The distance from field to fork can add significantly to the carbon footprint of food. This US company is addressing the food miles issue and using solar power to help its efforts.
Gotham Greens is leading the way in urban agriculture and opened the first commercial scale rooftop greenhouse in the United States in 2011.
Today, it operates nearly 15,800 square metres of urban rooftop greenhouses across four sites in New York City and Chicago; all of which incorporate solar energy systems.
Its original Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NYC site boasts nearly 14,000 square metres of greenhouse space and produces around 4.5 tonnes of leafy greens a year. Electricity consumption is offset by a 60kW array of solar panels.
Gotham Greens’ second rooftop greenhouse, also in Brooklyn, covers around 1,850 square metres and grows more than 9 tonnes of produce annually. This site features a 157kW Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant and a 325kW solar PV system located in the parking lot.
The third site; in Hollis, Queens, New York City, is bigger again – around 5,500 square metres. It produces more than 5 million heads of fresh leafy greens each year.
The most recently opened facility is in Pullman, Chicago; on the roof of a factory. At nearly 7,000 square metres, it’s the world’s largest and most productive rooftop farm. In addition to solar panels, wind turbines also help provide clean electricity for its operations. As with its other facilities, power not generated on-site is supplied through green electricity sourced from a utility.
This facility is expected to grow approximately 453 tonnes of produce a year. For Pullman residents, it means ultra-fresh (if somewhat more expensive) produce. Items are often available in local stores and farmers’ markets harvested and packaged on the same day.
A portion of the Pullman facility’s output is donated to Chicago’s Food Depository, a nonprofit food distribution and training center.
Gotham Greens says its irrigation methods use 20 times less land and 10 times less water than convention agriculture, as well as eliminating the need for pesticide use there’s zero fertilizer runoff.
There’s another big bonus accompanying these projects – jobs. Gotham Greens has made a point of establishing facilities in areas suffering under high unemployment levels.
