You can’t beat that. Catching up on my reading, I came across this terrific article, Construction plant, from the FT from a couple of weeks ago. Hemp is the building material that can work wonders. (This reminds me of biochar, one of the most exciting developments in agriculture and horticulture to come along in a while.) The largest hemp building in the world, a 4,400 square meter warehouse – with a living roof – holds “…the equivalent of 100-150 tonnes of carbon dioxide locked up within its walls while a conventional brick building of the same size would have been responsible for about 300 to 600 tonnes of CO2 emissions.”
Hemp is strong, really easy to grow – with minimal chemical inputs, grows quickly and doesn’t use much space in its cultivation. Pete Walker, head of the BRE Centre for Innovative Construction Materials says “All the 180,000 new-build homes the UK government ambitiously estimates are needed each year could be built with hemp grown on just 1 per cent of Britain’s agricultural land.”
One more example of innovative – and simple. Hemp, as the British are developing it, is another resounding vote for KISS.