Hemp is single-handedly one of the most versatile crops known to man. Not only can it be used to clothe and feed people it can also be used to create buildings and homes. Hempcrete is an environmentally friendly construction solution that surpasses traditional concrete building methods used today.
Hempcrete is a very simple mixture of hemp hurds[1], water, and lime (powdered limestone). This mixture when formed into the walls of a building petrify over time as chemical reactions turn the lime back to stone.
Traditional building methods use materials that are either mined from the earth or harvested from centuries old forests. These material gathering processes are extremely detrimental to the environment as mass amounts of CO2 are released during mining/excavating. Hemp, on the other hand, can be harvested annually in perpetuity with little to no harm to the environment.
Hemp not only grows much faster than trees but absorbs 4x as much CO2 as it grows. Not to mention, hemp is non-toxic, mold resistant, has high vapor permeability, durable, sustainable, a natural carbon sequester, fire and pest resistant, self-regulation of temperature and humidity, and an excellent insulator.
[1] Center of the stalk of the hemp plant
Sources:
1. http://www.thedailychronic.net/2015/45191/hempcrete-revolutionary-new-building-material-made-hemp/
2. http://www.hemp-technologies.com/page34/page34.html
3. http://thechillbud.com/hempcrete-the-revolutionary-green-building-material-made-from-cannabis/
4. http://nationalhempassociation.org/some-interesting-faces-about-hempcrete-as-a-building-material/