An article on the sustainability of hemp-based construction materials -- published for The Conversation
May 1, 2024
Source The Conversation Summary Hemp could become a key tool in the fight against climate change. Like timber, hemp is a biogenic material – it’s produced by growing plants. When used to make long-lasting building materials, they provide an effective and low-tech way to reduce carbon emissions because plants absorb carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere as they grow. This then gets stored in solid form for the foreseeable future within buildings and cities.
I have estimated that substituting concrete with cross-laminated timber in all new building floor construction globally for the next 30 years, would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by between 20 and 80 million tonnes.
Yet, hemp grows much faster than trees, growing up to four metres within four months, giving it a greater capacity to absorb CO₂ per hectare of farmed land compared to any forest or commercial crop. Industrial hemp can absorb twice as much CO₂ compared to trees, with approximately one hectare of hemp estimated to sequester between eight to 22 tonnes of CO₂ in a year.People Bernardino D'Amico Research Areas Carbon Emissions Themes Environment URL https://theconversation.com/hemp-is-more-sustainable-than-timber-heres-how-it-could-transform-low-carbon-construction-228341
Dr Bernardino D'Amico's News (4)
Napier research on material substitution informs national and global policy reports
Oct 4, 2023
Summary The research article: “D’Amico, Bernardino, Francesco Pomponi, and Jim Hart. "Global potential for material substitution in building construction: The case of cross laminated timber." Journal of Cleaner Production 279 (2021): 123487.” has been included for supporting evidene in policy reports by the UK parliament, the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment and by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). People Bernardino D'Amico URL https://plu.mx/plum/a/policy_citation?doi=10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123487&theme=plum-sciencedirect-theme&hideUsage=true
To cut carbon think low rise cities not skyscrapers
Aug 25, 2021
Summary This is a piece Bloomberg has made on the paper recently published in Nature Urban Sustainability (https://www.nature.com/articles/s42949-021-00034-w) which has received significant global attention (https://www.nature.com/articles/s42949-021-00034-w/metrics). People Francesco Pomponi
Bernardino D'AmicoOrg Units School of Engineering and The Built Environment
School of Computing Engineering and the Built EnvironmentURL https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-25/to-cut-carbon-think-low-rise-buildings-not-skyscrapers
Winner of the RISE award for Design, Innovation and Creativity
Oct 1, 2019
Summary The RISE Awards are the highlight of the annual Sustainable Ecological Engineering Design for Society (SEEDS) Conference – and this year’s ceremony saw Edinburgh Napier’s Bernardino D'Amico and Francesco Pomponi take home the Design, Innovation & Creativity award!
The RISE awards celebrate talented companies, groups and individuals who are changing the nature of the built environment industry through extensive research, development and innovation.
School of Engineering and the Built Environment colleagues Bernardino and Francesco were recognised for their RAEng-funded research on a holistic approach to post-disaster, post-conflict emergency sheltering. This led to follow-on research, funded through an Industry Academia Partnership Programme, focusing on sustainable materials.Linked Funders Royal Academy of Engineering People Francesco Pomponi
Bernardino D'AmicoOutputs Post-Disaster Post-Conflict Emergency Shelters: A Holistic Approach Org Units School of Engineering and The Built Environment
School of Computing Engineering and the Built EnvironmentProjects Circular design of emergency sheltering for Africa: a holistic approach Themes Culture and Communities Research Centres/Groups Transport Research Innovation Centre URL https://www.leedsbecket.../seeds-conference-2019/