At the recent Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit held on June 19-20, 2019 in New York City, the Association for Vertical Farming (AVF) led the Roundtable on Sustainability for Vertical Farms.

Prof. Joel Cuello of The University of Arizona, AVF Vice Chair, moderated the Roundtable discussion, which featured as Guest Panelists Ali Ahmadian, CEO of Heliospectra and Chair of the AVF Advisory Board, and Luis Trujillo of Hoogendoorn.

The recommendations formulated at the Roundtable to boost the resource and environmental sustainability of vertical farms included, but are not limited to, the following:

• Data measurements and collection — essential at the minimum for establishing predictability of resource usage (i.e., energy, etc.), which is crucial for business planning, with the data gathered certainly serving as critical essential input to subsequent optimization and artificial-intelligence regimes to be designed;
• Systems integration — a holistic system design approach leads to significant energy and other resource savings in contrast to designing component subsystems (e.g., lighting, HVAC, etc.) separately and independently;
• Optimization — achieving desired crop yield, quality, morphology and/or nutrient profiles for a given set of, or preferrably minimized, input of resources (e.g., energy, water, nutrients, area, spatial volume, etc.);
• Renewable-energy usage — appropriate use of available renewable energy based on geographical location when applicable, such as solar, wind, geothermal, etc. It is noteworthy that Gotham Greens based in New York City uses 100 percent renewable energy for its operations;
• Continuous design improvement — adoption and incorporation of essential components with enhanced resource use efficiency, such as luminaires, LED’s, etc.; and,
• Voluntary certification of sustainability — the establishment of a sustainability certification program that vertical farming companies may voluntarily apply for would be helpful in fostering sustainability in the industry as opposed to instituting at this time mandatory vertical farming standards which would very likely prove significantly inhibitory to many nascent and startup vertical farming companies.

OUR VISION

The AVF acknowledges that vertical farming in its current state can provide access to fresh, safe and sufficient food, independent of climate and location. In the decades to come, where overpopulation and severe planetary changes challenge our current way of life, vertical farming will become a necessary solution in global food production.

OUR MISSION

The Association for Vertical Farming is the leading, global non-profit organisation for raising awareness and connecting all stakeholders to advance the implementation of vertical farming

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