Hempcrete housing as a sustainable restoration solution at Novo Mesto, Slovenia: Building towards carbon neutrality performances

Abstract Hempcrete is especially attractive to the self-builders and the community groups, because of the relatively low-tech nature of the construction method. It’s now a greater need for the scientific research towards this bio-composite material on its thermal, hygric and carbon sequestration performances. This commercial case study reports the restoration of 80 years old traditional timber structure by hempcrete technology in two phases: 1. Characterization of raw materials adopted for restoration, secondly life cycle analysis performed on the hempcrete and its costing compared with conventional construction. The Slovenian National Building & Civil Engineering Institute (ZAG) reported on the characterization results with the standard U value of 0.085 W/m²K and 0.25 MPa as mechanical strength for the volume hemp lime mix of 260-80Kg/m³. European KIC Climate performed LCA through SIMAPRO software for hemp lime “cradle to door” results revealed the energy consumption, resource cost comparison and carbon neutrality with respect to the conventional methods. Use of Hemp lime predicted the lowest GHG emissions and also to reuse and restore the structure with minimal environmental impacts.