Transcript
Speaker: Hello everyone, you are watching the 10th episode of Green New Perspective, a podcast dedicated to sustainability. Today we are thrilled to be joined by Joni Peterson, a forward -thinking expert in the world of sustainable building materials.
Speaker: Joni is the Growth Operations Specialist at Hempitecture, a company that uses industrial hemp to create sustainable building products that are better for the environment and for people. So in this episode, Joni will share her insights on the challenges and opportunities of building a sustainable business, the role of hemp in a circular economy, and the potential of sustainable construction to transform our communities. Join us and let's begin.
Speaker: Hi, Joni. Welcome to the Green New Perspective podcast. Thank you for taking your time to be here and talking with me and with our audience, I hope. Great to be here. Thank you so much for having me. I am with Hempitecture. We are a public benefit corporation. We're on a mission to use plant -based resources to replace toxic carbon -intensive and synthetic materials used in industries such as construction.
Speaker: And by designing, manufacturing, and distributing bio -based thermal insulation like products like hemp wool insulation, we're kind of paving the way in materials having people and planet top of mind, including the many benefits such as reduced embodied carbon, improved health and homes, and increased sustainability across multiple industries. Can you start by telling us about the current state of the building industry and what you believe to be its main problems?
Speaker: We've seen a lot in the last few years, right? Especially here in the States, we've seen a booming real estate market, a stagnant real estate market, a lot of building going on, a lot of pausing on building because of supply chain demands and just different things that have happened over the last few years.
Speaker: But something that's really important to us here at Hempitecture and some of the main problems that we're seeing is that in this climate decade that we're kind of facing right now, you know, there's a lot of push to make all of these new buildings net zero by 2030.
Speaker: and the whole life cycle net zero by 2050. So that means reducing the impact of the built environment on global emissions, but that also means that we need to account for the embodied carbon of the materials and construction processes associated with buildings. So for people who aren't familiar with that, when we talk net zero, energy net zero means like all of the energy in the home
Speaker: Is it using fossil fuels or other extractive resources to use and create energy for power, electricity, what have you? Whereas embodied carbon means that you're looking at the entire life cycle of not just the building, but the materials that go in it. So where are those materials sourced from? How far do they have to travel? What is the manufacturing process? And then what is the end of life use? So, you know,
Speaker: progress in the built environment kind of is falling behind, if I'm going to be honest, in sector -related energy demand and emissions. So, especially as we continue to grow in demand for heating, ventilation, air conditioning, HVAC systems, appliances, construction sizes,
Speaker: Meaning that a lot of these products still rely really heavily on those fossil fuels. So it can't really hit those net zero adopting ambitious energy efficiency measures without the first step in a company's or the customer's journey in decarbonizing those spaces.
Speaker: energy optimization reducing cost and emissions while increasing productivity of the environment quality in the workplace. So globally energy efficiency can improve or achieve more than 40 % of energy -related emission cuts needed to reach climate goals by 2040.
Speaker: So you guys are making insulation. So how does the traditional insulation impacts the environment and human health? Insulation can play a really impactful role both on the environment for people and the building itself. And also just these goals that we're trying to reach for energy efficiency improvements, right? So insulation is a good thing for building, you know, and insulation can be made from natural or synthetic fibers.
Speaker: It can come in so many different forms, but some types of insulation can contain chemical flame retardants, formaldehyde, other volatile organic compounds or VOCs, all of which can pose health risks for both the people that are installing the material, but also the people that can reside in those buildings depending on
Speaker: how that material was installed, if it was chemically formulated correctly, if it was placed incorrectly in the building, and just the lifespan of those materials can also deteriorate, so you don't want those volatile compounds going into the air.
Speaker: So, you know, it's kind of this double edged sword right well insulated home leads to less use of our heat and cooling devices which again leads to less CO2 emissions in a much cleaner and better preserved environment.
Speaker: It is important to note that some of these products may not be eco -friendly and are highly efficient when it comes to their thermal performance. So the negative environmental impact can be compensated with that high energy efficiency. But yeah, it really depends on the importance of health and the embodied carbon of those materials where they're coming from.
Speaker: So can you explain the process of producing insulation from hemp and how is it different from these traditional methods that we just talked about?
Speaker: Yeah, so hemp's a really industrial hemp in particular. It's a really incredible plant. It was historically the cash crop in America. I think there was a point in time that you actually had to farm industrial hemp, which is pretty fascinating. The Healthy Materials Lab from Parsons New School has a really great podcast series on industrial hemp, and its many uses for building.
Speaker: But for us to produce it, so we work with a decortication partner. And they work directly with the farmers. And we've gone to the farms to see these materials grown. And so the process is that these farmers, it takes about mighty days to actually grow the industrial hemp fibers. So you see these quick turnovers. It's a really great regenerative crop. And so
Speaker: The material grows and it goes to a decortication process. Have fiber being really strong and durable. It goes and it lays out in the field after it's grown for a little bit. It goes through something called retting after that kind of dries and retts and softens a little bit. Then it goes to the decortication facility where they break apart the industrial hemp into the fibers that we use for our nonwoven technology. It can be into herd, which is used for hempcrete, which is another building material with
Speaker: Hemp, it can go into fibers for clothing, animal bedding, all of these great multi -purpose uses for the plant. Then we transport that from those local agricultural areas within 600 miles of our new manufacturing facility. We just opened up a few weeks ago, which is very exciting. Congrats on that. Thank you so much. It looks really great. Yeah. Onward and upward.
Speaker: And from there, we use a something called airlay non -woven technology. And so those fibers get mixed with like a polyester binder. It's at 90 % hemp. And it goes through this low grade, kind of think like an easy bake oven type of machine. And they spin all these fibers together, and then it lays down flat into bat form, and then we're able to cut it from there.
Speaker: Yeah, so that's how we produce - That's it. ... insulation from hemp. And that's a little different from other materials, especially conventional ones, because a lot of conventional insulations can be pretty extractive. Spray foam is a bunch of different chemicals. Fiber glasses uses recycled materials, yes, but is sprayed with a lot of different toxic materials and another labor -intensive
Speaker: process. Mineral wool is also, you know, it's made from bio -based materials, it's made from rock, but essentially you have to power an oven to the heat of a volcano to create those materials, which is pretty fascinating because then that's a very high carbon impact there on those materials.
Speaker: Well, everyone is talking about carbon capturing, carbon reducing. So how do you think capturing carbon dioxide relates to hemp detectors products?
Speaker: Yeah, so kind of going back to that embodied carbon thought process of our materials is what is the, another word that they use for it is cradle to cradle, right? So where is this material coming from and where does it go back to? You know, it doesn't necessarily require a lot of water, which is pretty fascinating. So when we went out to Montana to our raw materials supplier out there,
Speaker: We went to some of the farms and this is a very dry space. You're seeing this material being grown super tall. It doesn't require a lot of water. It's estimated that our industrial hemp fibers, not soak up, but essentially they sequester carbon and it's estimated between a little over nine tons of CO2 per acre grown.
Speaker: So that's a lot of carbon being absorbed by this plant that gets stored inside those fibers and then stored inside your wall. So you're using essentially this carbon negative material because all the carbon lives inside of that fiber. And then
Speaker: Yeah, that impact in and of itself, right? That's great. Yeah, that's great. Your home's performance of energy efficiency with high performing materials. But another bonus on top of that is carbon negative, carbon neutral material. And we're also using about 75 % renewable energy resources at our manufacturing plant. So solar, hydro, wind, we're part of Idaho's green power plant.
Speaker: you know, we're doing our best to make sure that we stay true to that mission and that's a better planet for people, or yeah, a better world for people on planet. When I was telling my friends and colleagues, like I was doing an interview with you, they were like, but how they're making hemp isolation, does that smell? I was like, no industrial, industrial hemp has no smell.
Speaker: It smells like probably closer to hay, if anything. Some people say it like reminds them of like a farm almost. And that smell doesn't linger in the house, it eventually dissipates. But it is pretty amazing to see, you know, Maddie Mead, our founder and CEO started this company in 2012 as a dorm room idea. And he was really looking for natural building methods and kind of looked to Europe because Europe
Speaker: didn't have, you know, that, that government aspect, right, like losing all the search, losing all that material, and was really inspired by all the bio -based building methods that are out there.
Speaker: And uh started reintroducing that into the states and people at first were like, oh my god, you're high Like you must be smoking this stuff. You got to be crazy building with that. No way and um 2018 happens here in the states and they legalize uh hemp grow hemp grown materials in the states and a lot of farmers turn to cbd and um, you know that in
Speaker: that is a little different than industrial hemp. So industrial hemp has little to no cannabinoids and cannabinoids are the materials that we see in CBDs or THCs or all the other recreational hemp that we associate that word with and they're essentially the same plant just kind of will
Speaker: Actually, they're more like cousin plants, so they grow a little differently. And industrial hemp doesn't have those, those cannabinoids. Very strong, durable fiber has a lot of different multipurpose and use. So food, clothing, insulation, animal bedding, oils, animal feed. There's people using really, really tiny granular pieces for bio plastics.
Speaker: And so it's not just insulation that's really regenerating farmland, it's all of the potential that this material, this plant has used for. And so I think in the States in particular, we're still kind of in the phase of finding the right seed genetics, but also finding all the great and building out all the great manufacturing to develop these products. And how do you ensure the sustainability and quality of the products?
Speaker: Yeah, another great question. So, we pride ourselves a lot on ensuring high quality materials. We, here at Hamptexure, we particularly work with key research partnerships. One
Speaker: being the University of Idaho's College of Natural Resources. We're working with them to find a, well we have actually found it, and we'll be adding it to our manufacturing line, is a VOC free and natural fire retardant agent. And so that'll be on our our product line here shortly. We're working on all the testing and everything with third -party labs. And then another partnership that we also have is with the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Lab.
Speaker: which is really cool because they have some of the most incredible machinery there to test the performance of our materials while also being able to test the carbon impact of what our insulation is for building and product development. And then so these key partnerships along with all of these our advisors and different people in the community, our raw material supplier, we are
Speaker: working very diligently and closely to ensure that our products are not only just like the best option for people, but also ensuring that we do the work to validate that.
Speaker: And are you working with architects, builders, contractors to promote the use of and raise awareness of the benefits of hemp? Yeah, definitely. So, you know, hempitectures, main people are the builders and the designers and the architects. We work a lot with the home buyers and homeowners as well. People that find us generally are choosing materials that are more sustainable and healthy.
Speaker: But the building industry, it can be a little slower to introduce new materials. There's a lot of resistance to change, especially when people aren't sure about how material performs. And that's fair because you want to work with what you trust. And so we're working
Speaker: hard to build that trust but also educate people on the importance of environmental impact on their materials and in their homes and energy efficiency and all of that great stuff. You know what we see a lot is people just don't always have enough time whether that's time to research, time supply chain wise if they're waiting for materials to arrive,
Speaker: you know, costs and all of these other factors that kind of lead to a lot of these industry professionals reusing the same specs and that includes just keeping with the materials that they know. So we're trying to, you know, get in touch with these people sooner, introduce our materials, show the work that we're doing, our research,
Speaker: And not just show them hemp wool for insulation, but also just introduce them to other products and other building science methods that they can do to make that home or building the most comfortable, high -performing space it can be. And how do you feel about the future of hemp insulation?
Speaker: Is it going to reach more customers? I mean, you can make a comparison because you started in 2012. So your operation will for 10 years now. So yeah. Yeah, you know, it's it's hamper texture has pivoted many times in the last 10 years. We originally started with hempcrete. Many people that are enthusiasts about hemp were very curious about natural building methods have probably heard about hempcrete.
Speaker: And that is a very time and labor intensive material to work with. It is very exquisite and it actually absorbs carbon. It absorbs, I'm not even going to give the number because I can't think of it properly right now, but it does actually absorb carbon during its drying process in the wall.
Speaker: Although it has the Crete name attached to it, it is a non -structural, non -load -bearing material, so I just wanted to turn that out there for people that are interested. Like, oh, can I use it for roads? We can't use it for roads. But it does replace your entire wall system, right? So you've got your structure built, you've got this hemp crate that does your insulation, it does your drywall, all that great stuff. But so, Maddie, you spent.
Speaker: God, almost 10 years traveling around the in our variant parts of our team traveling around the US building these really beautiful hempcrete buildings. But it really wasn't a sustainable vision for the company because you can't do these custom product or you could do these custom projects. But not everybody has the time or the money for that.
Speaker: And so that's where hemp wool came into play as it became this more scalable option for us of something that's accessible for people, something that we can develop a localized supply chain as well as
Speaker: you know, it is so easy for people to work with. Anybody can work with this material. It's amazing and it's safe enough for people to touch and handle and so you don't need these specialized teams, you don't need special equipment for it. You know, we're getting some great photos back of like a dad cutting the materials and his children are pressing it into the wall.
Speaker: And so it's totally safe. It's totally safe. And so we're definitely working to grow. Again, that building industry is slow and stubborn and in all the most understandable ways. And so we're just trying to do the research, make sure we have all of our coding and testing in place. And then from there, we'll
Speaker: just keep backing away at the industry, you know? And this material does go beyond just construction, which is pretty amazing. You know, we have a lot of people that are van lifers, DIYers. Renovations is going to be something that we see as huge. A lot of the buildings that exist today will still be here in 2050.
Speaker: And so in trying to achieve those climate goals, we're going to have to renovate and improve our energy efficiency as a home. And yeah, so we've opened up our manufacturing line in Idaho. We're able to produce, I think, something around 20 million square feet a year out of that one manufacturing facility. We have our key raw material suppliers in place.
Speaker: And we recently won a
Speaker: uh, half a million through Grow New York, which is an ag tech competition. So we'll be expanding it to the Northeast, um, as well as working closely with NYSERDA. And so we're, we're here. We're really excited to bring these materials to market and make them more accessible and affordable and regionally distributed because I know that can be a big hurdle for people is, um, you know, cost of cost of shipping and everything.
Speaker: Yeah, I hope you'll get there. So my final question for you is, what are your hopes for the future of sustainability in general, not just within hemp detector space? Yeah, you know, I think for me personally, I would just love to see healthier choices made by all. And with that comes that
Speaker: We see these carbon negative, carbon neutral materials being kind of the choice product, if you will. If we're speaking in terms of products, then when people go to a home building store, if they go to the grocery store, it just makes sense to see these materials that are using a lot of plastics or fossil fuels
Speaker: anything of the sort. So I really, I really look forward to seeing the world kind of take these steps into something more circular, reusable, you know, to embrace innovations more quickly. Absolutely. You know, and to have the government stand by that too, to help support, support not only that vision, but also just strides in making that a possibility for us all.
Speaker: Yeah. Thank you, Joni. This has been wonderful. I've enjoyed this conversation a lot, so thank you again for being a part of Green New Perspective podcast. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. If you guys have any questions, you can find us at hempitecture.
Speaker: dot com or by hempwool .com. And yeah, thank you again so much for having us. Thank you to everybody listening in and being really curious about sustainability and healthy materials. We look forward to building a better future for all with with everybody here. Yeah, thanks. Thanks again, Joni. See ya.
Speaker: Thank you once again for tuning in to Green New Perspective, a podcast where we explore the latest trends and developments in the clean tech and nature tech space. We hope you found today's conversation with Joni from Hempitecture informative and hopefully thought -provoking. If you want to stay up to date with our latest episodes and get access to our back catalogue, make sure to subscribe to our podcast on your favorite platform.
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