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In the past decade, cannabis (Cannabis sativa) has emerged as a major legal industry in BC and Canada. A large portion of cannabis cultivation in Canada happens in indoor facilities. While indoor cultivation of cannabis allows fine-tuning of growth conditions, it also requires large amounts of electricity; as a result, cannabis production has high costs and an unsustainable carbon footprint. These problems could be solved by switching to outdoor cultivation of cannabis; however, most current cannabis varieties would flower too late when grown outdoor and would not be able to endure the cold and wet Fall weather. Marco Todesco at UBC and Jose Celedon at Aurora Cannabis one of the largest Canadian cannabis companies have identified several genes that control flowering in cannabis. This knowledge will be used to design new cannabis varieties that can flower earlier both in greenhouses, thus reducing the amount of time it takes to produce cannabis, and when grown outdoor at Canadian latitudes. These varieties will facilitate the transition to outdoor cannabis cultivation; this will reduce the environmental impact of cannabis cultivation and its cost, increasing the competitiveness of the cannabis industry in BC and Canada. The same genes can also be used to improve hemp, which is also Cannabis sativa, and produce varieties that are better adapted to Canadian climates, supporting the development of this climate-friendly crop. Finally, the information produced by this project including the complete genomes of three cannabis varieties will help advance cannabis research and breeding worldwide.