In partnership with
To drive a resource efficient agricultural future, we establish industry standards, facilitate best practices, and advocate for effective policies and utility incentives.
Resource Innovation Institute achieves its mission by focusing our work in three areas:
Baselines & Benchmarks, Policies & Programs, Standards & Best Practices.
USDA-sponsored, peer-reviewed CEA Best Practices Guides coming throughout 2023
Peer-reviewed educational reports are invaluable to producers. RII offers Best Practices Guides designed specifically for producers of food, floriculture and medicine, as well as key market actors like governments and utilities. These reports, sponsored by partners like the USDA, are written by RII’s technical team with insights from our subject matter expert Technical Advisory Council faculty members. Topics covered include:
- Water Circularity
- Lighting
- HVAC
- Design & Construction
- Controls & Automation
- Utility Program Design & Market Engagement
- Policies, Codes & Industry Standards
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Latest News
Resource Innovation Institute Partners with ARCO/Murray to Create CEA Credentialing Curriculum for Design & Construction Professionals
Part of a professional development strategy for climate-smart agriculture, curriculum will provide credentialing process to ensure an educated, effective and scalable CEA workforce PORTLAND, Ore. (May 17, 2023) — Resource Innovation Institute (RII), the leading not-for-profit energy and water benchmarking…
Read More Shining a Light on Efficiency and Productivity Metrics for CEA Lighting
Shining a Light on Efficiency and Productivity Metrics for CEA Lighting High-intensity lighting plays a critical role in promoting plant growth and achieving optimal yields. However, selecting the right lighting system for your CEA facility can be challenging, as there…
Read More How to Build Your Controlled Environment Agriculture Facility Design Team
Directed by ownership, architects, contractors, engineers and consultants combine to form a facility design dream team. Once an entity decides to construct a new leafy green-producing greenhouse, or renovate an indoor cannabis cultivation operation, they are embarking on a controlled-environment…
Read More 4 Top Considerations When Selecting a Greenhouse Covering
Operators must carefully balance material cost, longevity, insulation and light transmission rates to ensure a profitable and efficient controlled-environment agriculture operation. Image provided by Ceres Greenhouse Solutions Greenhouse operators have more information–and more to consider–than ever when installing new coverings.…
Read More 
EDUCATION
Improve Your Efficiency With RII’s Best Practices Guides
The horticultural market has changed a lot, technology has advanced, and so have the technical terms used to describe everything. RII’s peer reviewed Best Practices Guides help growers understand the most resource efficient HVAC and lighting technologies for cannabis and controlled environment agriculture. We are here to show growers how to use efficient
INTELLIGENCE
Resource Benchmarking, Baselines & Standards
PowerScore, our resource benchmarking platform analyzes facility-level performance on energy, emissions, water and waste. We help compare farm performance against similar peers. Cultivators and their supply chain partners can assess differences between HVAC and lighting technologies designed for cannabis cultivation.
POLICY & UTILITY COORDINATION
Resource Efficient Controlled Environment Agriculture
As an objective, data-driven non-profit organization, RII informs effective policies and incentives that accelerate conservation. RII has provided a trusted, stakeholder-driven voice as leading jurisdictions, including Massachusetts, California, Illinois and Colorado, have established policies and codes addressing the energy and water impacts of cannabis cultivation and controlled environment agriculture. In late 2019, RII formed its Utility Working Group on Controlled Environment Agriculture to enable power suppliers and energy efficiency program administrators to learn from each other and advance best practices on program design, savings methodologies and grower outreach.
