MJBizMag August 2021 - 52

Business Under Fire
Cannabis&Carbon
C
By Laura Drotleff
annabis producers looking
to remove carbon from the
environment have a variety
of options. Existing projects include
producing carbon-sequestering plants,
developing projects to sell emissions-offset
credits to companies, using sustainable
packaging and reducing waste, switching
to renewable energy and participating in
established forest-management projects.
Companies in the emerging cannabis
industry have an opportunity to be
sustainability leaders, and it's critical
that the industry commit to the
principles of environmental, social and
corporate governance, according to Jesse
McConnell, CEO of Rubicon Organics,
a Vancouver, British Columbia-based
cannabis producer.
While the cannabis industry's practices
have room for improvement, it's still a
young industry, McConnell said during a
marijuana sustainability event hosted by
San Francisco-based Regennabis.
" We're in the process of establishing
these best practices, not having to go
back and look at legacy infrastructure
and reengineer things at tremendous
economic costs, " he said. " We have that
opportunity in front of us today to get
ahead of that. "
Mainstream Carbon Offsets
Nature-based solutions figure
prominently in a goal set by the Paris
Agreement, an international treaty on
climate change to substantially reduce
greenhouse gas emissions and limit
global warming to 1.5-2 degrees Celsius
(2.7-3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above
preindustrial levels by 2100.
Based on current policies, the Earth
52 MJBizMagazine | August 2021
Hemp and marijuana
companies are committing
to environmental
practices as carbon-offset
producers and buyers
Green Trees offers
carbon credits as
part of its large-scale
reforestation project.
Courtesy Photo
is on track to reach 3.5 degrees Celsius
global warming (6.3 degrees Fahrenheit)
by 2100, according to a 2020 United
Nations report. As a result, nearly 2,000
companies have made net-zero carbon
commitments by 2030 or 2050.
According to Chandler Van Voorhis,
co-founder and managing partner
of Virginia-based Acre Investment
Management and its subsidiary Green
Trees, a large-scale reforestation project,
there are a few ways to accomplish
that goal:
* Eliminate fossil fuels and buy
renewable energy to reduce
emissions going forward.
* Buy carbon offsets or invest in
carbon removal to repair and
" recalibrate " the atmosphere.
Hemp is a Carbon Story
Carbon is literally a hot commodity-and
it's become a major buzzword in
agriculture and cannabis in
recent months.
Hemp farmers particularly stand to
benefit if the United States supports
farmers sequestering carbon as a method
to battle climate change. The crop
reportedly gobbles carbon at a rate of
6 tons per acre, according to the
European Industrial Hemp Association,
and it can play a key role in regenerative
farming and soil remediation.
That prospect became more likely
following the United States' reenrollment
in the Paris Agreement and President
Joe Biden's proposed carbon market to
directly pay farmers.
Initially, Biden had proposed developing
a carbon bank, which Agriculture Secretary
Tom Vilsack explained could be formed by
using $30 billion from the U.S. Department
of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corp.
(CCC) to pay farmers to adopt practices
that could remove carbon from the atmosphere
and fight global warming.
The CCC fund, which was created in
1933 under a charter that specifically
mentions stabilizing and creating
markets, would be used to create a
" carbon market " that would directly pay
farmers as part of the administration's
larger Climate 21 Project.
" Right now, we're putting about
50 gigatons of CO2 into the atmosphere, "
MJBizMag August 2021

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