Last week, the White House’s Climate office held a 3-hour round table discussion on developing a a framework for “zero embodied carbon” buildings.

A Colorado-based company is now distributing an Italian-based block system that can shave almost 25% off the costs on a hempcrete build, the founders say.

After years of efforts from USHBA volunteers and consultants, the governing body for national building codes in the United States released a residential building code that included hemp-lime (hempcrete) for the first time.

Researchers at Troy, NY-based Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) received a $1.5 million 3-year grant from the US Department of Energy to develop a hemp-based low-cost insulation panel that can cut heating and cooling costs in home retrofits.

A small student-built hemp demonstration structure nicknamed the “Hemp Casita” has criss-crossed the state of Kansas educating about the potential of building materials made of industrial hemp. 

Now, some of the collaborators are working to bring that knowledge to New Jersey with an educational seminar in Manahawkin, NJ. May 10-12 that will cover industrial hemp from growing the plant to building with it. 

A pilot program to activate agricultural farmland and grow industrial hemp in the Southwest United States is looking for three “agricultural land stewards” to live in hemp tiny homes and spend the summer tending the land. 

Members of the US Hemp Building Association voted this week to elect two new board members, bringing the total number to nine. Ingrid Fay of Chicago and Cody Ley of Jones, MI were the top vote-getters in a 9-candidate race.