The Power of Hemp in Climate Change Mitigation ESG Talks

In this episode of ESG Talks, Pat Welch, KBRA’s Chief ESG and Ratings Policy Officer, interviews Steven Gluckstern, the Chairman and CEO of Santa Fe Farms. Santa Fe Farms is a fully integrated company leading the growth and development of the industrial hemp industry. The company Santa Fe Farms spans the growth, transformation, and impact of industrial hemp into key wellness, chemical and physical ingredients and components which can be incorporated into thousands of products in categories including health, human and animal nutrition, agriculture, building materials, paper and packaging, plastics, and advanced carbon materials. Santa Fe Farms will be both a net carbon-negative business itself and an important source of offsets available to other enterprises seeking to reduce their carbon footprint to meet their ESG goals and/or regulatory requirements. Pat and Steven speak about the hemp industry’s potential the role might play in mitigating the effects of climate change across the globe, while also creating positive social impact.
“What we found out very quickly is that the real value of this plant may go way beyond the products one can make from it… Industrial hemp as we know it today sequesters as much carbon per acre as, for instance, an acre of rainforest. What became apparent to us [at Santa Fe Farms] was that as we look for nature-based solutions to the CO2 crisis, that one of those might well be hemp.” – Steven Gluckstern, Santa Fe Farms