Loora Orav

• Application of Hemp as an Architectural Material for Reducing Environmental Impact in the Construction Sector in Estonia
• Tutor: Martin Melioranski, Raul Kalvo

Concrete, a widely used material in the construction sector, accounts for 11% of the world’s CO2 emissions. Based on these statistics, it can be argued that using more environmentally friendly materials instead of concrete would help make the world more sustainable.

In Estonia, only a part of the real potential of hemp is used, because the majority of it is left as a residue on the fields. According to Statistics Estonia, we are capable of growing hemp in large quantities, but we do not have the ability to process the crop into anything other than seeds, which are not used as building materials. In fact, it is possible to produce a sustainable, local and low-energy construction material from hemp.

The objective of the master’s thesis was to investigate the properties and uses of hemp lime and to discover ways to apply it in Estonian construction sector as a more sustainable alternative to current building materials. Additionally, the optimal capacity and locations for potential hemp processing factories in Estonia were determined, and a sample factory was designed taking into account all previous factors.