The Pursuit of Negative Carbon Footprint Building - Hemp
Thesis: Will the use of hemp in various applications alongside other sustainable products be able to produce a negative carbon footprint residential home in Nelson, British Columbia?
It is not secret that we as humans are depleting the earth of it’s fragile resources. The purpose of this research is to continue the pursuit of negative carbon footprint building, thus helping maintain and hopefully renewing those valuable resources.
Hemp has been provided here on earth for us to use, not abuse. Now with that said, hemp and marijuana, as many see as two-in-one, are not. Although in the same family, hemp is unsuitable as a drug. The psychoactive ingredient, Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels in hemp are restricted to less than 0.2% (by weight) where as marijuana contains 3-22%. Clearly it is best suited for more productive uses. This is why hemp is legal and marijuana is not.
The construction industry worldwide is in need of a truly sustainable building material. Hemp is the “win-win-win solution for the overall community, the economy, and the environment.” - Ronchetti, P. (2007). Through the many benefits of hemp, the way we build will be impacted significantly. Not in a negative way though, but a positive way which will simplify the building entire process. Now, contrary to the previous statement, there is one negative - a negative footprint! Yes, hemp helps restore the earth. Hemp is “better than zero carbon” - Hirst, E., Walker, P., Paine, K., & Yates, T. (2010). One of the biggest problems with the way we build today is leaky buildings. Not so much with moisture, but with air. A drafty home is not a comfortable home nor is it efficient. Is hemp the solution? Lhoist (2008) stated - “It is much easier to achieve an airtight construction using ‘wet’ materials, such as hemp-binder, which is monolithic and easier to detail around breaks, such as windows and doors, minimizing drafts.” Other benefits hemp include, excellent thermal resistance, thermal mass and mould, fire, and rodent resistance. Those are just a few construction related benefits.
For this research, various applications of hemp will be used in the design of a fully passive solar house with possible off-grid capabilities located in Nelson, British Columbia. Through the findings, the hemp products in particular, will be reviewed in priority from highest to lowest overall impact. Other mechanical systems will also be noted, but not reviewed in the same amount of detail as the hemp. The goal of this research is to shed light on the benefits and uses of hemp products amongst builders within British Columbia, thus encouraging an alternative building method. By pursuing this research, I believe this goal can be accomplished.
This is an ambitious project. I would suggest restricting the research report (not the design) to only looking at the pros and cons of using hemp for construction. If you are wanting to look at the carbon footprint of the building, you could compare this to the carbon footprint of a typical wood frame building.
ReplyDeleteThe Athena Institute has calculators for embodied energy of materials: http://www.athenasmi.org/about/index.html
Embodied energy can fairly easily be converted into carbon.