The 13th International Hemp Building Symposium (IHBS) is scheduled to take place from October 3–5 on the Lower Sioux Indian Community reservation in Morton, Minnesota. The event marks a historically significant collaboration, positioning the Lower Sioux Community at the forefront of sustainable and regenerative construction in North America.

At the 2025 Rocky Mountain Natural Building Conference in Bozeman, Montana, last week, three leaders in hemp-based construction shared their perspectives on the material’s future: Greg Wilson of HempWood, Matt Marino of Homeland Hempcrete, and architect April Magill of Root Down Building Collective. (Full disclosure: I serve as executive director of the conference hosts, the Colorado-based Natural Building Alliance.)

A group of natural building code experts and building pros submitted updates this summer to the US residential model codes that will make it cheaper and simpler to build with hemp-lime (“hempcrete”). An online fundraiser seeks to raise $12,000 to fund the updates to the 2027 International Residential Code (IRC) that will include ASTM tested 1-hour fire-resistance rated walls.

Ireland’s landscape is steeped in tradition, but the terrain of its future must be shaped by innovation. As the nation faces steep greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets set for 2030, the stakes are high—both environmentally and economically.

Greencore Homes, one of the largest hemp-lime builders in the UK, recently announced two large British housing development projects featuring the company’s “Biond panels” totaling more than 130 new “Better Than Net Zero” homes in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was the special guest at the opening of a second factory on the HempWood campus in Murray, KY on Aug. 5.

Hemp building materials will take a prominent place at the Rocky Mountain Natural Building Conference Bozeman Sept. 18-20. Hemp will take the podium along with cob, straw bale, passive house, natural plaster and other natural building technologies, at the Colorado-based Natural Building Alliance's biennial conference held since 2003.

Colorado couple Vladislav “Vladi” Skrejev and Diana Skrejeva have waited a long time — years, in fact —for hemp-lime insulation work to commence on their 2,000 sq. foot home in  the foothills of Colorado, but the excitement when the house was finally hemped made it all worthwhile, they said. 

A Texas-based building materials company Aggricrete has announced a new architectural design competition focused on sustainable, modular housing. The Intentionally Designed Expandable Architectural Structures (I.D.E.A.S.) House Design Contest is now open for submissions from students, professionals, and design enthusiasts around the world.

Minnesota appears to be the first US state on the path to adopting the newest official residential building codes featuring plant-based building materials after a July 15 hearing in St. Paul.

Architects, builders and hemp homeowner hopefuls gathered in Austin July 11 at a landmark event celebrating the city’s formal adoption of hemp-lime construction (commonly known as “hempcrete”) into its residential building codes.

Colorado-based hemp-building pioneer John Patterson of Tiny Hemp Houses returns to “Pine Tree State” of Maine for his third hemp building workshop at the Diggers Cooperative in Acton, ME.

On a chilly Pacific Redwoods morning in April, Joann Kerns, 68, was perched on her garage roof in Eureka, CA filming a crane installing the first 2,000 lb. wall panel for her new hempcrete ADU (accessory dwelling unit) when the operation took a surprising turn.

On Friday, July 11, Austinites will gather to celebrate a historic step toward sustainable construction with a special event marking the city’s adoption of hemp-lime—commonly known as “hempcrete”—into the local building code. The celebration, hosted at the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems (CMPBS) from 6:30–8:30 p.m., will also launch a landmark new book, Hempsteads: Architectural Details for Hemp-Lime Construction by hemp building pioneer Timothy Callahan of Asheville, NC.

German hempcrete builders will welcome international hempcrete designers, builders and suppliers at a free open house event in June in a cutting-edge tech startup hub.

Currently Colorado’s largest planned hempcrete project, the Kosmos Stargazing Resort, has welcomed its first guests in a 1,200 sq. ft. solar-powered off-grid hemp-lime (hempcrete) villa in the San Luis Valley.

A new book of architectural details for hemp-lime construction will be published in May, written by a pioneering US hempcrete builder who helped co-author the hemp-lime appendix published for the first time in the 2024 International Residential Codes.

The city of Austin, TX on April 10  officially adopted hempline (hempcrete) in the city’s Building Technical Codes as an innovative building material to be used in local construction. 

Australian researchers at University of Technology, Sydney are working with experienced hempcrete builders to develop a hemp-based structural panel with a geopolymer binder that they say is up to four times stronger than traditional hempcrete.

A hemp block and hemp-lime insulation workshop held in Tucson, AZ last week marks the beginning of a summer project renovating an environmental learning center for area students.