By Jean Lotus

Industry experts in the emerging industrial hemp building industry gathered online in early September to raise money to submit hemp building materials for acceptance into U.S. building codes.

The U.S. Hemp Building Foundation sponsored the two-day Hemp Build 2021 virtual conference Sept. 9-10 to highlight hemp’s amazing carbon-sequestering abilities and to showcase innovations in green building materials.

The nonprofit arm of the US Hemp Building Association is raising $100,000 to submit hemp and lime building materials for certification by the International Code Council (ICC) to be included in U.S. building codes for 2022.

Architects, engineers, hemp insulation subcontractors and builders joined the “hemp curious” to learn about sustainable building possibilities with industrial hemp.

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"The building industry accounts for 39% of the world's carbon footprint,” said Jacob Waddell, president of the trade association.

“We need to change our practices and behaviors to make progress on the carbon crisis. Hemp building materials offer a carbon-negative product that improves the performance of buildings to lower energy consumption. It is a double whammy," he added.

Fast-growing, renewable hemp, which captures carbon at a rate of 5 metric tonnes per acre while growing, is one solution to the problem. Outlawed for 80 years in the United States, industrial hemp was legalized in the United States with the 2018 Farm Bill.

Since the 1990s, builders in Europe have used fiber and wooden stalk material from industrial hemp to make a range of construction materials including batt insulation and hemp-lime, or “hempcrete” wall assemblies that are mold- and fire-resistant.

"I was approaching it from mold-research, so to be able to create a non-toxic, highly thermally insulating wall assembly, for me, was paramount," explained New Mexico-based architect Alexander Sexsmith, AIA, when asked what attracted him to building with hemp.

Hemp’s non-toxic properties help create healthy indoor environments that can help counteract Sick Building Syndrome, caused by off-gassing of chemicals in petroleum based building materials.

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"It's always about the people. Once we put the people as a priority, their health as a priority, hempcrete starts ticking off all the boxes," said civil engineer and hempcrete builder Sergiy “Doctor Hemphouse” Kovalenkov, of Hempire USA.

Other industry leaders participating included Jennifer Martin and Tom Rossmassler of Massachusetts-based HempStone, LLC, Irish hemp building pioneer Steve Allin, and Tommy Gibbons of Ketchum, Idaho-based Hempitecture Inc.

A growing industry

Hemp building is a fast-growing industry which can provide opportunities for wealth building and entrepreneurship, panelists said.

“The economic factor is major,” said Elise Clote, of Hempstead Project Heart, a U.S. tribal nonprofit supporting the expansion of industrial hemp. “Not only for job creation, but for a variety of jobs. You are going to have a variety of skill sets that will be utilized," she added.

ASTM Certifications

The online Hemp Build 2021 event raised close to $20,000. The deadline for certification submission is January, 2022 and the opportunity won’t open up again until 2025.

Matching funds up to $12,500 are being offered by Fargo, ND-based nonprofit Grassroots Development LLC and Environmental Living Industries, a sustainable materials company, -- turning every dollar pledged into three.

“We are devoted to ensuring this amazing and renewable building material finds its way into the U.S. construction industry on a wide scale,” Waddell said. “ICC approval is a crucial first step and we look forward to submitting our application in January of 2022.”

The fund drive continues through the fall. DONATE HERE

Jean Lotus is editor and publisher of HempBuild Magazine. jeanlotus@hempbuildmag.com