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

Latest News
RII Joins with Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) Leaders to Standardize Environmental Understanding of Modern Farming Methods
Airflow Design for Vertical Farms: 5 Tips
How CEA Can Connect With Utilities to Unlock Rebates & Incentives: 5 Tips
Minimum Liquid Discharge: An Attainable CEA Water Circularity Status
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.