THE HOUSE THAT HEMP BUILT

THE HOUSE THAT HEMP BUILT
How One Farmer Is Growing The Future Of Sustainable Housing
Exclusive Interview with Cody Ley
Featured in 'Innerviews'
Hosted by Allié McGuire

​Most of us don’t look at a plant and see a home — but Cody Ley did. As a farmer, chemist, builder, and founder of Hemp for Humanity, Cody is redefining what’s possible when nature and innovation work together instead of apart. In this conversation, we explore how one seed can spark a movement, reshape a supply chain, and quite literally build a healthier way to live.

ALLIÉ: Cody, take me back to the very moment that this clicked for you, the moment that you looked at a plant and thought this could be a home. What sparked that connection between hemp and housing in your mind?

CODY: Yeah, the story probably starts back when I was just growing up in childhood. There was a time where we lived on an industrial farm, a conventional agriculture, and we lived in worker housing and so I was able to see firsthand the effects and impacts of conventional agriculture on our planet and also the state of what would be considered low income housing. And it wasn't until my senior year in college when I learned about what this plant could do, that it kind of did click for me where I did my senior thesis on bioplastics, and so that's where I learned about the industrial hemp plant and how it can produce a biomass locally that while it's healing the soil, it can supply ​materials for everything from textiles, plastics, bio composites, and housing. And so that's when I realized the connection that we can have a healthier soil and healthier agricultural industry that supports healthy homes and healthy and affordable housing. So that's what inspired me to bring those things together. It’s a way to connect our built environment to the natural environment.
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​ALLIÉ: The built environment to the natural environment. I love that. Let's get technical here. For those of us, including myself, who hear Hempcrete and imagine, I don't know, like a house that smells like a dispensary or - can you explain in real human terms what Hempcrete actually is and why it's a game changer for the way that we build?

CODY: Absolutely. So it is an important distinction to know that the type of hemp that we're talking about, industrial hemp is grown for fiber and grain, so there's no psychoactive oils or cannabinoids in the plant. So it has to reach a certain level or percentage of cannabinoids to be considered industrial hemp. So it has to be below 0.3% in its oil content. And what we're really growing for is the biomass, the fiber. So what we do is we can take the stalk of the plant, it grows 16 foot tall on average and produces over four tons of biomass per acre. So it's really high yielding and cellulose dense. And so what we can do is we can take that plant, we can separate the fibers that can be sold into other industries like textiles, nonwovens other biocomposite industries, and then we can use what's left over, which is called the herd.

It's the inner woody core of the stalk. And we can mix that with two other simple ingredients, one being a cementitious lime based binder, and the other is water. So we mix those ingredients together and what we have is a non-structural infill installation material, and that installation material has amazing performance benefits. One, it's carbon negative, it's also really energy efficient. It can lower energy costs by 40% to 70%. It's also fireproof, it's mold resistance, and it creates, what I like to call, a living wall system where it can work with the environment, it adjusts and acclimate to what the outdoor environment is doing and keeps your indoor environment really pleasant to be in.

ALLIÉ: Wow. It sounds like it's this super material of sorts.

CODY: Yeah, when it's used properly, it definitely has a lot of potential to make a big difference.

ALLIÉ: So you've built a supply chain from the ground up literally, from seed to structure. Cody, what’s been the most meaningful moment for you in working with local farmers, researchers, and engineers, to make all of this possible?

CODY: I definitely think, in terms of developing all the supply chain, we definitely have a long way to go, but we have done everything from farming to processing to building with it. And I would say that the culmination of it all in what we're doing right now is the farm to frame initiatives. I think the highlight for me is when we do our community engagement events. So right now we're in the process of engaging and educating the community on this material, the impacts it can have on our communities and our local economies. And, yeah, the most meaningful interactions to me are when I'm speaking to real builders in the community and real community members that are looking for housing and learning about how this solution can affect them in a positive way. Our most recent one in Detroit at an urban farm ​called Sanctuary Farms, we did this event and it was amazing. We had a panel of people from the community; builders, people who worked in the city, people who work in workforce development. And to see the energy around our conversation and everybody around it just supporting and chiming in, it really felt like a moment where it was validating like, what we have can really help a lot of people. And to see the community gather around it was really impactful for me and it was a definitely a highlight of this whole journey.

ALLIÉ: That's awesome when you can get so many people so supportive. So when you step into a hemp based home, what's the first thing that you'll feel? Not just the chemistry behind it, not just the specs, but just like that human experience of being in a space that, as you were alluding to, breathes differently.

CODY: That's a great question. It's a different feeling. It's kind of hard to describe or put a finger on, but yeah, I guess my point of reference is like a lot of the buildings that we are existing in right now are all built to be watertight, airtight, and they're built with materials that oftentimes contain all these toxic chemicals that are not really safe for human consumption and are slowly off-gassing into our indoor environment. So when you step into a hemp home, I think there's like softness. I think this is the best way to describe it; softness or warmness. It's just a more pleasant feeling when the walls around you are living and breathing and adjusting to the humidity and keeping that indoor air quality really good. And also the sound dampening, like you don't have the tininess of a normal stick built fiberglass insulated home. Without getting too much into the weeds on it, I think it just resonates better with people in the home and the planet around it. I think it's a really special feeling.

ALLIÉ: Well, it sounds amazing, and we certainly could use a little more softness in our lives and in our society. So one more question for you today here, Cody. If the future of housing started on your farm in Michigan, paint the picture for me. What does Michigan and maybe the whole world look like 10 years from now if hemp built homes become the norm and not the exception?

CODY: I think what we would see is not only more resiliently built homes, but we'd be operating in more resilient local economies where not only are we producing our homes from local farmers, but we're producing the things that we need, like food, shelter, and fuel. So I think what we're showcasing and using housing for is a tool to really show is the power of bio-based materials in revitalizing our small town main streets and offering us ways to be more resilient and work together to produce the things that we need. Because it really opens up the door, obviously, we're showcasing hemp because, like I said, it's a high yielding biomass, it's highly regenerative and it's really cellulose dense. This is opening up the doors for an entire biomaterial economy where we can take agricultural waste and turn it into consumer product goods that we use every day, like, paper cups and plastic wrappers and houses. So, I think that as this really starts to build and take off, we'll start to open up a lot more doors for innovation in a more regenerative and healing economy. ∎
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Learn more about Hemp for Humanity:
​www.h4h.earth