“Building with innovative wood products from sustainable, properly managed forests is a relatively easy way to alleviate a sizable amount of U.S. carbon emissions.”

After several years of building bigger, better, more-efficient hydroponic farms together, our partners at Square Roots came to Via Chicago with very specific instructions: “How do we reduce the amount of embodied carbon in our buildings? We want to see a 50% reduction on any new buildings within the next three years.” This request was complicated by the fact that the next generation of farms are slated to be 20% larger (in floor area). Bigger farm, less carbon? Let’s get to work!

Via Chicago began by performing an in-depth analysis of facilities that we had recently completed in Grand Rapids, Kenosha, and Shepherdsville, KY. Thanks to a detailed design model that had been developed during the design process, we were able to accurately measure the carbon footprint of each facility and identify areas for improvement. The most obvious target was reducing the amount of steel in the structure. Square Roots had developed their farm model using repurposed shipping containers, which were a popular “eco” solution a few years back. However these steel boxes are designed for protecting cargo on 3,000 mile journeys at sea - conditions far more extreme than providing a temp-controlled room to grow food in - and included a downright wasteful amount of heavy material, as a result. The adjoining “head house” also utilized a steel frame and insulated metal panels (IMPs), to provide an easy-to-clean surface on the interior.

Once armed with hard numbers and data, Via Chicago was able to secure buy-in from all SQR stakeholders for a radical change in the way new farms are built - utilizing a concept that was deemed impractical just a couple years earlier. The next hydroponic facility will include a “hybrid post frame” wood structure that utilizes sustainably grown timber to create a lightweight, wood structure with only four steel posts. Via Chicago is collaborating with Storage Control Systems - experts in the world of wood-frame, climate-controlled storage - to design a building that maintains an impressive performance standards with a drastically lower carbon footprint.