Hempitecture’s new manufacturing equipment.

1. Company detail

Hempitecture by year’s end will start manufacturing insulation at its new building in south-central Idaho.

The Ketchum-based company markets non-woven, sustainable building materials derived from hemp fiber. It is in the final stages of installing equipment, specially designed in Italy, in its 33,000-square-foot facility at 421 E. 500 S., Jerome.

“That will enable Hempitecture to begin the prototyping process of manufacturing our products here for the very first time,” founder and CEO Mattie Mead said.

Production is expected to increase to full scale in 2023.

The company has been importing a hemp insulation product. Supply-chain challenges and high transportation costs during the height of COVID-19 provided “the impetus to focus on U.S. manufacturing,” Meade said. It will help ensure supply chain reliability, reduced cost to consumers, and U.S. code compliance.

“We realized the future for this material would be U.S.-grown and produced,” he said.

Source material is hemp fiber separated by type. It comes from Montana, where that process is available.

Idaho authorized industrial hemp production in 2021. The state’s first crop was grown this year. The company could eventually buy in-state hemp as acreage and processing infrastructure increase, Meade said.

Once operational, the first-of-its kind facility — which the company raised nearly $5 million to build — will start with five full-time employees and likely grow to 10 by the end of 2023, he said. Jerome, near Interstate 84, offers good access to hemp fiber supplies to the north in Montana and Alberta, and to customers around the U.S.

Hempitecture started with a focus on its Hempcrete cast-in-place wall insulation system, primarily in projects designed around its usage.

The new facility is part of the company’s pivot to HempWool, a fiber insulation with “potential for mass adoption,” Meade said.

Hempitecture incorporated in 2018. Since its late 2019 introduction of HempWool, sales of the product have exceeded $1 million, he said.

HempWool provides the same insulation value as conventional materials. It is the only USDA certified biobased product insulation that qualifies for the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standard, Meade said.

However, it costs nearly three times as much as fiberglass because it is imported.

“With domestic manufacturing and the domestic supply chain, we’re able to produce the product at a more competitive price point, which will expand the market adoption potential,” Meade said. Emerging trends toward sustainable, and carbon neutral or negative products, bode well.

His thesis for a degree in architecture at Hobart College in New York focused on earthen and plant-based building materials. He saw great potential in industrial hemp because it is renewable, stores carbon and can be grown with low water consumption.

Soon after graduation, a proof-of-concept opportunity brought Meade to Idaho. He started in 2014. After about two years, he began working for a custom construction company and an architect in the Sun Valley area to gain experience that would better position him to grow the business.

Hempitecture has “created a blueprint in Idaho that can be replicated regionally,” he said. The company aims to “bring our manufacturing technology to regions across the United States to better serve customers and further reach our goals of decarbonizing the built environment with truly sustainable materials.”