ONLINE EXCLUSIVES
Hempitecture to Establish First Hemp Insulation Designated Facility in the U.S.
Tara Olivo, associate editor | 06.16.22
Hempitecture, a Ketchum, Idaho-based company, will soon be manufacturing a non-toxic, no-VOC, and more sustainable thermal insulation product for residential and commercial buildings. Once complete, Hempitecture’s 33,000 sq. ft. nonwovens plant will be the first hemp insulation designated facility in the U.S.
“As you can imagine the cost per square foot of insulation is outrageous when you’re importing a voluminous building material,” he says. “Come this fall, we’ll be pulling the lever and transitioning from an imported source to the U.S grown and manufactured. We’re really excited about that because we’re supporting the emerging industrial hemp supply chain and the natural fiber supply chain as a whole.”
When Hempitecture begins production this fall, the company will be making some changes to the formulation of its product HempWool, and the process of manufacturing it will be adjusted to meet all U.S. relevant codes and standards. The company has also done extensive research on R&D and understanding of which fire retardants are safe, healthy, and non-toxic, and Hempitecture will be rolling out a fire-resistant insulation product in 2022/2023.
Benefits of Hemp
While Mead says there are many other great bast fiber crops out there, one thing that makes industrial hemp so compelling is that it’s a rapidly renewable resource that can be grown in a variety of climate types and in a variety of regions across the U.S. Also, during its three- to four-month cultivation cycle, it offsets about 9.8 tons of CO2 per acre. “It does that more so than any other bast fiber crops while also requiring less inputs than some other fiber producing crops, making it a truly sustainable, rapidly renewable resource,” he explains. “The fiber itself, when grown with the proper genetics and processed properly, also produces a fiber that is very strong. It has a variety of benefits due to its somewhat porous structure. The porous structure of industrial hemp fiber actually in part lends to the insulative capacity of the fiber itself.”
Today, HempWool is the only USDA Certified Biobased insulation product on the market. The product it’s currently selling, and the one it will be producing later this year, is 89.9% bio-based. The other 10% is a polymer binder. “Whereas other insulation companies are using non-biodegradable or abrasive VOC-containing raw materials in their formulation, we’re using plant fiber and we’re using a binder, so it’s a pretty simple formulation: safe to touch, safe to handle, and causes no respiratory harm,” Mead says.
On the other hand, lightly touching an insulation product made with fiberglass puts fiber shards in the skin and irritates the mucus membrane, he adds. “HempWool is the epitome of a healthy and sustainable product, and we’re seeing a lot of interest in the insulation industry to move towards more sustainable, healthy products. However, the products from the companies that are the biggest stakeholders for insulation are inherently not healthy and inherently not sustainable, so we really have that at our core.”
Also, while other insulation products come from non-renewable or carbon-intensive resources, Hempitecture is coming from plant-based resources. “By coming from plant-based resources, we’re supporting rural communities and rural economies, particularly across the Rocky Mountain West where we’re based in our supply chain, and we like to think our benefit transcends the product we’re producing and the home that it’s going into. It is supporting rural economies that really have been overlooked,” Mead says.
Additionally, because the company is using a rapidly renewable carbon-sequestering commodity as the primary raw material for its product, it is showing a net-zero or a carbon-negative product. A lifecycle analysis (LCA) from its manufacturing partner indicates that 1sqm of the product offsets about 1kg of carbon dioxide. Another LCA is underway through a partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to factor in a U.S.-based supply chain. “We’ve really worked to think in terms of proximity principle: where are the nearest sources to our facility for industrial hemp fiber? How can we cut out extensive transportation and really just create the most sustainable product?” he adds.
Currently, Hempitecture is primarily a direct-to-consumer business through its website, hempitecture.com, but once its U.S. manufacturing facility is up and running, it intends to utilize distributorships. “Building materials aren’t the only space Hempitecture intends to play in, there are countless industries that nonwovens can integrate into and we hope to be a part of solving some of the most pressing sustainability challenges in the nonwovens space,” says Mead.
“As a young company in the nonwovens industry, we know that we don’t have all the answers and we know that there’s a lot to learn,” he continues. “We’re open to learning from other companies about their sustainability goals and understand with them how we can incorporate our natural fiber supply chain into their end products to ultimately create more sustainable long-lasting, high-performance products.”
*You can read the full article and learn more about the NonWovens Industry here.
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"Hempitecture to Establish First Hemp Insulation Designated Facility in the U.S."
A big thank you to Tara Olivo for taking the time to write this article on Hempitecture and her team for publishing it.
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