3M looks to become increasingly involved in CEA industry

Added on 15 January 2024

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3M looks to become increasingly involved in CEA industry

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The company is looking into greenhouse films that can increase light, conserve energy and more. 3M is not the first company people might think of when they think about agriculture. But the St. Paul-based company is looking to break into the greenhouse industry with its specialized films.

John Morrow is the insights lead for the business building arm of 3M Ventures, which is looking closely at greenhouse technology.

"It's a space that's really rapidly expanding, and there's a lot of investment going into it," Morrow said of greenhouses. "We explored this a few times in the past in different areas of the company, and it just kind of petered out for for a number of reasons, but most of it was because these are kind of mom and pop shops, so it's really hard to sell to that kind of industry."

Now as the greenhouse industry has become more consolidated and the facilities have become "massive," Morrow said 3M is digging deeper into areas the industry is looking to sharpen up.

One of those areas is energy usage.