Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Sustainable Construction topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee advances bill to study plant‑based building materials and working group formation
Summary
The committee passed HB 1185 to establish a plant‑based building materials working group to study cultivation and production opportunities in Hawaii; testimony emphasized job creation and carbon sequestration potential.
The House Committee on Higher Education approved HB 1185, which would create a working group to study how Hawaii could grow plants and develop plant‑based building materials such as clumping bamboo, hempcrete and biocements. The bill includes an appropriation placeholder and a defective date already in its text; the chair proposed an HD2 for technical edits.
Ted Bolen of Climate Protectors Hawaii and the Hawaii Reef and Ocean Coalition testified in support, describing the bill as “an opportunity that's kind of exciting for Hawaii” to create green jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from construction. “If you build, for example, bamboo plywood sheets, you can fill up a container and send it off at fairly low transportation costs,” Bolen said, noting the state’s growing-season advantage on some islands.
Committee members asked about processing capacity and whether materials could be processed in state. Bolen said some businesses (for example clumping bamboo producers) already operate processing facilities in the Philippines and plan to do the same here; he also said local production would preserve jobs beyond raw‑material exports.
The committee agreed to pass the bill with proposed non‑substantive edits and to forward it to the next committee stage.
