Link to Los Angeles Times (June 28, 2025) | Interest in building with earthen and other natural materials — such as adobe — spiked in the wake of Eaton and Palisades fires.
… Ben Stapleton — an appointee on Horvath’s blue ribbon commission and executive director of U.S. Green Building Council California, a nonprofit that promotes sustainable building practices — pointed to a statistic that buildings represent nearly 40% of greenhouse gas emissions globally.
Earthen and other natural materials emit relatively less greenhouse gases over their lifecycle, from extraction and transportation to assembly and disposal. Some, such as hempcrete — made by mixing the inner woody core of the hemp plant and a lime-based binder — are carbon sinks. They improve a home’s insulation and energy efficiency, he added.
“There’s a lot of strong arguments for using these materials,” Stapleton said. …He believes there first needs to be increased education among architects, engineers and permitting officials about them. (Read full article)
Photo: A “SuperAdobe” home at the CalEarth Institute in Hesperia. The structure, a coiled dome of earth-filled sandbags reinforced with barbed wire, is touted by proponents as disaster-proof. (William Liang / For The Times)
