Natural Environment Blog

When you decide to decorate your home, make sure that you don’t slip up and buy any products that are not planet-friendly. It’s easy to avoid this - all you need to do is spend a bit more time researching the products before you buy.

If you’re going to paint any of your rooms, there are many paint suppliers who sell a great range of eco-friendly paints. There are organic paints which are non-toxic and these aren’t just limited to emulsions. You can also find gloss finish paints and wood varnishes that are a lot more environmentally-friendly than you could a few years ago.

However, there are lots of paints that still have toxins like VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) in them, so make sure you take time to read the labels before making your choice.

You can also research flooring materials to make sure that the glues and varnishes used aren’t toxic to the environment in any way. Using natural fibres like seagrass and bamboo can seem like a more environmentally sound option, but it’s still worth checking that they come from sustainable sources.

When looking at pieces of furniture like sofas, check their environmental credits by asking the retailer - for example, Harveys - about their supply chain. Can they show that the fabrics used on the sofa bed you are thinking about buying have been produced in an environmentally responsible fashion? For example, were any pesticides used in the growing of the cotton, or were any toxic dyes used to produce the fabric colours? Go down to any Harveys’ sofa bed sale and see if you can find a sofa bed that suits you. Once you’ve done that, it’s time to delve a little deeper and investigate how the furniture has been produced and where the materials it is made from have been grown or sourced.

This article was contributed by Celia Roche on behalf of http://www.harveysfurniture.co.uk/.

I recently raved about the environmental benefits of hemp. I also compiled a list of various ways hemp is being used around the world. There’s no doubt to the versatility of this fiber.

One industry that is reaping the benefits of hemp is the building industry. Sustainable housing is becoming more and more important and hemp can certainly step up to the mark.

There are many applications of hemp in the building industry. It can be used for insulation, fiberboard, stucco and mortar and more. The use of hemp in the building industry has even sparked a new word - hempcrete.

What is Hempcrete?

Put simply, hempcrete is an eco-friendly alternative to concrete. It consists of a mixture of hemp, lime, sand, plaster, and cement, and can be used in the same way as concrete. Hempcrete is typically mixed on site, then sprayed on to the building frame. Hempcrete can also be used for making pipes.

Hempcrete is self insulating. It’s resistant to rotting, mice, rodents, etc. It is also fireproof, waterproof, and weather resistant.

Hempcrete actually has some pretty cool benefits over concrete too.

Benefits of Hempcrete

Hempcrete has a number of environmental benefits over concrete. It also has a number of general benefits too.

General Benefits

Here are some of the general benefits of hempcrete over concrete:

• Stronger: Hempcrete is said to be 7 times stronger than concrete
• Lighter: Hempcrete is about half the weight of concrete
• Less cracking: Hempcrete is more elastic than concrete, which means it is less prone to cracking

Environmental Benefits

Using hempcrete instead of concrete can drastically reduce carbon emissions produced by our buildings.

In the UK for example, the construction and ongoing use of buildings accounts for over 50% of of carbon dioxide emissions. Studies have shown that, for each square meter of house walling, up to 200 kilograms of carbon dioxide is emitted from its construction. This works out to be around 40 tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted for a typical house.

Hempcrete, on the other hand, can actually remove carbon dioxide from the air, and trap it within the wall construction. The producers of Tradical Hemcrete claim that it has been found to lock up around 110 kilograms of carbon dioxide per m³.

So, which is it? “Hemcrete” or “hempcrete”?

Both! Hempcrete (with a “p”) is the generic name for the product. Hemcrete (without the “p”), is a proprietary version of hempcrete. Its full name is Tradical^® Hemcrete^®, and it’s a registered trademark of Lime Technology in the UK.