Idaho's Hempitecture Founders Return to Hempcrete Roots

Hempitecture founders (L-R) Mattie Mead and Tommy Gibbons announced that they will be selling a new hempcrete binder and hemp hurd for hempcrete, along with HempWool insulation batts. Photo courtesy of Hempitecture

By Jean Lotus

After successfully opening a non-woven factory to manufacture hemp-based batt insulation, the founders of Idaho-based Hempitecture, Inc. are adding hemp-lime back into their sustainable building materials repertoire.

This month, Hempitecture rolled out an Idaho-sourced binder that is bagged and sold online alongside hemp hurds sourced from Montana-based IND Hemp, Tommy Gibbons, co-founder and CIO told HempBuild Mag.

“You can shop for hempcrete and have your binder and hurd on the same truck, arriving at the same job site, which has been a lot of the problem in the hempcrete industry, getting herd from one place, and getting binder from another place,” Gibbons said.

Hempitecture was an early US promoter of hemp-lime, working on some high profile US projects in 2018 and 2019. The company hosted several hemp summits and trained more than 60 contractors to install hemp-lime.

But Gibbons and co-founder Mattie Mead made a pivot when they saw an opportunity to move ahead with hemp fiber batt insulation, which they initially imported from Canada.

Thanks to support from the US Department of Energy, local economic grants and a successful crowdfunding campaign, the company opened their non woven facility in Magic Valley, ID early this year.

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Now the company is returning to its hempcrete roots, with an affiliate program for the dozens of Hempitecture-trained contractors [full disclosure, HempBuildMag is also an affiliate].

“We transferred that knowledge and open-sourced it and made sure people were getting the proper training,” to build the workforce, Gibbons added. But the company has moved away from contractor training and into supplying the growing industry, Gibbons said.

The locally sourced binder and hemp products are fulfilling the company’s mission of distributing US bio-based products sourced locally, said Jonnie Pedersen, director of communications and growth.

“Our goal is making these types of natural bio-based materials available for folks and making them easier to access.,” Pedersen said. “Our goal is to make these [hemp] products mainstream.”

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