We Want It All, Don’t We?
When it comes to our homes, we want beauty, comfort, durability, and affordability. We want clean air and protection from blizzards and blazes alike. Ideally, we want all of this while being as gentle on the environment as possible. Too often, we feel forced to choose just two or three of these qualities, dismissing the rest as wishful thinking. But what if we actually can have it all?
Imagine a home that might char if a wildfire passes through, but won’t burn to the ground. A home that drastically reduces heating and cooling costs for a lifetime. A home built with a material that actually “breathes” regulating temperature and humidity year-round while permanently sequestering tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere. What if a home could do all this while eliciting awe with its warm, striking aesthetic? And what if building this way is already possible?
Enter Hempcrete – the building blocks of HOPE.
A mixture of chipped industrial hemp stalk, lime, and water, has been revolutionizing construction in Europe for four decades. It replaces the insulation, drywall, and sheathing of a conventional wall assembly, can be tamped or assembled via blocks and finished with a lime plaster inside and out.
While North America has been slower to catch on, we are now in our second decade of building with this forward-thinking material. And the word is finally getting out locally: in the Spring of 2025, shovels hit the ground on the Okanagan’s first fully permitted Hempcrete house just outside of Lumby.
Why Hempcrete? Here are just a few of its most noteworthy qualities:
High-Performance Properties:
- Fire-Resistant: Watch an online flame test and prepare to pick your jaw up off the floor.
- Thermal Mass & Insulation: High 30R-value capabilities keep you cozy in the cold and cool in the heat.
- Acoustic Insulation: Ideal for party walls, recording studios, or busy restaurants.
- Mold & Pest-Resistant: Lime’s high pH brings powerful antifungal and pest resistant properties to the equation.
- Toxin-Free: Free of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). No mold plus no toxins equals no “Sick Building Syndrome.”
- Incredible Longevity: Compressive strength increases over time as the lime calcifies. This house isn’t coming down this century.
Financial Benefits:
- Material Efficiency: Uses +/-40% less lumber than traditional builds.
- Energy Savings: Drops utility bills from dollars to cents per square foot.
- Insurance Perks: Potential for lower premiums due to its fire-resistance.
- Reduced Waste: Mix only what you need—nothing ends up in the landfill.
- Reduced Build Time: Blocks are lightweight and increases speed of install, single trades rather than multiple to coordinate.
Environmental Impact:
- Rapidly Renewable: Industrial hemp grows in just 90 days, compared to the decades required for timber.
- Soil Health: Hemp is a potent tool for regenerative farming and soil remediation.
- Zero Waste: Hempcrete can be recycled (reground into fresh mixes) or composted as garden mulch.
- Carbon Negative: While a conventional home produces roughly 25 tonnes of carbon during construction, a Hempcrete house can permanently lock in about 14 tonnes.
- Tackles Big Picture Problems: Building and construction are responsible for 39% of global carbon emissions. This includes operational energy (28%) and “embodied carbon” from materials and processes (11%). Hempcrete tackles both.
