For Immediate Release: Advocates Call for Hemp-based Solution to Rebuild Lytton
June 30, 2022
Mayor of Lytton Jan Polderman
Village of Lytton 380 Main Street
Lytton BC, V0K 1Z0
CC: TNRD Board, Chief Janet Webster, Chief Douglas McIntyre, Chief Fred Sampson, Chief Patrick Michell, Premier John Horgan, and members of the media.
Dear Mayor Polderman;
The tragedy that unfolded in the Lytton Creek Wildfire in 2021 was devastating and extremely traumatic, the loss was unimaginable and the repercussions have been far-reaching. Our condolences continue to be with those affected as the healing continues on.
The small community of Lytton and surrounding Indian Bands have faced a nightmare that sadly, our whole world is going to continue to experience until we get climate change stabilized.
It is imperative that we explore new ways of rebuilding our communities in response to the global climate crisis; we must be innovative and begin using new ways of existing on this planet. To do this we must turn our attention to regenerative practices in forestry, agriculture, transportation, and how we build and energize our buildings.
I, along with my esteemed colleagues, urge the Village of Lytton, as well as the Regional District of Thompson-Nicola, Lytton First Nation, Skuppah Indian Band, Siska Indian Band, Kanaka Bar Band, and the Province of British Columbia to incorporate building schemes and materials that are environmentally regenerative as you rebuild your homes, businesses, and communities.
As you begin to plan your rebuild, we also urge you to use a made-in-Canada approach by using Hempcrete as your primary building envelope material.
A Hempcrete building is completely fireproof, non-flammable, non-smoking, non-melting, non-toxic; Hempcrete creates a building that cannot burn, ever.
Because it is a solid mass monolithic building structure, it is hygrothermal resulting in naturally regulated internal temperature and humidity in addition to being pest resistant. The binding material has a high pH that inhibits bacterial growth and resists mold effectively. It has an extremely high R-value of 42 (minimum), and continues to become more efficient as the walls increase in thickness. With this building envelope performance, the occupants of every building in the Thompson-Nicola region and beyond will be able to enjoy optimal indoor air quality with limited reliance on inefficient fossil fuel heating and cooling systems.
Hempcrete replaces all building envelope materials and is produced from regions across western Canada, reducing the monetary and environmental cost of shipping building materials over long distances of land and sea. A house can be framed with BC lumber and finished with the hemp-lime composite from the prairies making every Hempcrete building a made-in-Canada solution to shipping delays, material costs, poor quality products, and supports our local economy.
Once the building is framed, the application of Hempcrete does not require skilled labour; the consultants from the Okanagan are ready, willing, and able to train anyone of any age how to build with Hempcrete which is an opportunity for many to conserve building costs and learn a new trade that will be the way of the future.
Buildings can be renovated with future demands, and the waste product is either reused in the new build or composted. This is unprecedented as traditional construction waste is extremely toxic and difficult to dispose of. Hempcrete is the opposite and continues to be a biodynamic contribution to the environment for years to come.
In addition to the exceptional performance of the buildings, Hempcrete is a carbon-sequestering machine that will provide urgent remedies to the carbon load our atmosphere is carrying for many generations. One hectare of hemp growing in the field can absorb 15 tonnes of carbon dioxide and is extremely fast-growing from seed-to-harvest within 4 months. For consideration, the average Pentictonite contributes approximately 7.5 tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere annually (as per Penticton’s Community Climate Action Plan 2021 report).
A Hempcrete building will continue to absorb carbon from the atmosphere for 100+ years, or the life of the building. Every new building in our country could become a carbon-fighting machine for generations to come, and rebuilding what was destroyed in the Lytton Creek Wildfire could be the beginning of something revolutionary.
Hempcrete is a natural energy solution that when paired with other new and innovative products like geothermal, solar, and wind energy catchment systems every new building in Lytton, the surrounding Indian Bands, and the rest of our country could be better than net-zero before 2030; the Thompson-Nicola region could lead the way into the future.
We welcome any dialogue with you surrounding the issue and the solution and hope we can work together to revolutionize the rebuilding of the communities affected by the Lytton Creek Wildfire as we all face an uncertain future.
Regards,
Ross Rebagliati
Jaimie Miller-Haywood
Brandon Cochran
