Builders are swapping cement for hemp
The hemp fields sprouting in a part of Canada best known for its giant oilpatch show how climate change is disrupting the construction industry.
Six years after setting up shop in the shadow of Calgary’s oilsands, Mac Radford, 64, says he can’t satisfy all the orders from builders for Earth-friendly materials that help them limit their carbon footprints. His company, JustBioFiber Structural Solutions, is on the vanguard of businesses using hemp — the boring cousin of marijuana devoid of psychoactive content — to mitigate the greenhouse gases behind global warming.
Around the world, builders are putting modern twists into ancient construction methods that employ the hearty hemp weed. Roman engineers used the plant’s sinewy fibres in the mortar they mixed to hold up bridges. More recently, former White House adviser Steve Bannon weighed in on using so-called hempcrete to build walls. Early results indicate it’s possible to tap demand for cleaner alternatives to cement.
“We have way more demand than we can supply,” Radford said from his plant in Airdrie, which is undergoing expansion and soon expects to churn out enough Lego-like hemp bricks each year to build 2,000 homes.
Greener alternatives to cement add to the pressure on companies including LafargeHolcim Ltd. and Votorantim Cimentos SA as the global economy pivots toward dramatically lower emissions.
Cement makers are responsible for about seven per cent of global carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere every year, with copious volumes entering via limestone kilns needed to produce the material. Manufacturers say they’ve struggled to find markets for greener alternatives, giving easy entree to entrepreneurs like Radford who cater to customers concerned about their impact on the Earth.
“They love it once they understand it,” said Radford of the builders who’ve adopted the modular, interlocking bricks he invented for their projects. “Our old practices we have to change.”
While architects and developers have traditionally concentrated on the energy used by their buildings once they’re are standing, it’s actually the materials required in their construction that represent the brunt of a structure’s lifetime carbon footprint.
Hemp fields absorb carbon when they’re growing. After harvest, the crop continues to absorb greenhouse gases as it’s mixed with lime or clay. Hempcrete structures also have better ventilation, fire resistance and temperature regulation, according to their proponents.