Hemp house

Bath University researchers believe that hemp, a plant from the cannabis family, could be used to build carbon-neutral homes of the future to help combat climate change.

A consortium led by the BRE Centre for Innovative Construction Materials based at the university has embarked on a unique housing project to develop the use of hemp-lime construction materials in the UK.

Hemp-lime is a lightweight composite building material made of fibres from the fast-growing plant, bound together using a lime-based adhesive. The hemp plant stores carbon during its growth and this, combined with the low carbon footprint of lime and its very efficient insulating properties, gives the material a ‘better-than-zero-carbon’ footprint.

Prof Pete Walker, director of the BRE Centre for Innovative Construction Materials, said: ’We will be looking at the feasibility of using hemp-lime in place of traditional materials, so that they can be used widely in the building industry.