Hemp Voices: Jacob Waddell, Hemp Building Institute
Jacob Waddell, president of the Hemp Building Institute, Nashville TN
The environmental impact of building with natural building materials, including hemp, is potentially huge. These products and their benefits will only be realized if we do the work to increase their utilization.
What was a win for your company in the past year? It has been a big year for the Hemp Building Institute (HBI). This year the International Residential Code (IRC) appendix for Hemp-lime (Hempcrete) Construction was released. This project has been a multi-year effort that was begun while I was leading the USHBA and finished when I was leading the HBI. This year the HBI was selected for a $6.1 million grant by the EPA to create an EPD generator for biogenic building materials. This year also saw the kick off of Home Innovations Research Lab, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority funded, project that the HBI is consulting on called Hemp-Based Insulation for Multifamily Retrofits.
What is something about hemp building/construction/processing you didn’t know a year ago? The complexities of carbon calculations for hemp building products.
What challenges does the hemp building industry face that it must overcome? Market adoption is a huge challenge. We are working diligently to understand how to accelerate market adoption, but there are no clear answers yet on how this will be achieved.
Contact: Jacob Waddell
Email: jacob@hempbuildinginstitute.org
Phone: (561) 339-2638
https://linktr.ee/hempbuildinginstitute
