Cox Farms: Embracing Sustainability Through Circularity
November 18, 2025 
BrightFarms' greenhouse facility in Macon, Ga. | Photo taken by Julian Alexander
Since 2007, Cox Enterprises has invested more than $2 billion in clean tech businesses. This includes Cox Farms, the company’s indoor agriculture division and the largest greenhouse operator in North America.
CEAg World sat down with Kait Bowdler, senior manager of growth ops partnerships at Cox Enterprises, to discuss the company’s goals surrounding sustainability and circularity in agriculture before she speaks on the topic at the 2025 CEAg World Conference and Expo.
A Focus on Sustainability
A core tenant of Cox Farms is maximizing its natural resources. “Our greenhouses take advantage of sunlight and the natural climate,” Bowdler says. “Then we use automation and LED lights to supplement these resources and produce higher quality yield.”
The company is taking a circular approach to CEA in greenhouse facilities that operate under its BrightFarms and Mucci Farms brands. Since these greenhouse operations use boilers for heating, growers are able to capture CO2 and water condensation from the boilers, then reuse both.
“It’s much more environmentally friendly to follow one process and get multiple things out of it,” she explains. “Most growers are already using circular systems to keep costs down and operations running more efficiently because there aren’t big margins on produce. You’re not getting rich off of growing lettuce, so you have to keep things simple.”
Prioritizing Geography
Circular CEA systems are highly dependent on geography. When it comes to produce, Bowdler says, greenhouse operators primarily consider their proximity to important energy sources and their customers. “Historically, that’s meant sustainability considerations like waste have sometimes been secondary,” she explains. “ We’re focused on helping our locations adapt and build infrastructure so they can better handle recycling and circular solutions for a variety of waste streams to reduce environmental impact.”
That’s why Cox Conserves helps its greenhouse operators work with compost partners to divert organic waste more efficiently. Unlike a facility’s proximity to grocery stores and energy sources, waste disposal can be flexible—making produce more “local” or central to consumers is a much bigger challenge.
First Steps to Circularity
For growers pursuing circularity, Bowdler says they must consider what will give them the largest economic and environmental impact. To this end, she encourages greenhouse operators to take a closer look at water use.
“Water is probably the best opportunity for circularity right now,” she says. “Because if you’re using municipal water, you have to pay for water coming in and going out.”
To combat this, several Cox Farms operations are equipped with rainwater reuse ponds. In these facilities, growers capture water from the greenhouse roof, send it to the pond, clean it, and use it again in their operations. “This has an operational benefit and also lets growers cut down their water footprint,” Bowdler explains.
Giving Food Waste a Purpose
The U.S. finds itself in a paradox: There is an abundant amount of food waste, yet many Americans struggle with food insecurity. While growers can certainly take steps to reduce food waste, they can’t get rid of it completely. Some produce won’t meet the quality standards of retailers, yet it’s perfectly fine to consume. Cox Enterprises has a solution for that, too.
Cox Farms recently partnered with Feeding America’s network of food banks to donate produce to families and communities facing hunger. While they didn’t track this metric in previous years, they started to do so in 2025. At the time of this post, the company is on track to donate 3,000,000 pounds of produce to people who need it by the end of December.
“This is an effective circular solution because we’re keeping good food in our communities and out of landfills,” she says. “We’re finding another use for it. Even if we can’t sell this produce, we’re committed to making sure it helps nourish someone in need rather than going to waste.”