The word "sustainability" has become a label. Everyone uses it, few really measure it.
In vertical farming, sustainability is not a claim-it is a sum of consumption, recoveries, and design decisions.
And in an industry where energy and logistics costs drive competitiveness, technology, automation, and distribution make the difference between a sustainable plant and an inefficient one.
The traditional agricultural supply chain wastes water at every stage: drainage, evaporation, inaccurate irrigation.
A closed hydroponic system reduces this waste by 70 to 95 percent.
Continuous recirculation
Evaporation control
Precise irrigation per plant
No soil leaking nutrient solution
Tomato+ technology makes this principle even more efficient with automated management of irrigation cycles, which prevents waste even in the low-flow micro-cycles typical of indoor multilayer.
Energy consumption is the real needle in the balance in any vertical farm.
Most companies focus their efforts on LED efficiency but forget one key element: heat management.
LEDs heat up.
And the heat stored above the plants requires:
more air conditioning,
more dehumidification,
more airflow.
Result: a huge share of energy consumption is not related to light, but to the need to dispose of light in the form of heat.
Tomato+ systems use professional LEDs with integrated liquid cooling. This radically changes the energy balance of the system.
Heat is not released into the air above the plants.
The liquid circuit removes heat directly at the source.
Water, circulating between all levels, homogenizes temperatures and reduces heat loads on HVAC systems.
No "heat pockets" requiring forced ventilation are created.
👉 Up to 50 percent reduction in energy effort required for air conditioning, airflow and dehumidification.
This is not a detail: it is what allows a vertical farm to go from "technically functioning" to "economically viable."
Indoor growing can dramatically reduce waste and waste.
Monitored and automated growth
Growth plans optimized through AI
Zero surplus production
No spoilage from transport
In Tomato+, production is software-modulated: you grow what you need when you need it, avoiding overproduction and unsold produce.
A sustainable plant does not just reduce: it recovers.
90-95% of the water transpired by plants can be condensed and reused.
Nutrient solution is monitored, filtered, replenished: zero leakage.
The liquid cooling system of LEDs allows:
direct heat recovery in concentrated form,
less load on HVAC,
greater stability of the growing environment.
The COâ‚‚ input is almost totally utilized by the plants, with no waste or leakage.
A vertical farm is sustainable only if it can prove it with numbers.
The essential metrics:
liters of water per kg of product
kWh per kg
percentage of energy recovered
percentage of nutrients recycled
COâ‚‚ equivalent saved
total waste (biomass + logistics)
man hours per kg produced
Tomato+ software collects this data continuously, providing an objective view of impact and improvements over time.
Centralized mega vertical farms solve production...but they don't solve the most impactful problem in the supply chain:
It is expensive, energy-intensive, and responsible for:
high emissions,
wastage from spoilage,
loss of quality,
unpredictable logistics costs.
Many vertical farms produce in a single hub and distribute hundreds of miles away:
a contradiction in terms, especially when it comes to sustainability.
True sustainability comes when you take transportation out of the supply chain.
With Tomato+:
the greenhouse is close to the point of consumption,
production is modular and scalable,
no cold chain is needed,
no trucks are needed,
the crop does not travel: it is consumed where it is born.
This eliminates the main Achilles' heel of centralized vertical farms.
And it enables a new food model: fresh, local, without heavy logistics.
In traditional farming, technology increases impact.
In well-designed vertical farming, it reduces it.
Automation → fewer errors → less waste
Liquid-cooled LEDs → less HVAC consumption
AI → continuous optimization
Local production → zero transportation
Data → processes that can be improved in real time
Modern sustainability is not a return to nature: it is a technological leap.
The future of agriculture does not depend on how much energy we use, but how we use it.
Vertical farming becomes sustainable when it:
it reduces waste,
recovers what it produces,
optimizes what it consumes,
eliminates transportation,
distributes production,
uses technology to multiply efficiency.
This is where sustainability becomes real, measurable and scalable.
Thank you for reading this article. Keep following us to discover new content on hydroponics, vertical farming, and smart agriculture.
Tomato+ Team