The two local seminars that we have held have been a great success. It was a really good chance to meet more of the smaller, local architects who it has not been practical to visit but who are still just as keen to go green and the response has been fantastic.
The first of the seminars consist of a talk about Lime and Earth, their uses and why they should be used more and an overview of Thermafleece insulation and also the Thermoplan blocks from NBT. The second session is all about Hemcrete with a video at the end of it showing how and where it has been used etc.
We have seen over 30 different practices in the two seminars and are looking to hold another two in the Autumn for other practices that were not able to attend or for other architects from practices we have seen that haven’t attended our sessions. The recent publicity on the Grand Designs shows and all of the promotion we have been doing has increased the attention focussed on Hemcrete and increased the number of enquiries we are receiving.
The recent huge hike in oil prices has made life rather uncomfortable for most people and although financially painful it has made us all think about how to use less fuel, both in our vehicles and our homes. Unfortunately it takes this sort of pinch to wake us all up and realise that we need to change the way we use energy, the way we build and the way we all move about our little planet. A recent report in the NewScientist suggested that for every dollar rise in petrol prices in the US, sales of SUV’s decreased by 25%, so much so that General Motors has said that they will soon discontinue production of these vehicles, we can only hope that others will follow!! Who says expensive oil is a bad thing!!
The other upside to high oil prices are that investment and research into alternative technologies also increases. The cost of oil based products or products reliant on cheap energy also increases such that products such as Hemcrete become even more cost effective and therefore attractive, really kick-starting large scale sustainable construction. This move toward alternative technologies will only do us good!!