CEA Alliance Releases Framework

Dr. Sean Campbell

At this summer’s Indoor AgTech Innovation Summit in Chicago, the CEA Alliance announced the release of their “Sustainability Framework for Controlled Environment Agriculture,” a set of sustainability frameworks designed by indoor growers to help drive transparency and credibility in the field. Designed by CEA producers to assess and communicate key impacts through a data-driven approach, the framework is meant to be simple, flexible, inclusive and outcome-based. Through a year of development, the framework contains 60 metrics within 20 different Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), including:

● Natural resource and climate impacts

● Pesticide use

● Waste generation

● Food safety

● Employment practices

● Community engagement

● Food security impacts

“The CEA Alliance believes an industry-led commitment to standardized measurement is important to achieving and understanding true value—that’s why we’ve proactively come together to develop these metrics,” said CEA Alliance Executive Director Tom Stenzel in the announcement. “We hope this framework will support indoor growers at every stage of their sustainability journey, as well as encourage outdoor growers, packers and processors to include the entire supply chain from field to finished product in their measurement of impacts.”

For more information about the sustainability framework, the full report can be accessed on the CEA Alliance website at ceaalliance.com.