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First hemp insulated home built in Kelowna, B.C.

Click to play video: 'Kelowna’s first hemp-insulated home'
Kelowna’s first hemp-insulated home
The home building industry is jumping on board the growing trend of choosing more sustainable options. A new Kelowna home is the first in the city to be built using hemp insulation. Sydney Morton has more. – Mar 26, 2025

Houses aren’t made from just brick and mortar anymore and the home-building industry is looking to take advantage of the cannabis craze.

A home in the Wilden neighbourhood of Kelowna, B.C., has been built using only hemp insulation by the Wilden Group.

“One of the benefits of the hemp insulation is it doesn’t compress quite as much as pink fibreglass insulation,” said Josh Smith, The Wilden Group, director of construction. “It also has rigidity.”

This house is the first of its kind in Kelowna and it’s making strides in the race to find more sustainable materials to build with.

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“It’s important that we start building for the future which means get the energy demand down of the house and get the embodied carbon down, so think material,” said Karin Eger-Blenk, The Wilden Group CEO.

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The hemp insulation absorbs more carbon than it emits and keeps the home warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, making the home net zero-ready. It also bolsters soundproofing.

A press release from The Wilden Group says that over the lifespan of the home it will remove 1,309 kg of carbon, which is equivalent to preventing 1,600 pounds of coal from being burned.

“We are building test homes specifically to improve on the energy efficiency side, so we are testing new materials, testing new practices, testing new wall assemblies,” said Eger-Blenk.

As this hemp house hits the market, the experiment will be put to the ultimate test — to see if the new trend takes off.

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