INCREASED INTEREST IN HEMP AMONG MAINSTREAM BUILDERS REQUIRES ADAPTING TO STANDARDS OF CLASSIFICATION AND MARKETING
Even a few months ago, I had the impression that hempcrete was a concrete replacement. It's taken a lot of time for me to get a grasp on what hempcrete really is, the value of it, how it's an advantage. If you have to sit through a half hour presentation to understand a new product, it's a big problem. To get that half hour down to 15 seconds, some new language is required.
A sure sign of industry growth is when established groups start splintering off into subgroups and specialties, which we've seen with the USHBA. Suddenly there is a sharpening of a competitive edge within the community as the prospect of major projects appear on the horizon. This is good but requires that new alliances form based on competence and integrity, which I have personally been seeking for about 5 years, in order to bring my experience, networks and skills to the table. This 'hempcrete' word is a problem of semantics to be solved,. Even the word 'hemp' I get tired of, another word you say all day, ending in -mp.... Pump, stump, dump, lump, schlump, rump, damp camp, limp, pimp, gimp. Trump. It's not a good marketing word, even without the hippie / marijuana baggage.
Enter CFB, Cultivated Fiber for Building. This is how US Army engineers can understand it. Just like SIPS or OSB. But it also suggests the radical innovation that includes farmers. How many products in building your house were grown on a farm? None. Unless you count 2x4 tree farms, owned by Georgia Pacific. Wood is also a fiber product, concrete a lime product. So it fits right in.
This name came about as we plan a new model of hemp event to focus on regional economics, (more on that later) and featuring one of the leading innovators in the field, Sativa Building Systems, here in Wisconsin. Founder Zach Popp has done a great job in doing a lot of baseline R&D into his Z Panel product and how it can fit into existing market demand, especially for US Army construction, which it seems is being driven by federal standards of carbon reduction. Zach has taken a lot of time and effort to achieve his own corporate standards to fit ICC and IRC.
We can build the value of CFB in the marketplace with Zach's model and make the certfication available to any other brand that meets the standards. The real value though comes in the sales. We can create a branded certification all we want, but if it doesn't sell, just another idea. Enough ideas. Let's get beyond ideas and into sales. So far the reception to CFB has been very positive.
Words. It's how we open new doors and close some deals. The potential market demands that we re-shape, re-form, re-imagine what to sell and how to sell it. This is the role of Visio.
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