90% Less Water. 50% Less CO₂. Zero Runoff. Here's the Math.

Every year, American farms apply about 500,000 tons of pesticides and 12 million tons of nitrogen fertilizer to crops. A huge portion of that washes off fields and into rivers, lakes, and groundwater creating dead zones, contaminating drinking water, and disrupting ecosystems across the country.

Meanwhile, most of your grocery store lettuce traveled 1,500+ miles in a refrigerated truck from California or Arizona, grown on fields that required tractors tilling the soil, irrigation systems pumping water, and harvesters burning diesel.

We decided to do things differently.

90% Less Water

Peer-reviewed research shows hydroponic systems use 90-95% less water than conventional farming. Our closed-loop system recirculates water — roots take what they need, the rest goes back to the reservoir. No evaporation baking off in the sun. No runoff washing into streams.

50%+ Less CO₂ Emissions

This one's complicated, so we'll be honest: vertical farming's carbon footprint depends heavily on where the energy comes from. Without clean energy, our emissions would be around 5 kg CO₂ per kg of lettuce similar to some conventional farms.

But we participate in WE Energies' Energy for Tomorrow Program, which lets us subsidize 100% of our electricity with renewable energy. That drops our energy-related emissions to near-zero.

Add in the fact that we don't run tractors, don't till soil (a major carbon emitter), and don't ship lettuce across the country we're confident we produce at least 50% less emissions than conventional farms. The real number is probably higher, but we'd rather under-promise than make claims we can't fully prove.

Zero Untreated Runoff

Our nutrients never touch the ground. They circulate in a closed system, and when we change out our water, it goes to the municipal treatment facility — not directly into local streams like farm field runoff.

No contribution to dead zones. No nitrates leaching into groundwater. No pesticides washing into the watershed.

A Furniture Store, Not a Forest

We didn't clear land to build our farm. We converted an old furniture store on Roosevelt Road into a growing facility. The building already existed — we just gave it a new purpose.

Want the full breakdown with all the math and sources? Read our complete analysis: The Real Environmental Impact of Grow Space: Water, Emissions, and What the Numbers Actually Say