Unlocking the Climate-Smart Potential
of Controlled Environment Agriculture
In partnership with
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We advance farm productivity and community resilience.
To us, climate-smart agriculture includes water-wise, locally grown production that is quantifiably lower in life cycle carbon emissions impacts. We’re here to prove it.
We achieve our mission by working in three program areas:
- Data & Research
- Education & Training
- Market Development
Access best practice guidance towards resource efficiency
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 and the US Department of Energy, are written by RII’s technical team with insights from our subject matter expert Technical Advisory Council faculty members.
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Latest News
RII releases Best Practices Guide for integrating Controls and Automation Technologies to Enhance CEA Resource Management
Leveraging Controls and Automation to Manage CEA Energy Demand
Vertical Harvest’s Road Through USDA’s Loan Guarantee Programs
RII Responds: USDA 2022 AgCensus Report
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 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 controlled environment agriculture operations.
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 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.