Hemp building materials were featured at the SXSW Climate Change conference March 11 in Austin, TX, and the hemp building community came together to raise money to build refugee hempcrete housing in Ukraine.

A Wisconsin company sold its first hemp tiny home this spring made with a hempcrete panel system installed in only five hours.

As Mark Twain said during his Grand Tour in 1867, “I travel to learn.” My name is Lilibet, and I welcome you on my European journey to finding the gems and pioneers of natural building techniques across the globe.

Idaho-based Hempitecture, Inc., hosted the grand opening of their non-woven hemp-based insulation materials factory last week in Jerome, ID with confetti, a ribbon cutting and celebration.

A civil engineering professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has invented a hemp-based load-bearing masonry block that has the potential to “greenify” the construction industry while also promoting a new agricultural crop for US farmers.

It was during a natural building workshop halfway around the world that I came to realize how close we are, yet how far we’ve strayed from building our own homes.

From Hemp Today: A Canadian hemp composite producer has received a $10 million (US $7.4 million) grant that will support development of a manufacturing facility to turn out products for the automotive, marine, wind energy and consumer products industries.