Innovation Crossroads company Hempitecture receives $8.4 million in DOE funding

Although it's been used in building materials for over one thousand years, one sustainable material still gives many builders pause: hemp. That hasn't stopped Hempitecture, an innovative startup that creates hemp-based building materials and was recently awarded over $8 million in funding from the Department of Energy's Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains, or MESC.

The selected projects are led by small- and medium-sized businesses positioned to accelerate domestic clean energy manufacturing in former coal communities. "It feels like a big affirmation of all the work we've done to date," said Tommy Gibbons, co-founder and chief operating officer of Hempitecture. "It feels like people are paying attention to how we're trying to shift the building sector to a more bio-based, circular economy through our products."

Gibbons is a Cohort 2021 alumnus of Innovation Crossroads, a DOE Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship program node at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The building and construction sector accounts for 37% of global carbon emissions. Switching to the hemp-based concrete or insulation that Hempitecture manufactures can reduce a building's carbon footprint. Hemp grows quickly and can also be wholly sourced within the United States; it also sequesters carbon, making it a carbon-negative material.

The MESC award will enable Hempitecture to build a facility in Rogersville, Tennessee, where the company's sights go beyond its current offerings. "Our manufacturing process produces not only building materials, but also furniture and packaging insulation," said Gibbons. "But the most exciting expansion we're planning is within the automotive industry. There's a huge use of recycled and bio-based textiles by European automotive manufacturers. Our plan in Tennessee is to supply American automakers with natural fiber, nonwovens as they seek to reduce their embodied carbon footprint."

East Tennessee is well positioned for the growth Gibbons envisions. "This region has a ready farming base. We need to have a good location to ship to building and automotive markets, which the Southeast absolutely has proximity to. The nonwoven and textile industry is mostly based in Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee, so we're very close to a lot of our suppliers and people with technical know-how. Finally, this area has a strong manufacturing base and an ability to find inexpensive renewable power."

Gibbons was introduced to the region's possibilities through Innovation Crossroads. Fellows are not only connected with ORNL researchers who can develop their technical capability, but also with entrepreneurs and business professionals who can guide companies as they grow. "Hempitecture was funded by the [DOE] Building Technologies Office," said ORNL's Kelly Wampler, Innovation Crossroads program manager. "We connected Tommy with researchers at ORNL's Building Technologies Research and Integration Center, and they helped him refine the Hempitecture product by increasing its efficiency and fire retardancy."

"Hempitecture was very well positioned for this grant," said Wampler. "We were excited to see them win. But it's even more exciting because this will be a Tennessee facility."

Positions in the new facility will be paid above the industry standard wage, and Hempitecture offers a program where employees earn company equity. "We're here to do positive things for the environment," said Gibbons, "and that includes hiring employees and appointing people to leadership positions from different backgrounds. We want to make a happier and healthier built environment. Now it feels like there's more wind in our sails."

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. - Brynn Downing