EHS Compliance: Kaitlin Urso and the Cannabis Industry

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It’s strange to think of the cannabis industry in the U.S. as a thriving commercial market. It’s even stranger to think that the industry falls under environmental regulations and EHS compliance. Yet it does. Led by the likes of Colorado and California, 19 states and the District of Columbia thus far have legalized marijuana for recreational use and 37 now permit it for medicinal use. Which makes it not as strange to mention cannabis, the environment, regulatory requirements and EHS compliance in the same sentence.

And from an environmental perspective, the industry’s emergence is spurring some important questions. Some examples:

What are the environmental impacts of growing marijuana? Are volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions influencing ozone formation? And especially regarding cannabis and the environment in the eyes of regulators, how is the industry being regulated for EHS compliance at state and local levels?

Pioneering a Sustainability and EHS Compliance Blueprint

As an Environmental Protection Specialist for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), Kaitlin Urso has been a pioneer in developing a sustainability blueprint for the cannabis industry. A sustainability bridge builder between cannabis and the environment, if you will. She was even featured in a 2020 Forbes article on the topic, and we consider her an honorary member of Encamp’s Women of EHS forum.

Environmental impacts, social impacts, new regulatory efforts

In joining us for this Campfire Session video, Kaitlin offered some unique perspectives on the cannabis industry’s environmental and social impacts in Colorado, as well as the new regulatory and EHS compliance efforts she’s been spearheading for the State.

Following are a few excerpts from our Campfire discussion with her (edited for conciseness)…

“Despite people’s opinions on marijuana or cannabis or hemp, it’s a large industry sector here in Colorado. We have more marijuana businesses than we do 7-Elevens, McDonald’s and Starbucks combined.”  – Kaitlin Urso

How are you helping the cannabis industry in Colorado reduce its environmental footprint?

Part of my role at the CDPHE is to be a free environmental consultant for all small businesses in Colorado. I just happen to specialize in helping cannabis operations, as well as craft breweries, reduce their environmental impact. So I help both industries understand what those impacts are and what best management practices they can employ to reduce them. I also provide EHS compliance coaching. (As a sustainability bridge builder between cannabis and the environment, she’s the industry’s best friend, at least in Colorado…)

What are the major environmental impacts of cannabis cultivation in processing?

It depends on if you’re an indoor or outdoor grower. In Colorado, marijuana is grown primarily indoors, so the major environmental impact is energy use for artificial lights and HVAC systems. The second largest impact of indoor cultivations is the sheer amount of plant waste. In an outdoor setting, the impacts shift more to land impacts for soil and water. Where is your water coming from and are you disturbing the ecology of the area by diverting that water to your cultivation? Also with runoff of that water, are pesticides in it? Increased nutrients?

In the relationship between cannabis and the environment, these are the kinds of things people don’t always think of at first.

For air quality, you’ve been studying volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and emissions extensively. Talk about the study you’ve been working on.

Two questions we’re trying to answer with this research are: How many pounds of VOCs are there per pound of marijuana, and then what’s the resulting influence on ozone formation? When it comes to VOCs, odor does not always equate to concentration. In marijuana, there’s a really high odor, but a very low level of VOC concentration if you actually get to it at the concentration level. Because it’s such a low concentration, it has very little impact on ozone formation in our urban environment. So we’re not necessarily worried about the VOC concentrations that influence ozone. We’re more concerned about odor ordinances and treating that nuisance odor.

What are the next regulatory and EHS compliance steps for the cannabis industry in Colorado?

Marijuana is already highly regulated in Colorado. But I’m really proud of our marijuana enforcement division and that in 2020 we had a sustainability rule-making hearing where we looked at our rules. We said, okay, now that we’re a mature market and we have a lot of lessons learned, how can we keep our top priorities of safety and security and add in a layer of environmental sustainability? How can we become more environmentally efficient with maintaining our top regulatory priorities? Our 50-50 waste mixing rule was ideal for that. (The rule requires marijuana plant waste leaving a facility to be mixed 50-50 with non-marijuana organic waste to reduce the cannabis waste footprint.)

With new rules taking effect in January 2021, we allowed for more exemptions from the existing 50-50 waste mixing rule to bring the landfill footprint down and give cannabis marijuana operators a more viable alternative. So we’re addressing plant waste, and then also (marijuana) packaging waste. Our packaging footprint is driven by child resistant packaging standards, including multiple layers of packaging to keep the marijuana product safe from youth.

We’ll be doing stakeholder outreach to educate the cannabis companies on rules changes, help them with implementation, and even EHS compliance coaching. “Now that we have these new regulations, how do I participate in them?”

I’m excited that Colorado is not being stagnant in its leadership of the cannabis industry. The industry is continuing to evolve, and we’re constantly looking at our market and saying, what can we do better not only for the environment but for our citizens, for our community, and for the cannabis businesses themselves. You know, anything we can do to support this industry.
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Thanks to Kaitlin for explaining the environmental side of the cannabis industry. Watch this Campfire Sessions episode to hear her full interview.

Check out our previous Campfire Sessions episodes, too.

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