From electricity used in cultivation facilities to the use of plastic in cannabis packaging, it’s no secret that the cannabis industry has work to do to become more environmentally friendly. In fact, Bloomberg reports that legal U.S. cannabis consumes enough electricity annually to power 92,500 homes for a year.

This Earth Day, we’re determined to do better, and that’s why we’re kicking off our focus on the Sustainability pillar under our Rooted in Good initiative. While our Corporate Social Responsibility team has spent the past year focused building the infrastructure to support our Rooted In Good infrastructure, we understand that being a good corporate citizen isn’t just about the people and communities we serve – it’s also about the planet! According to a 2015 BioScience report, cannabis requires a minimum of 22 liters of water per plant per day, translating to 3 billion liters per square-kilometer of greenhouse space – and that’s a lot of water usage. For these reasons amongst others, from our retail operations, to our cultivation facilities and corporate offices, we’ll look at every piece of our operations to ensure that we show up for future generations by making sustainability a key priority as we continue to grow.

Because we recognize it is our duty as industry leaders, we have created a Carbon Tracking and Supply Chain Transparency Task Force who will work alongside Map Collective with a goal to assess and address Curaleaf’s current carbon footprint. It is our hope to do our part for this planet by working to achieve carbon neutrality, greater transparency, and to make better decisions about our ongoing interactions with earth systems, resource allocation and supplier diversity initiatives through establishing a set of recommendations for environmental sustainability best practices.

Map-Collective is a female-founded green-tech startup that maps out long range carbon emissions, as well as supply chains, air quality, and other essential environmental data, on one, unified map. In addition to working with businesses, individuals, and governments to map carbon footprints at all levels, Map-Collective also connects customers to honest information about brands, which is exactly the level of transparency we’d like to reach in the cannabis industry. As one of the largest cannabis companies in the world, we understand that it is up to us to lead by example – and we are here to provide the transparency that consumers deserve.

"We’re very excited about this partnership. The cannabis industry is just beginning to develop the best strategies for achieving net zero. Furthermore, the regulatory environment may prove to be a challenge when it comes to formulating new carbon reduction strategies. We believe that together with Curaleaf, we will be able to pave the way toward a carbon neutral future for cannabis." Tara Gupta, Founder & CEO, Map-Collective

Curaleaf looks forward to the work ahead and we plan to report back to our customers and patients as we move forward with our goals to reduce our carbon footprint. While we know there is a lot of work to do, we know there is no better time than now!