When it comes to sustainability, hemp is our new best friend. Hemp is an extremely sustainable crop with a wide variety of uses that can help us reduce our carbon footprint, improve our health, and decrease deforestation.
Here are 5 ways hemp can help us live sustainably:
1. Hemp can be used as a building material. The mixture of hemp, lime, and water is sustainable material for construction that can be used as an alternative to concrete. Hemp in this form is called "hempcrete" and is great for insulation, flooring, and walls due to its durability and low thermal conductivity. It is energy efficient, non toxic, resistant to bugs and fire, and cost efficient.
2. Hemp is a sustainable alternative to cotton. The use of hemp for clothing dates back 10,000 years ago and has since gone out of style; but it's time to bring back the trend. Hemp in the form of a textile is bacteria resistant and extremely durable which means it's long lasting and saves you time and money when it comes to shopping. Not to mention, as a crop, hemp is much more sustainable than cotton because it requires half as much land and water to grow. Furthermore, the cotton industry relies heavily on chemicals to produce their crop and hemp requires little to no pesticides to grow productively.
3. Hemp is an excellent source of protein, vitamins, and essential fats. It's known as a superfood and comes in the form of hemp seed butter, hemp seed energy bars, hemp oil, hemp milk, and much more. It's considered a more digestible protein than meat, cheese, and eggs so consuming it as an alternative to animal products can have remarkable health and environmental benefits.
4. Hemp pulp can be used as a sustainable alternative to paper. Today, paper is made out of wood pulp and deforestation continues to be a major environmental problem. Hemp pulp can also be used for paper and would greatly reduce pressure on the forestry industry. In addition, hemp pulp is naturally light in color and would require less dyes and chemicals.
5. You can make biofuel from hemp. Hemp can be used as a feedstock for biodiesel production and is highly efficient. Hemp fuel is non toxic, biodegradable, and causes much less air contamination.
Join us in taking practical action on climate change through the way that we live, the choices we make and the way we spend our money.
