Cannabis Houses Have Lower Carbon Footprint
Houses built out of hemp instead of traditional building materials leave a ‘better than zero carbon’ footprint, according to new research out of the UK.
Aside from helping to combat global warming, building homes from the cannabis plant could also give a boost to struggling rural economies. That’s good news almost everywhere except for within the U.S., where industrialized hemp is still illegal to grow under federal law.
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The process for constructing the carbon neutral building material is a unique one which uses lime-based adhesive to bind together hemp fibers. Homes built from the hemp-lime material can reach carbon neutrality in large part due to the remarkable efficiency by which the fast growing hemp plant can store carbon as it grows. The lime adhesive is also important due to its powerful insulating properties.
A consortium has been established out of the University of Bath, where the research was initiated, to collect the necessary engineering data so that British homes can start being built from the new material as soon as possible. A spokesperson for the project stated: “We will be measuring the properties of lime-hemp materials, such as their strength and durability, as well as the energy efficiency of buildings made of these materials.”
This news should also add fuel to the fire of a heated legalization debate in the United States, which remains the only industrialized country in the world that still outlaws the production of hemp. Unlike elsewhere, U.S. law fails to make a distinction between hemp and marijuana, and so growing industrialized hemp can bring the same penalties as growing marijuana.
Technically speaking, hemp is the common name for plants of the entire Cannabis genus, although the term is more typically used to refer only to strains of industrialized varieties which are not cultivated for drug use. Because industrialized hemp grows so quickly, requires almost no pesticides or herbicides, controls topsoil erosion and is a significant carbon sink, many environmentalists have been touting the plant as an eco-friendly miracle crop for decades. Furthermore, hemp can serve as a green-minded replacement for many other raw materials which aren’t good for the environment, such as tree paper, plastics and certain clothing fibers. Hemp seeds are also edible, and hemp seed oils offer healthy alternatives to other cooking oils.
Now house-building materials can also be added to the long list of cannabis’ benefits.
Although several U.S. states have defied the federal government and legalized growing hemp, it still isn’t being grown anywhere due to resistence from the Drug Enforcement Agency. If you’re interested in helping to legalize the plant in the U.S., a nonprofit advocacy organization called Vote Hemp is currently calling upon voters to sign a petition for HR 1866, or the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009. They could use your signature.
Image Credit: Public domain via Wiki Commons
So all this author is, is a big Green Tease!!!
So… what does this building material look like??
So…. how much does it cost? Can it be made low tech or does it require extreme pressure or what?
Is this “lime adhesive”, hydrated lime? Is it cement?
What are its insulating properties? Does it allow vapor to pass in and out of it like adobe and compressed earth block?
At least PROVIDE A LINK or something. Don’t leave us all hanging!!
Bob: A link is provided in the article, though it’s understandable if you may have missed it. The source is ScienceDaily, to be found more explicitly here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090408074401.htm
Many of your questions can’t be answered in full detail just yet. As stated in the article, a consortium has just been established to determine the complete specs of the building material. It will be a three year project funded by 750,000 pounds. Many of the details you’re interested in should be known by the time the project is completed.
Lime has insulating properties? No though a block in which it is used may. Sounds like hydrated lime to me - limestone wouldn’t do it. Bit of CO2 coming into play there.
A composite board (particle board) may be possibly manufactured out of something like this. With mass production comes the need for insecticides though probably.
It will not be grown on marginal land I suppose - it will require mechanical harvesting to make it economic and transport over any distance to the works would be prohibitive.
Right now this is in the egg headed university study stage it seems though sometimes these do turn out to be something useful.
I can see the pot heads lining up to support this already - that may well be it’s death.
Canada has legalized the growing of Hemp! Expect new and dramatically better building products and raw hemp fibers for industery, as well as food products and bio diesel from hewmp oil to flood your markets from the north - Hemp grows more fiber per annum per acre then spruce or pine trees, and needs no pesticides or fertilizers to do it! It will grow on the scrubby bush lands well, and is easy to harvest and process into salable pulp fiber for a superior more recyclable paper too! SEE:Last word on Hemp in Canada, Canadian government site for the truth!
http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/highlights/2008/0803hemp_e.html
All is true about hemp but presently we do not get hemp yarn and fabric so easily we have found some good source of hemp fabric in india and wish to promote this fabric world over you can contact us for the same to promote production of HEMP and making world green.
laxman
Bob and Russ - stop embarrassing yourselves.
All your questions aren’t answered right now by a single article, you don’t understand how “cannabis houses” could possibly work, and you’re too lazy to look up for yourself the positives of growing hemp.
Put down the bong fellas and do some research for yourselves. Yes, research is actually real work and it takes time. I’m certain that if you DO put some time and effort into researching this topic, it won’t take long to see the benefits of growing hemp.
Take a look at a video produced in 1942 by the US Department of Agriculture called, “Hemp for Victory” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne9UF-pFhJY.
I’m giving you a jump start on *your* research. There’s lots of info in here which YOU can look up and see for yourselves whether or not the info has merit.
You’re welcome.
This is good news. And if we really want to become energy independent, we’d be insane not to start implementing this.
“Cannabis Houses Have Lower Carbon Footprint”
Well unless you smoke it.
ahaha imagine if it burns. All the neighbourhood is high
That we will use industrialized farm techniques to grow and harvest this plant is true. That increases the carbon footprint of hemp right there, once it hits the market and becomes popular.
Whenever we want a lot of one thing, all of the things that are less efficient than that one thing go by the wayside. (think how many varieties of apple were once grown in the US 100 years ago, compared to now…because the consumer wants certain varieties, and the farmers want to sell what they grow, so they grow what will be bought in the grocery) … same thing will happen with hemp. One strain will prove to me more efficient than the others, and more desirable, therefore the other sub varieties will dwindle.
Mass marketing/mass consuming is the underlying disease; large carbon footprints are just the symptom.