Bamboo & Hemp As Local Building Materials For Maui
Bamboo is a climate change hero and building with our own local bamboo should not be overlooked.
Once bamboo is 5 years old it is harvested every year thereafter and outproduces pine 10:1/A/yr while providing many environmental services. Additionally, at Whispering Winds Bamboo on Maui, bamboo was established without herbicides.
The low-hanging fruit of utilizing the bamboo resource is that it is available in the borate-treated bamboo from Whispering Winds Bamboo. There are many ways to maximize the use of this well-established local resource, particularly when it is paired with hempcrete.
A village of Bamboo and Hempcrete houses could be built with a community effort.
Whispering Winds Bamboo is building strong, beautiful bamboo structures.
750 Acres of Industrial Hemp Can Create a Circular Economy
750 Acres of Industrial Hemp can potentially produce:
• 750 Houses
• Lucrative Carbon Credits to be sold to Hawaiian Airlines to offset tourist miles
• Leaves and seeds for 220,000 – broiler chickens weighing 6 lbs. (4.5# of meat)
• Black Soldier Fly Larvae will consume the chicken manure and create – 3,300,000 lbs. of larvae for enough additional chicken feed to feed 275,000 more broilers
• Processing scraps will create feed for 412,500 lbs. of live fish that when processed will provide food for an additional 13,850 broilers
• 720 cubic yards of premium compost to be used for making enough bacterial inoculant sprays to bring back the fertility to all of the agricultural ventures on the island
The possibilities with this new technology are exciting!
The University of Hawaii Manoa grew 19 tons/A/yr straw with an additional 14 tons/A/yr animal feed A hemp industry could not only create building Materials but support a poultry industry as well. With 3 crops per year and an ideal climate, Maui County will be the highest-producing eco-system in the world
Hemp is a common crop used in phytoremediation of soil toxins. It uptakes and removes residual heavy metals and helps metabolize agricultural chemicals in situ Hemp could be invaluable in restoring ecological stability to the Lahaina area
Industrial Hemp is the Primary Ingredient of Hempcrete
When processed a hemp crop provides 40% hurd, 40% fiber , 10% Hurd Micro-fiber, and 10% Green Micro-fiber with Canadian equipment and 55% hurd, 25% fiber, and 20% dust with The European style of equipment. 750 acres of Industrial Hemp will supply the hurd and fiber for the hempcrete and insulation for approximately 750 houses per year.
• Because hemp is good at removing toxins from the soil it could be used as a rotational crop to rejuvenate local land for other row crops like corn.
• Maui needs corn for poultry feed.
• Hemp is currently grossing about as much as corn per acre for the farmer.
• Hemp carbon credits are the highest of any crop adding significantly to the farmer’s bottom line.
• No specialty equipment is needed to grow and harvest the crop.
Home Building Materials
These huge bales of fiber are sent to a factory to be made into house insulation or car door panels.
Hemp insulation is a soft and cuddly product that is safe for children.
Pre-fab Hempcrete Panels Offer a Fast Plug & Play Solution
Thanks to the prefab panels, a house can be built in such a way that it is windproof and watertight within one week. The innovative design ensures thermal bridges are avoided. The panels can be pre-wired and come with windows and doors framed in. Lime hemp panels can also be easily utilized in a traditional construction method. For example, they can be used for the insulation of the roof, inner walls and floors.
What’s Next?
We need help with getting a permit exemption for building tiny home prototypes that could help provide community-built shelter for the homeless and appropriate farm worker dwellings.
The current Maui Building Code needs to be expanded to allow for experimental building with locally grown and treated structural bamboo and hempcrete.
This is an old industry that is changing fast. New German inventions of converting valuable hemp blast fiber into useable raw materials for all manner of industries. FSH will continue our research into using certified structural bamboo from BamCore and Bamboo Technologies as the ideal structural component with hempcrete.
Locally-grown hemp can be made into a variety of products that we currently, bring in on ships.
Building Materials • Lumber • Paper • Animal bedding • Apparel • Textiles
There are many innovative products being made with hemp.