Episode Description
In this episode we take a look at the impact that growing microgreens indoors has on the environment. I also share some tips and advice on how it’s possible to improve a microgreens business to make it more environmentally friendly.
In this episode you’ll learn:
- How growing microgreens indoors can affect the environment in a positive, and sometimes negative way.
- Ways to reduce the impact your microgreens business can have on the environment.
- That you may not need as much artificial light as you think to grow microgreens.
- The amount of coal that must be burned to power a single light!
- Some positive environmental practices you can apply in your microgreens business, and then use to market your business.
Mentioned in this episode:
Microgreens Business Beginners Guide (free ebook): https://microgreensentrepreneur.com/ebook
True Leaf Market Discount Code: MGE5
https://trueleafmarket.com
Calculating electricity costs blog post: https://microgreensentrepreneur.com/microgreens-electricity-costs/
Coal to electricity blog post: https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/question481.htm
Ask a question by voice note: https://microgreensentrepreneur.com/ask
Ask a question by email: brian@microgreensentrepreneur.com
Episode Transcript
Microgreens Entrepreneur Episode 16: The Environmental Impact of Growing Microgreens Indoors
You’re listening to The Microgreens Entrepreneur Podcast, where the aim is to help you start, grow, and improve any microgreens business. I’m your host, Brian, owner of a microgreens business that I operate out of my own home. Stay tuned and welcome along.
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[0:31] Hey, guys. Welcome to Episode 16 of The Microgreens Entrepreneur Podcast. Thanks a million for being here with me today. I hope you’re having a great week, and everything is going good with you. On this week’s episode, we’re going to take a look at how growing microgreens indoors impacts the environment both positively and, in some ways, negatively. And if affecting the environment in a positive way is something that you want to do, stay tuned to this episode, and I’m going to give you some practices that you can implement in your business to do that.
[0:58] This episode of the podcast is brought to you by TrueLeafMarket.com. True Leaf Market stocks a vast array of really high-quality and well-priced microgreen seeds and equipment. Since starting the podcast, I’ve been able to create a close relationship with the guys over there, and I’m really confident in recommending their microgreen seeds and equipment. They’ve also been generous enough to create a special offer for the listeners of The Microgreens Entrepreneur Podcast, and that is a 5% discount. All you have to do to get that discount is type in the code MGE5 at the checkout. The code, again, is MGE5.
[1:32] Okay, so the environment. Now, I can appreciate that this isn’t at the top of everybody’s list of important things, but personally, I really do feel that it is important, and it’s something that I’m conscious of and something that I always consider in the decisions that I make for my business.
[1:48] I think I really became aware and conscious of the impact that us as humans are having on the environment by watching documentaries like the Leonardo DiCaprio one, Before the Flood and Plastic Ocean. More recently, Our Planet, the David Attenborough one. I’m fairly sure they’re all on NetFlix if you want to have a look at them.
[2:09] They’re all really good documentaries if you haven’t seen them, and environmental issues and climate change are of interest to you. They’re definitely worth watching. It was actually my girlfriend, Stacey, who recommended Plastic Ocean to me. She’s very big into using as little plastic as possible, and she’s always looking for other alternatives for plastic items that we use here in the house.
[2:31] So, let’s take a look at how having a business growing and selling microgreens indoors affects the environment in different ways. The first thing we’ll take a look at is the electricity usage. When we’re growing microgreens inside, we’re using grow lights. The most environmentally friendly way to grow microgreens is in a greenhouse where we’d be getting that free sunlight from the actual sun, and we wouldn’t be burning any fossil fuel in the process there.
[2:56] But I have to say the most consistent way and best way to grow microgreens, in my opinion, is under grow lights. You can do it all through the winter and get the same results. It’s just so much easier to predict when you’ll be harvesting your crops.
[3:11] Now, I know that some people grow out in a greenhouse in the summer and move inside for the winter. Then, there are others that have grow lights installed in their greenhouse. They use the sun and then supplement it with grow lights when they’re needed. So, there are a few different options there.
[3:26] I thought this was interesting. Now, there are more environmentally-friendly ways that electricity is being generated nowadays by wind energy and solar power, but coal burning is still the largest source of electricity globally. Natural gas is up there too, and that might be the biggest source of electricity in some countries, but let’s take a look at coal burning for this example.
[3:48] Just a quick example: I use Sunblaster T5 fluorescents in my grow space. I really like them. I think they’re great lights. I think because of the reflectors on them, you get much more light onto the microgreens than you do on any other type of light out there. Each bulb in them is 54 watts. I leave them on for 12 hours a day, seven days a week. I’ve worked it out that one of these lights left on for 12 hours a day will use 4.5 kilowatts of electricity over seven days.
[4:17] If you’re wondering how I got that number, I have a blog post all about calculating your electricity costs when you’re growing microgreens indoors. I will leave a link for that in the show notes, but here’s an interesting fact. To generate 4.5 kilowatts of electricity that it will take each week to power that one 54 T5 lightbulb for 12 hours a day, 3.4 pounds or 1.5 kg of coal will have to be born to do it. I was able to figure that out by following directions on a HowStuffWorks blog post. I’ll leave a link for that in the show notes too just in case you think I’m pulling that number out of thin air.
[4:54] But basically, you get the thermal energy of coal, and you do a couple of math equations. Anyway, 3.4 pounds are 1.5 kg of coal a week. It’s a good bit for one light. I was actually surprised by that. So, what can we do to reduce this amount?
[5:10] Number one is, try and source lower-watt lights that produce the same results. Personally, I really need to test out some new lights, and I plan on doing so very soon. But, in the past, I’ve tried some LEDs that were lower watt, and the results from them were poor. So, more lights were needed to get the same results. The wattage of the LED lights was lower, so they used less electricity per light, but I actually needed more of them to get the same result as a fluorescent. There was really no reduction there. But, like I said, there’s probably better technology now, and it’s definitely something to test.
[5:45] I guess I feel like I found a winning formula with the Sunblaster lights. Sometimes, you’d be reluctant to change something that’s working for you. I am planning on doing a full episode all about lighting in the future, so if you haven’t subscribed to the podcast already, make sure you do so you don’t miss that one.
[6:01] Another thing that we can do is leave the lights on for less time. That might sound obvious, but again, it’s something we might do without thinking about it. So, if someone tells us to leave our grow lights on for 12 hours a day, or some people recommend 16 hours a day, and that’s what we learn at the start. Then we just do it, and we continue to do it over and over again and never think about it again.
[6:23] I would encourage you to try leaving your lights on for different amounts of time and recording the differences in the ways that crops are grown. And maybe the lights don’t need to be on for as long as we think to get the same results. This is what I’m doing right now; I’m trying out different lengths of time that I’m leaving the lights on for each grow cycle and recording the results. It’s too early to give any information on that yet, but I will give you my findings on an episode in the future when I have a proper conclusion from that.
[6:53] Another thing, and this might seem obvious too, is to use less lights. Here, in Europe, when I first bought growing trays when I was starting, 10” x 20” flats weren’t available here. The biggest trays I could get were 14” x 9”. I’m switching out to 10” x 20” flats now slowly because it’s allowing me to grow more in the same space. But I’m still using the mixture of the two tray sizes.
[7:20] When I was starting out, and my trays were smaller, I only hung one light over each shelf because there was no need for two. The trays weren’t big enough, so they didn’t need the same amount of light that a 10” x 20” flat would need. Now, because I’ve been able to source 10” x 20” flats, and I’m starting to use them, I was planning to put two lights over each shelf, as everybody that uses 10” x 20” flats seem to do. But before doing that, I decided to try growing in the 10” x 20” flats under just one grow light and see what happens. So far, the results have been pretty good.
[7:53] The two types of radish that I grow, China Rose and Red Rambo, grew perfectly under just one light. Broccoli was good. Kale and a couple of the other Brassicaceaes were good. So one light seems to be working out okay, but again, I’m just trying at the moment, and I might come across some crops that will need two lights.
[8:11] I suppose if you can take something away from this, I’d like it to be that you don’t always have to do things a certain way just because it’s the way everyone else does it or it’s the way that it’s always been done. I recommend that you try different things and different ways and see what works best for you and what doesn’t work. I might have gotten a bit off-topic there. I don’t know – anyway, the environmental impacts.
[8:33] Electricity usage is one way we’re affecting the environment by growing microgreens indoors, but unfortunately, that’s just the way it is. We need to use electricity for growing consistently, and in everyday life, it’s just a necessity. All we can do is try to use less, and hopefully, someone like Elon Musk will figure it out and be able to replace fossil fuels altogether for us.
[8:56] Another way that we’re affecting the environment when we’re growing microgreens is the plastic that we’re using in the process. When we’re packing our microgreens to be sold, we have a few different options. We’ve got plastic bags, which can’t be recycled. We’ve got plastic clamshells that some can be recycled and some can’t. Then, we’ve got compostable packaging.
[9:15] Compostable packaging is what I would recommend. It is a little bit more expensive, but if you can’t afford it, maybe after you get established, it is something positive that you can do for the environment. And, to be honest, I feel that you actually get the little bit of extra that you pay for them back because I really feel that it is a selling point because if someone is conscious of the environment and they’re thinking about buying your product, it might just tip them over the edge and make them buy it.
[9:42] Another way that more plastic waste is generated when growing microgreens is when microgreens are sold living. When you sell your microgreens alive in the tray, the tray is most likely going to be a single-use tray, and that’s plastic that can’t be recycled. So, not great for the environment. And I wouldn’t recommend selling microgreens live in trays anyway. I think that’s a topic that actually deserves its own episode, and maybe I’ll do that in the future.
[10:07] Now let’s look at some of the more positive ways that growing microgreens indoors affects the environment. I know we went on about the electricity usage a bit, and I talked about the amount of fossil fuel that’s being born for the use of one light. But if you look at it, you can produce a lot of food under a single light over seven days.
[10:27] Let’s look at radish for a second, and let’s say in one week, we do two grow cycles. We’re going to be able to finish eight trays of radish in that week, and that will give you, on average, about 64 clamshells of radish, so that’s a lot of food.
[10:39] Then, there’s a lot of research behind the health benefits of microgreens. Look, I’m not claiming to be a doctor or anything, but the research is out there that it’s possible that microgreens reduce the chances of certain cancers and cardiovascular diseases. So, it’s possible that by growing and selling microgreens and having people consume them, it’s possible that there could be a reduction in people going to hospitals for health reasons. That, in turn, then reduces their resources that the hospital needs to use.
[11:08] If you want to know more about the health benefits of microgreens, I go into it in a little bit more detail back in Episode 6. I’m hoping to get someone on with maybe a Ph.D., someone who has studied the health benefits of them in detail to go through all of the health benefits of them in the future.
[11:24] Then, lastly, by growing and selling microgreens to your community and to restaurants in your area, you are a local supplier, and being a local supplier is a really good thing for the environment. It cuts down on long transits that might have to be made if the restaurants in your area were buying off of a distributor.
[11:41] It might even reduce the journey that someone in your community makes to another town to buy microgreens wherever they’re being sold. But now, because you’re growing them, they can buy them from you.
[11:51] Just to go back on suppling local businesses and how I said that by supplying them, you’re reducing a possible journey that would have to be made from a distributor, make sure that when you’re trying to sell to a local business like a restaurant or a hotel that you stress this point that you’ll be reducing the carbon footprint of their business.
[12:08] I don’t know about the rest of the world, but in Ireland, there are now certain criteria that businesses have to meet, and they need to show ways that they’re reducing their carbon footprint. So, do always make sure that you stress this point to a business when you are trying to get their business.
[12:22] So they are the environmental impacts of growing microgreens indoors. Look. No matter what we do, there’s always going to be some kind of impact. All we can do is be conscious of the environment and our climate and try to make the best decisions that we can when they’re possible for us.
[12:36] I actually have this pipe dream, I suppose you could call it, or moving the whole business into the city that I serve, onto the main street, and running the business on display to the public. So, there would be glass windows. There would be a shopfront, and anyone looking in could see everything growing on the shows. The lights would be on. I think that would be pretty cool.
[12:54] I haven’t done much research into this yet, but what I think would be really cool is if you could generate all the electricity from having solar panels on the roof of the shop. Then, you could also have an industrial composter on the premises. So, it would be kind of a closed-loop system on the main street of a city. But, like I said, it’s just an idea at the moment and a thought. I really need to research it and look into it. So, don’t shoot my dreams down yet.
[13:17] So, that is it for this week. Thanks a million for listening all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed the episode. If you do have any feedback, don’t be afraid to get in touch with me at brian@microgreensentrepreneur.com.
[13:28] If you’re just thinking about starting a microgreens business, and you’re wondering what the first steps in doing that are, I’ve created a free ebook for you, A Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Microgreens Business, and that goes through all the steps that you need to take from ordering your supplies all the way to making your first sale. You can get that at microgreensentrepreneur.com/ebook. I will leave a link for that in the show notes.
[13:50] If you did enjoy the episode, I’d really appreciate it if you left a review on Apple Podcasts. I read them; I love seeing them; I really appreciate them. It helps with the show’s ranking, so thanks in advance for that.
[14:01] That is it. Thanks again for listening. All the best, and I’ll catch you on the next episode. *
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[End of episode 14:48]