A Minnesota tribe is constructing a campus to manufacture hempcrete, which, once complete, will be the first facility in the U.S. to grow hemp, process into the building material, and build houses with it, according to a Grist report. The 20,000-square-foot complex is being built on the Lower Sioux Indian Reservation in southwestern Minnesota.
No facility in the U.S. is a vertically integrated hempcrete facility – meaning a site that grows the plants, processes them into the building material, and completes the construction, the report says.
The tribe is facing a housing crisis, with about half of the 1,124 enrolled tribal members in need of homes. Robert “Deuce” Larsen, the tribal council president, told Grist that “The idea of making homes that would last and be healthy was a no-brainer” but that the tribe “need to build capacity in the community and show that it can be an income stream.”
So far, the tribe has constructed two prototypes that are nearly completed. The tribal council used loans, government grants, and tribal funds to raise more than $6 million to build the processing campus and the two prototypes.
Jody McGuinness, executive director of the