| 85 Rockstead Construction BUILDING The hemp absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, retaining the carbon and releasing the oxygen. NZ Natural Fibres (NZNF) has created a game-changer for the future of New Zealand’s construction industry, with hemp ibre now being processed at NZNF’s refurbished ibre factory in Christchurch. A strategic partnership was established between the traditionally food-focused Hemp NZ and NZNF owner Carr ields, with the objective of installing a hemp ibre processing facility at NZNF. Following investment into industry leading plant and equipment, NZNF is poised to transform some of the most readily available, versatile, and sustainable natural materials in New Zealand, hemp and wool, into alternative products which will help address the environmental challenges facing the world today and in the future. “As part of our overall sustainability programme, we had an opportunity to utilise an unestablished product, hemp stalk and the ibre that comes from that stalk,” says Carr ields ibre products business development manager Ryan Cosgrove. As well as blending wool and hemp to make stronger, more durable, and abrasion resistant textiles, NZNF’s new decortication machine splits the hemp ibre from the hurd, allowing the hurd to be used in the production of Hempcrete. “We are not the Hempcrete experts, so we are working with building irms like Erkhart Construction in Wanaka and Rockstead Construction in the Bay of Islands and supporting them with the raw material so we can build the pro ile of Hempcrete together.” Ryan says Hempcrete has already been used in New Zealand on a small scale, and this new processing facility is going to bring scale to our hemp construction industry. “It’s going to bring the resources and the scale to let hemp construction techniques really take o in New Zealand.” NZNF has been supplying hemp hurd commercially for only nine months, but the upfront response from builders has been quite overwhelming. “A lot of people have been waiting for New Zealand to have this type of facility, and we have had dozens of enquiries from people looking to get their construction projects underway.” As o setting emissions starts to look like a requirement to operate in the business environment of the future, Ryan can see that’s where hemp is really going to shine. “We can actually quantify just how bene icial hemp is to the New Zealand environment. Hemp as a crop is 1.6 times its own weight carbon negative in biomass, and all our processes at NZNF are purely mechanical, there is no chemical treatment. The hemp is all grown and processed in Canterbury, so our local story really focuses on maintaining the low carbon footprint. All of this is going to help our partner companies to reach their carbon goals in the future.” A construction game-changer FOR USE IN HEMPCRETE, INSULATION, ANIMAL BEDDING & LANDSCAPING. WE ARE NZ’S FIRST HEMP FIBRE PROCESSING FACILITY CREATING LEADING NATURAL FIBRE PRODUCTS AND PARTNERSHIPS. HEMP HURD TO FIND OUT MORE CONTACT RYAN COSGROVE GROWN& PROCESSED RIGHTHERE
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