as 50% of their water and 15% of their nutrients.
“Water restrictions, new regulations, natural disasters impacting water scarcity and quality, and more are just a few of the things you’ll need to think about as you decide how your business can deploy a climate-resilient water management strategy,” Zylstra said.
Zylstra shared eight areas growers can work on to improve water resiliency at their operations:
Regarding energy management, utility companies are very interested in partnering with CEA growers to find ways to better manage energy resources. In addition to the incentives utilities can offer their customers, they have become increasingly interested in partnering with them to realize peak demand reductions through flexible load management, or in other words, to cut kilowatt hours at critical times during the day.
“Utilities are working to put controls in place that allow for more two-way communication with the grid and offer up times to offset some of their load,” said Jennifer Thorne Amann, Buildings Program Director at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, during her presentation on energy management. “There may be times you are using supplemental lighting in your greenhouse that with the right incentive you could cut those lights for a couple of hours to help utility companies address this issue. We’re seeing utilities work toward developing demand-response type of programs that offer a more flexible, integrated approach to address the energy needs of their customers.”
“If indoor growing is to be the solution for our food security and food safety, then looking at the segment holistically around the need for energy is critical to ensure a sustainable segment.”
(l-r): Derek Smith, Jennifer Amann, Travis Graham
