Ecological

Carbon Footprint

“Governments are trying to reduce the carbon used in heating and running our buildings, but even the best performing houses are estimated to take upwards of 45 years to pay off the initial carbon used to create them”

Through my own research and that of some published academics (ask me for links and papers), I don’t think that we can afford to build or renovate without considering the carbon footprint of the building materials themselves. Despite the government’s best efforts to reduce our carbon footprint, research suggests that in the short term we are actually accelerating climate change in the hope of having buildings that are more performant. 

“If a home built today will only reach CarbonZero by 2070, should we be building it?”

Hempcrete is just one of many natural building materials that is Carbon Negative, meaning that more carbon is locked up in the material itself than is emitted in its production. 

“Thinking of carbon offsetting? Building with hempcrete may be a better way to do this than planting trees!”

Bio Based - Hempcrete

The use of hempcrete for the walls creates a solid thermal envelope that insulates the building and allows it to breathe. Hempcrete is humidity buffering, fire resistant, sound absorbent and deters pests. Hempcrete is also a carbon negative material! I try to use materials that limit our ecological footprint, from clay and lime plasters, recycled wood products, foamed glass and of course hempcrete.

See materials page for more detailed information on our materials and construction techniques.

Thermal comfort

Insulation is an important part of maintaining our internal comfort, good insulation helps to hold heat inside during winter. However insulation alone won’t prevent your room from overheating in summer. Using materials with thermal mass soaks up the heat helping to prevent overheating. In conventional insulation we only heat up the air around us meaning that hot air can escape very quickly in winter. Having walls and ceilings with thermal mass allows some of this heat to be stored in the fabric of the building. Much like underfloor heating the heat stored in thermal mass keeps your body more comfortable. For these reasons we design our buildings with insulation, thermal mass and breathability in mind; reducing energy input and keeping you comfortable.

Breathable

Healthy buildings are designed to breathe. The average household produces 11.5 litres of internal moisture a day. The external shell of a building provides protection from the weather but also needs to allow this internal moisture to escape. Using natural breathable materials prohibits damp and moulds creating a healthy internal environment.