Hemp Voices: Matt Marino, Homeland Hempcrete
Matt Marino, president of Homeland Hempcrete, based in Bismarck, ND.
We design and manufacture Structural Hemp-Insulated Panels, or SHIPs as we like to call them. Our mission is to accelerate the adoption of sustainable construction, utilizing hempcrete, and we believe streamlining the build process is one of the best ways to do that.
The hemp crop offers one of the best solutions for developing local and self-reliant economies. This is a key area where we can compete with conventional building.
What was a win for your company in the past year? We moved into a MUCH larger facility to increase our production capacity and streamline our process, which equals lower costs to the consumer, and more hempcrete homes!
What is something about hemp building/construction/processing you didn’t know a year ago? Taking hempcrete construction offsite is a challenge! We are traveling a path with no blueprint and have had to get creative in some of the ways we approach problems to make them work in an indoor facility and with less man-power than a typical on-site construction crew.
What challenges does the hemp building industry face that it must overcome? Working in silos / fragmented supply chains. We have a ton of great work happening in the industry, but not enough standardization and synergy between the various components within the supply chain. This equates to unpredictable material availability, varying quality, fluctuating costs, which is not good for the builder, or the end consumer.
