Last year, RII initiated the first industry working group on the subject of water circularity and is due to publish the recommendations in a Best Practices Guide in June, 2023. This workshop series is designed for growers of all technology levels, as actionable conservation and remediation strategies that were recommended by the working group will both be described. Attendees will learn how to measure their water footprint and compare it to existing KPIs. Conservation topics will include reducing irrigation with automation and smart programming, reducing brine waste from reverse osmosis purification, reducing waste of water used for climate control such as HVAC condensate and evaporative cooling systems bleed-off water, as well as processing water such as used for sanitation. For growers and designers of more advanced facilities, water recapture, storage, filtration, purification and disinfection systems will be discussed, and how to plan for their implementation. Attendees will earn confidence that they can protect valuable resources cost-effectively while also preparing for future regulations.
Target audience:
Cultivators
Operations & Facility Staff
Design & Construction Partners
Property Owners
Utility & Government Representatives
Funded with support from:
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Rob has over 30 years of experience in plant growth facility management, plant research and commercial production. At Purdue University, he brought online and managed a computer- controlled 40,000 ft 2 research facility, made up of 25 greenhouses and over 60 growth chambers and grow rooms. He was responsible for hundreds of CEA studies involving flowering, food and medicinal species. He served on design teams for greenhouse projects and one of the first automated machine-vision phenotyping centers in the country. In his consulting role, he supported major hydroponic produce growers AeroFarms and Bright Farms; Big Ag companies Dow AgroSciences, Novozymes and Indigo Ag; and several cannabis operations including Clade9. He wrote cultivation plans for cannabis licenses awarded in Missouri and West Virginia.
Rob’s protocols for optimizing greenhouse production have been downloaded over 70,000 times in 104 countries. He participated in the publication, A Practical Guide to Containment: Plant Biosafety in Research Greenhouses, recognized throughout the world as a primary resource for safe production of genetically modified crops. In 2016, he was a member of the International Committee for Controlled Environment Guidelines that published Guidelines for Measuring and Reporting Environmental Parameters for Experiments in Greenhouse Facilities, the seminal document of quality assurance protocols for plant science research.
In his free time, Rob enjoys gardening, growing microgreens under LEDs, baking and winning croquet matches against his three grown children.
