Hemcrete Block
It is no secret that 50% of all resources consumed across the planet are used in construction making it the least sustainable industry in the world. But this also means that it is the industry that can have the biggest impact when it comes to fighting climate change. What if there was a building material that was made entirely from a renewable source, can capture CO2, and can provide incredible thermal properties without the need to use separate insulation?
Well, our planet’s luck might be about to change because there is such a material available today! (and has been for years un europe)… Hemcrete is a cost-effective, green building material that can actually help combat climate change while providing an eco-friendly one-stop approach to green design.
Sprayed applied hemcrete
How?
It has amazing thermal properties and its exceptional thermal performance and air-tightness, means that when walls are constructed using Hemcrete, buildings do not require additional insulating layers – so buildings are not only air tight, but can run with minimal heating and avoid the need for air conditioning.
Also, because the primary component of Hemcrete is hemp – a renewable industrial crop that can be grown and harvested in many climates around the world – it captures and locks away CO2 within the fabric of the building. This means that whilst a typical brick house can be responsible for around 50 tonnes of CO2 emissions in its construction, the same house built using Hemcrete can be built for 30-40% less CO2 emissions but additionally it absorbs CO2 in its manufacture so it has a negative embodied CO2.
A typical wall section Hemcrete will have an eCO2 of 130kg CO2/m2 less than traditional brick and block. The material can be poured or used as blocks, but it is non-structural which means you need a frame, but if you use responsibly sourced timber as a structure, you end up with a truly remarkable earth-friendly building.
How Green is it?
To summarize the amazing Green properties »
- Hemcrete is made from renewable (locally grown) hemp based materials
- Hemcrete is highly insulating resulting in thin walls with a very low U value
- Unlike other insulators Hemcrete also has thermal inertia which is similar to thermal mass so houses built from Hemp change temperature very slowly reducing heating loads significantly below lighter weight buildings with the same U value
- Hemcrete is vapour permeable and when used with lime based renders and plasters creates a breathable walling system for healthy living.With such amazing advantages, a Hemp building material would probably be the most eco-friendly in the world
So what’s so good about Hemp?
Imagine a crop with these remarkable ecological advantages »
- the plant grows very quickly and can reach 3 meters in less than 3 months.
- no agrochemicals are used in the growing of the crop
- it grows so fast that no other plant can compete - including weeds (no herbicides are required)
- it sequestrates significant quantities of carbon dioxide (growth of 1 Tonne of hemp shiv uses up nearly two Tonnes of CO2 )
- 100% of the harvested plant is useful
- Enough said, Hemcrete is probably the greenest most eco-friendly building product on this planet.
Find out more at Lime Technology. or check out a typical detail below if you are tech inclined…
Download the Brochure (PDF)
Social Housing in Suffolk, England constructed using Hemcrete
Detail section through a typical Hemcrete wall
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