Healthy Building Materials belong in our Homes.

Feb 1, 20234 min read

Hempitecture is on a mission to create healthy, energy-efficient materials that positively impact both people and the planet by capturing carbon dioxide and replenishing farmland.

Did you know that the Building Industry is responsible for around 40% of total Greenhouse Gas Emissions? The built environment creates more emissions than any other sector of the economy — more than transportation, agriculture, and industry. Hemp-itecture (pronounced similar to architecture) is an evolving pursuit to create tangible solutions for those very problems that exist within the built environment.

Since its inception, Hempitecture led the way in bio-based building methods in the United States, including the supply and completion of over 20 hempcrete projects, ranging from small builds to intricate projects designed by world-renowned architects, and from those projects, Hempitecture took another. pivot. forward:

Scaling those very solutions with truly sustainable materials.

Hempitecture is building a new ag-tech manufacturing facility in Southern Idaho, Through this, we are afforded the opportunity to help rural communities that are essential to our supply chain flourish and grow, as Hempitecture sources the raw industrial hemp materials from agriculturally focused regions across the Rocky Mountain North West.

This nonwoven materials facility will not only create HempWool insulation for various types of building projects (including residential, commercial, and modular homes), but it will also create sustainable cold freight packaging materials for shipping and packing food, medicine, and other consumer package goods that require temperature control.

HempWool®

The New Healthy Insulation on the Block

HempWool® is a plant-based healthy building insulation product. Manufactured with renewable energy, U.S.-grown hemp fiber, and innovative technology, HempWool® is a high-performing, truly sustainable material. HempWool is appropriate for anywhere in a structure’s thermal envelope, including walls, floors, ceilings, attics, and partition walls. It is a one-to-one replacement for conventional insulation materials like fiberglass, mineral wool, and spray foam.

HempWool® is the only USDA Bio-Based certified insulation material on the market in the United States. Made of 90% natural fiber (industrial hemp), HempWool has no VOCs and toxins making it a safe alternative to traditional insulation. Due to its simple composition and non-toxic additives, it is safe to touch and handle without gloves. Basic PPE measures should always be used on a job site, but with HempWool, users can have peace of mind that they're not harming their body or those residing in the building.

It takes time to build a supply chain.

HempWool® is a crade-to-cradle material in that its bio-based from the start.

It begins with a seed and it ends being a healthy insulation that will last in your project.

"Hempitecture's partnership with IND HEMP represents more than just a critical supply chain solution. It represents the restoration of American manufacturing, the empowerment of rural economies and forward-thinking innovation in sustainable materials. We look forward to innovating the building products of the future with IND HEMP's processed hemp fiber," shares Hempitecture Co-Founder and CEO, Mattie Mead.

Our companies share the values and commitment to sustainability by doing better for the planet. Hemp can capture and remove more CO² from the atmosphere per acre annually than a forest or other agricultural crops. In addition to the carbon sequestered into the soil while the plant is growing, the plant biomass above the ground is an average of 45% carbon. When the fibers are processed into insulation and built into a home, that CO² is durably sequestered and locked up into the material, while also offsetting more energy-intensive processes and the carbon footprints of existing materials, such as glass fiber insulation.

There can be a lot of misconceptions around Industrial Hemp. Interested in learning more?

We recommend starting with Parson's Trace Material Lab Podcast. Season 1 all about Hemp and you can find that here.

Research and innovation of new materials.

Hempitecture has a lifecycle analysis underway for our products in conjunction with our research

and development at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. That research is taking in the full

lifecycle analysis of our product. Our partner company where we worked previously has

conducted a lifecycle analysis that shows that there is biogenic carbon uptake. This was

factoring in an international supply chain. Our U.S. manufacturing facility is utilizing

primarily locally grown materials that are coming from less than a 10-hour radius, which

we anticipate will lower our carbon footprint versus our international partner’s product.

Hempitecture also works in conjunction with the Univesity of Idaho with further research and development on their natural fiber insulation products. The project team will conduct insulation, fire resistance, and thermal conductivity tests. This cooperative effort will advance HempWool®, as a pioneering sustainable product in the building industry.

Investing in the health of people and the planet.

The built environment has a significant influence on human health and well-being. It defines the spaces in which we live, work, or play, and it affects us through associated land-use strategies, natural resource consumption, and patterns of waste disposal. A poorly designed built environment consumes excessive amounts of water and energy, produces unnecessary waste, and generally degrades living conditions for human beings; a well-designed built environment with healthy non-toxic materials, by contrast, tends to conserve resources and improve our lives.

Hempitecture specializes in bio-based building materials primarily derived from rapidly renewable industrial hemp. Industrial hemp fiber is an ideal feedstock for building materials because it is a strong, resilient fiber, that also captures carbon dioxide during its growth. By utilizing this carbon-capturing natural fiber in our materials, our products are high performing, highly insulating, and non-toxic, all while having a low-embodied energy and carbon footprint.

Hempitecture is a honing in on the building materials space because we want to scale products embody both health and sustainability. Our products benefit both people and the planet, in that they contribute to healthier indoor air quality and sequestration of greenhouse gasses, while simultaneously providing opportunities for rural communities where our material feedstock is produced.