Ekolution and Sweden take a giant leap into hemp production
Since I moved to Sweden I have been following the slow but steady growth of the Hemp industry, an industry that used to be ironically more thriving and had more farmers growing it. But as with the knock on effect throughout the world of Americas demonisation of cannabis and therefore the blowback on its non-psychoactive cousin hemp production decreased thanks to the confusion between cannabis and hemp, thank you old school American propaganda. But that was then and this is now and Sweden has just been given the missing key that will truly push the production and growth of hemp on it’s own land, from farm to end product.
That missing key was a factory that could take the raw material of hemp and process it into something that can be used in an industry that has for far too long been responsible for emitting a large percentage of the worlds carbon emissions. Hemp on the other hand on improves soil quality, sequesters carbon and can be a carbon negative end product depending on transportation and other variables.
Ekolution has its roots when its founders, Remi Loren, Naib Woldemariam and Henrik Jacobsson who were still university students in Lund built Sweden’s first prefabricated prototype house, showcasing its potential as an effective, high-speed production and eco friendly way of building. (See article)
Incorporating the global trend of prefabrication, Sweden’s climate which can vary greatly between summer and winter has massive potential for hemp prefabricated housing which takes advantage of building inside in a controlled environment where timelines are not affected by weather and the building process can strictly be focused on from a technical point of view making leaps of improvements in terms of reducing carbon emissions and research and development of more environmentally friendly materials.
Ekolution has now secured a capital injection totalling SEK 156 million, SEK 94.5 million coming from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. The support is given within the framework of Klimatklivet, which is based on EU funds through NextGenerationEU, which will support European investments in fossil-free technology.
They now have the funding to build a natural fiber processing facility in Scania. Ekolution will mainly manufacture climate-positive insulation material from hemp.
The construction industry is witnessing a growing demand for bio-based materials as it diligently strives to enhance the presence of sustainable products within its supply chain.
But why is this investment such a massive step for hemp in Sweden? Without the ability to process raw hemp on an industrial scale like this the growth of total farmland used to grow hemp would stagnate. It has been a slow increase in hemp farming with applications of food, oil and cosmetic products being used by the hemp grown but to make hemp an industry that can ultimately and more importantly logically from an environmental standpoint replace environmentally harmful products and ways of production it needs investment like this. Watching the growth of Ekolution as a company from a couple of driven university students with big ideas to where they are now is truly inspiring and a testament to keep pushing what you believe to be of value, the future of hemp in Sweden just got a whole lot brighter. Heja Ekolution!
