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The following content is sponsored by Tenacious Labs.
In 2014, Colorado made history by being the first state to have the sale of legal recreational cannabis take place. Once considered unchartered territory, the state has since established itself as a mature and prospering legal market.
And as various governments explore the possibilities around cannabis legalization, policymakers likely consider Colorado’s journey as one to potentially emulate in order to reach some of the same longer-term outcomes that have materialized.
The following sponsored graphic from Tenacious Labs provides a spotlight analysis of the Colorado cannabis market, and looks at defining trends and key developments that have occurred during the last eight years.
From a fiscal perspective, cannabis legalization has been a hit for the state of Colorado. Since it started in 2014, Colorado has generated over $2 billion in tax and fee revenue from the legal cannabis space.
Here’s a look at the growing tax revenues, which started from a modest $46 million and have surged nearly 10x.
Moreover, cannabis sales are still increasing. The year 2021 was a record year which generated $2.2 billion in revenue.
Given the rise in debts most governments have incurred in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, new sources of revenue and taxation, and rising ones at that, are attractive and may act as a key driver for legalization initiatives in other regions.
There are multiple converging factors that suggest cannabis legalization may result in a long list of benefits. Like sales and taxes, the employment sector has seen robust growth and shows more and more signs of picking up speed.
In Colorado, the industry boasts over 40,000 jobs that contribute to the local economy, including ones like “budtender”, which were almost nonexistent a number of years ago.
Likewise, the number of cannabis jobs across the country has grown from 122,000 in 2017 to 428,000 in 2022. In fact, in the U.S. there are now more jobs in cannabis than there are bank tellers, insurance agents, and hairstylists.
But the growth isn’t expected to stop quite yet. By 2025, some estimates say there will be 1.5 million jobs in cannabis, as legalization momentum continues to surge. In other words, the cannabis industry can represent 1% of the roughly 150 million people employed in America.
Fueling the growing figures around the cannabis industry is the high level of innovation in this space. Given the versatility of the cannabis plant, the modern industry now offers greater diversity and variety in products. And this can come in the form of consumption methods ranging from inhalation like vaping and smoking, to edible beverages and baked goods.
Here’s how market share for these products fared in 2020:
However, innovation in products is not stopping.
In 2020, an additional 7,000 new products hit dispensary shelves compared to the year prior. With new products emerging every day, it’s highly possible the future of cannabis can expand its total addressable market by attracting new consumers who may not resonate with the offerings of today.
Where do the millions in annual cannabis tax revenue go? Since legalization, Colorado has produced a track record of positive and impactful initiatives they’ve funded through cannabis dollars.
In addition, the state breaks down these revenues and shows how funds are allocated.
By far the largest portion of these funds go to the Marijuana Tax Cash Fund. Which supports an assortment of construction projects and law enforcement programs throughout the state.
Next, is the Public School Capital Construction Assistance Fund, which receives almost a quarter of the total tax dollars. This fund helps provide much needed capital to schools when upgrading their facilities.
Altogether, taxation from cannabis is making positive impacts across numerous avenues. For instance, in recent years, $3 million went towards opioid intervention, $16 million for affordable housing, and $20 million for early literacy programs. As cannabis sales grow, funds from taxes should follow suit, which only fuel greater and more frequent community programs and state initiatives.
In just under a decade, Colorado has demonstrated the ability to implement cannabis regulations that benefit stakeholders and society more broadly.
As tax revenues, employment, innovation in products, and communities all continue to flourish, many states and countries alike might seek to emulate these results and will look at the Colorado story for guidance.
In the next part of The Legal Landscape Series, we’ll dive into a legal vs illegal overview of cannabis markets.
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Operational health tech is poised to be a multi-billion dollar industry. This graphic breaks down how its disrupting healthcare as we know it.
Many lessons were learned throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, but what has become most apparent is the need to invest in healthcare on all fronts. In fact in just a few short years, businesses, governments, and consumers have had to entirely reassess healthcare in ways not quite seen before.
What’s more, this elevated importance placed on health could be here to stay, and one area in particular is poised for significant growth: operational health tech.
The graphic above from our sponsor Bloom Health Partners dives into the burgeoning market that is operational health tech, and reveals the key driving forces behind it.
To start, operational health is an industry that provides health services to employees to help keep companies running smoothly.
A critical piece of operational health is workplace health, which is expected to soar in value. From 2021 to 2025, the market for workplace health is expected to grow 200% from $6.5 billion to $19.5 billion.
The industry is undergoing a tremendous amount of innovation, specifically in relation to technological advances.
The operational health tech industry is disrupting traditional healthcare by providing direct services to employees in the workplace.
For decades now, the U.S. has increasingly become a statistical outlier for healthcare spending relative to health outcomes. For instance, the average American incurs $9,000 in healthcare spending per year, nearly twice that of OECD countries, yet life expectancy is flatlining while other countries see rises.
A worsening and increasingly expensive health dynamic makes the environment ripe for disruption and is allowing for new ideas to be brought to the table.
In addition, people are already responding to these inefficient practices by shifting greater emphasis on health within the job market. For example, studies show that workers care more about healthcare benefits over the salaries when choosing an employer.
Going forward, employees will gravitate towards employers that provide standout health benefits like workplace healthcare options offered by operational health. Here are some additional factors that act as catalysts for this space.
What do companies that rank as some of the best to work for have in common? First, they all tend to outperform relative to the S&P 500 on a cumulative stock performance basis. Second, many offer superior healthcare benefits.
Moreover, from 2012 to 2022, companies that were the best to work for saw shares appreciate nearly 500%, compared to around 300% for the broader market. Data like this suggests investing in healthcare and keeping employees happy is smart business that pays dividends.
Since 2020, labor markets have changed dramatically. As a result, employees now have more options and are much more selective about where they work. This is evident from the difference between job openings and hires which has risen to unrecognizable levels. For example, the data shows that there are nearly 12 million job openings, but only around 6-7 million hires in 2022.
Altogether, with an oversupply of jobs relative to workers, employers will have to find new ways to differentiate. One way to stand out is through healthcare and initiatives around operational health tech.
Today some 700 million people suffer from some form of a mental health condition and COVID-19 has continued to exacerbate the problem.
Moreover, the cost of mental health for the global economy is estimated to be a whopping $6 trillion by 2030, over double compared to the $2.5 trillion figure in 2010.
Under the umbrella of services operational health tech covers, mental health will stand to benefit. Especially in the years to come as we look for new ways to combat its mounting costs.
Bloom Health Partners is an operational health tech company looking to revolutionize workplace health by supplying employers with data to better understand their employee base and business.
One way Bloom stands out is with Bloom Shield—its flagship cloud-based big data platform for employee health data management. With Bloom Shield, new health insights become available to make better decisions. Employers can get insight into demographic data and age trends within the workplace, pre-screening detection for cancer and diabetes, and testing for management to tackle the spread of disease.
Click here to learn more about investing in operational health tech with Bloom Health Partners.
The global price of carbon increased 91% in 2021. Below, we show how environmental markets are supporting a greener future.
In 2021, roughly 20% of global carbon emissions were covered by carbon pricing mechanisms.
Meanwhile, the global price of carbon increased 91%, bolstered by government, corporate, and investor demand. This puts traditional fuel sources at a disadvantage, instead building the investment case for renewables.
This infographic from ICE, the first in a three part series on the ESG toolkit, explores how environmental markets work and their role in the fight against climate change.
First, meeting a goal of net zero carbon emissions involves limiting the use of the world’s finite carbon budget to meet a 1.5°C pathway.
Achieving net zero requires us to:
Environmental markets facilitate the pathway to net zero by valuing externalities, such as placing a cost on pollution and placing a price on carbon storage. This helps balance the carbon cycle to manage the carbon budget in the most cost-effective manner.
To keep temperatures 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, we have just 420 gigatonnes (Gt) of CO₂ remaining in the global carbon budget. At current rates, this remaining carbon budget is projected to be consumed by 2030 if no reductions are made. Carbon Budget1.5°C1.7°C2.0°C Remaining GtCO₂4207701270 Consumed GtCO₂247524752475
Each scenario based on a 50% chance of success Source: IPCC AR6 WG; Friedlingstein et al 2021; Global Carbon Budget 2021
Across three different scenarios, the above table indicates the amount of carbon emissions humanity can emit to prevent the worst effects of climate change.
Second, when companies compensate for CO₂ emissions, they can fall across two categories: negative and positive externalities.
Natural capital is another example of a positive externality, which involves the capturing and storing of carbon. The value of this type of natural capital can be expressed using a carbon credit.
Next, environmental markets can drive the transition to cleaner energy sources by ascribing a cost to pollution and putting a premium on renewables, to change how we use energy.
As one example, in 2013 the UK government introduced the Carbon Price Support mechanism to complement the emissions cap and trade program and weaken the investment case for coal. Between 2013 and 2020, Britain’s overall CO₂ emissions fell by 31%.
Here’s how coal was phased out of the UK’s energy mix, while renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and bioenergy played a greater role. DateCoal Gas Wind and SolarBioenergy Q1 200031 TWh40 TWh0 TWh1 TWh Q1 200541 TWh36 TWh1 TWh2 TWh Q1 201031 TWh47 TWh2 TWh3 TWh Q1 201528 TWh23 TWh13 TWh6 TWh Q1 20203 TWh27 TWh28 TWh9 TWh
Source: Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES); BP; EMBER via Our World in Data (2021)
Today, less than 5% of the UK’s electricity is coal-generated, with remaining plants expected to be decommissioned by 2024.
Finally, as governments increase their commitments to net zero, carbon prices are rising towards a level that requires industries to decarbonize and meet those goals.
In fact, between 2014 and 2021, the global price of carbon has increased over sixfold. DateGlobal Carbon Price (Year End)Annual % Change 2021$47.7891% 2020$24.9637% 2019$18.16-7% 2018$19.56102% 2017$9.6729% 2016$7.52-24% 2015$9.887% 2014$9.2432%
As indicated by the ICECRBN Global Carbon Price (CPW Weighted) Source: ICE (Apr 2022)
As companies begin to treat their carbon footprints as liabilities, there will be increasing demand for environmental attributes, such as carbon allowances and carbon credits.
Quoted markets like ICE Futures Exchanges and NYSE allow stakeholders to precisely value positive and negative externalities to:
Everyone is exposed to climate risk which means it needs to be measured and managed.
That’s why balancing the carbon cycle will be critical to managing the world’s carbon budget. Markets are providing greater access, liquidity and opportunity in supporting net zero ambitions.
In part two of the series sponsored by ICE, we’ll look at four motivations for using ESG data.
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