May 11, 2023 • 30 mins
Find HempWood here → https://hempwood.com/
HempWood is your perfect sustainable hardwood substitute. Anything that you would normally use hardwoods for, you can use HempWood for. And HempWood is 20% stronger to boot!
Combat deforestation, stop using petroleum, there are so many wins for using HempWood and why it is such a better option for building our world.
Make sure you check out this entire interview to hear exactly how Greg Wilson, CEO of Fibonacci, has created HempWood. The sustainable substitute for hardwoods.
Chapters 0:00 - Sustainable Hardwood Substitute 1:59 - HempWood Intro 4:17 - Manufacturing process 8:43 - Inspiration from bamboo flooring 9:54 - Transition back to the US 11:29 - Using resources in backyard 15:23 - Best applications for HempWood 20:35 - Relationships with Universities 22:06 - Order a sample pack: hempwood.com 23:19 - Goals for next 6 months 25:27 - What Greg is currently learning 26:32 - Price parody 27:45 - Best way to get in touch: hempwood.com
Check out HempWood’s website:
Find Greg Wilson on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-wilson-994aa29/
Check out this interview that I mention at the end of the episode:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEl78XI90KI
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
.333333333An industry that I had never thought of before, was in hardwood flooring. 3 00:00:13,853.333333333 --> 00:00:18,818.333333333 because they're using petroleum products to make the floor water resistant. 4 00:00:18,828.333333333 --> 00:00:22,758.333333333 Not to even mention vinyl, which is just basically plastic. 5 00:00:22,768.333333333 --> 00:00:26,741.666666667 And not only that, but this hardwood flooring is coming from.
Hardwood trees that are being cut down and deforestation has become a very massive issue in terms of the ecosystems where these trees are cut down.
(00:36):
Not only that, but these trees are also carbon deposits as well.
So impacting climate change on a major. 9 00:00:44,126.666666667 --> 00:00:51,868.333333333 However, my guest today, Greg Wilson, will be talking about his sustainable hardwood alternative HempWood. 10 00:00:51,986.666666667 --> 00:00:53,936.666666667 There's no petroleum products. 11 00:00:53,946.666666667 --> 00:01:02,886.666666667 No deforestation because they're just harvesting from hemp and they don't have to cut down the entire plant to be able to produce their hardwood products. 12 00:01:02,941.666666667 --> 00:01:04,661.666666667 Making this sustainable. 13 00:01:04,671.666666667 --> 00:01:14,401.666666667 So make sure you stick around to hear about the sustainable option when it comes to hardwoods, and it's not just for flooring, but so much more. 14 00:01:14,411.666666667 --> 00:01:18,441.666666667 So make sure you stay tuned for this entire amazing episode. 15 00:01:54,457.7324263 --> 00:01:58,978.53741497 Greg, do you mind telling us about HempWood and what you guys do? Yeah, sure. 16 00:01:59,8.53741497 --> 00:02:00,238.53741497 So my name is Greg Wilson. 17 00:02:00,398.53741497 --> 00:02:05,266.97278912 I'm here in Murray, Kentucky, where we are the only manufacturers of HempWood in the world. 18 00:02:05,626.97278912 --> 00:02:09,281.99546485 So HempWood is something new, different, and a little bit strange. 19 00:02:09,735.32879819 --> 00:02:13,425.32879819 Every time people hear about it, they say, wow, that's cool. 20 00:02:13,785.32879819 --> 00:02:14,55.32879819 What. 21 00:02:14,755.32879819 --> 00:02:22,235.32879819 And so that tells us that 99% of America and probably a higher percentage in the world don't know or haven't heard of HempWood. 22 00:02:22,265.32879819 --> 00:02:30,164.33106576 And so we have to go out and preach the gospel every day to everyone who calls in and remember that like it's the first time somebody's heard about it. 23 00:02:30,254.33106576 --> 00:02:37,594.33106576 So even though it's the same story, to us, it's brand new and exciting and just has that kind of the first day of. 24 00:02:38,307.66439909 --> 00:02:39,687.66439909 Opportunity with everybody. 25 00:02:39,697.66439909 --> 00:02:45,465.99773243 And so HempWood is a carbon negative product that is 100% made in America. 26 00:02:45,475.99773243 --> 00:02:50,859.33106576 It is more durable than your domestic hardwoods like Hickory oak or walnut. 27 00:02:50,869.33106576 --> 00:02:59,582.66439909 And it has no VOCs because we developed a plant-based glue to replace formaldehyde, which is traditionally in your engineered wood product. 28 00:02:59,592.66439909 --> 00:03:01,907.66439909 And now vinyl is the new kit on the. 29 00:03:02,374.33106576 --> 00:03:04,604.33106576 For flooring, which is where we compete mainly. 30 00:03:04,614.33106576 --> 00:03:12,109.33106576 And vinyl's got a bunch of dirty chemicals, even dirtier than from Outy that people tend to not talk about because it's waterproof and cheap. 31 00:03:12,119.33106576 --> 00:03:16,149.33106576 So he wood is the only carbon negative hardwood solution out there. 32 00:03:16,159.33106576 --> 00:03:20,489.33106576 It's because we make our own thermal energy from our waste right here at the plant. 33 00:03:20,819.33106576 --> 00:03:24,425.99773243 And we have hydroelectric that comes in to do our electric. 34 00:03:24,729.33106576 --> 00:03:26,409.33106576 So we're here in Murray, Kentucky. 35 00:03:26,559.33106576 --> 00:03:39,699.86394558 We're in coordination with Murray State University, Hudson School of Ag, and that's where most of our higher quality tech employees come from, whether it's from the Ag school or from the engineering school, things like that. 36 00:03:39,849.95464853 --> 00:03:42,909.95464853 Most of our team is very young, like you would see in silicon. 37 00:03:43,499.69387755 --> 00:03:48,651.16780045 With the exception of myself now being 40, a lot of our plant managers are in their mid twenties. 38 00:03:48,671.02040816 --> 00:03:53,470.07936508 Our marketing team is headed by Alyssa and she just graduated last May. 39 00:03:53,475.07936508 --> 00:04:04,779.12698413 And so you can see that the youthful kind of rigor that it takes to run a tech startup is running around here in the form of AgTech instead of software that you find in ca. 40 00:04:04,789.12698413 --> 00:04:05,629.12698413 Yeah, definitely. 41 00:04:05,639.12698413 --> 00:04:06,179.12698413 That's awesome. 42 00:04:06,229.12698413 --> 00:04:11,310.60090703 And you said, you mentioned that you're using a different kind of glue instead of formaldehyde. 43 00:04:11,535.60090703 --> 00:04:14,642.74376417 What is that exactly? Can you go into that more? I'm curious. 44 00:04:14,669.20634921 --> 00:04:15,132.47165533 Yeah, sure. 45 00:04:15,492.47165533 --> 00:04:20,764.7845805 So actually I'll start to explain the process a little bit and the glue is on the front end of that. 46 00:04:21,64.7845805 --> 00:04:25,444.7845805 So we take hemp stops that grow in three to four. 47 00:04:25,754.72789116 --> 00:04:29,474.72789116 And pull carbon at the fastest rate of any land-based plant. 48 00:04:29,484.72789116 --> 00:04:34,114.72789116 Now, I can say that seaweeds and things like that in the water actually pull carbon at a faster rate from my understanding. 49 00:04:34,858.06122449 --> 00:04:44,960.01133787 But most plants pull according to the Fibonacci sequence, 162% of what the biomass of the plant is how much carbon it took pulling from the air to grow that. 50 00:04:44,965.01133787 --> 00:04:47,185.01133787 And that's where our company's called fi. 51 00:04:47,746.67800453 --> 00:04:49,696.67800453 It's not actually HempWood, that's just the product. 52 00:04:49,706.67800453 --> 00:04:52,136.67800453 So we grow this hemp locally here. 53 00:04:52,316.67800453 --> 00:04:59,101.67800453 It's either grown by us or at the school or by our contracted farmers, all within a hundred miles of the plant of the factory here. 54 00:04:59,111.67800453 --> 00:05:05,371.67800453 Then it comes in, we break open the cell structure of it and we impregnate it with proteins from soyer. 55 00:05:05,381.67800453 --> 00:05:11,711.67800453 And the soy flour is actually leftover soy flour that doesn't meet food grade after they press the oil. 56 00:05:11,721.67800453 --> 00:05:12,711.67800453 Out of the seeds. 57 00:05:13,11.67800453 --> 00:05:23,35.1814059 So once you press your oils out, then you grind it up and make flour, and we steal those proteins to reinforce the cell wall of the hemp herd, which is the woody core of the hemp plant. 58 00:05:23,385.1814059 --> 00:05:34,161.84807256 And then the fiber is still longitudinally intact with that woody core, given it the strength from the hemp fiber that everybody knows is in rope and canvas sacks and things like that. 59 00:05:34,161.84807256 --> 00:05:35,151.84807256 That's super strong. 60 00:05:35,161.84807256 --> 00:05:36,781.84807256 So you get your strength from the fiber. 61 00:05:36,791.84807256 --> 00:05:49,11.84807256 You get your woody products or your kind of wood feel and look from the core, which is similar to BALs of wood, but it's reinforced the cell walls just like a tree is growing over 200. 62 00:05:49,518.51473923 --> 00:05:52,45.18140589 a tropical hardwood is super hard, super dense. 63 00:05:52,355.18140589 --> 00:05:57,297.58503401 We're making our product more dense by that soy protein to reinforce the walls there. 64 00:05:57,302.58503401 --> 00:05:58,164.34240363 So it's a bridge. 65 00:05:58,207.39229025 --> 00:06:11,487.39229025 Once we soak it in this adhesive that's based outta soy and it's got some organic acid and some dish detergent in there to keep the molding insects out, then we dry it in our dryers that were actually converted, from being a rail. 66 00:06:11,980.72562358 --> 00:06:33,0.72562358 Into taking the guts from five tobacco barns, the radiators and the fans, hooking that up to our bio burner, which turns our waste hemp into heat, which heats of fluid goes through these radiators and is used for drying out our hemp with the soy protein glue in it, similar to what you do with tobacco when you're curing tobacco, but we do it with hemp, with protein in it. 67 00:06:33,10.72562358 --> 00:06:38,990.72562358 Then once that's dried out to 15% moisture content or less, we press it into log. 68 00:06:39,0.72562358 --> 00:06:51,960.72562358 And once we press it into those logs in this 3000 ton press that we have right here in front of us, then those logs are loaded into an oven that used to be an old shipping container that also has some of these radiators from tobacco barns. 69 00:06:51,990.72562358 --> 00:06:57,76.93877551 Obviously we're in tobacco country, so you can see we're grabbing what's around us everywhere here and sticking it together. 70 00:06:57,86.93877551 --> 00:07:01,816.93877551 We then, fueled the heat for that oven as well by our. 71 00:07:02,310.27210884 --> 00:07:07,530.27210884 So we have Biowaste thermal that's doing our ovens, kilns, dryers and the building. 72 00:07:07,540.27210884 --> 00:07:22,300.27210884 And then once it comes outta that, we open it back up, we cut it into planks, and then we turn it into flooring, furniture, cabinetry, and any sort of a hardwood replacement you're looking for, whether it's architectural, millworks, trims, things like that. 73 00:07:22,385.44217687 --> 00:07:25,220.44217687 You can see actually the accent wall on the wall back there is hemp. 74 00:07:25,230.44217687 --> 00:07:25,860.44217687 In the gray. 75 00:07:25,860.44217687 --> 00:07:26,280.44217687 In the white. 76 00:07:26,290.44217687 --> 00:07:27,580.44217687 The floor in here is HempWood. 77 00:07:27,580.44217687 --> 00:07:28,240.44217687 There's Tommy. 78 00:07:28,450.44217687 --> 00:07:29,470.44217687 He was our first intern. 79 00:07:29,470.44217687 --> 00:07:32,660.44217687 Now he's our plant manager, Four years later, there's tables there. 80 00:07:32,710.44217687 --> 00:07:33,450.44217687 Nice for HempWood. 81 00:07:33,480.44217687 --> 00:07:36,30.44217687 You can even see cabinets and picture frames on the wall. 82 00:07:36,90.44217687 --> 00:07:37,380.44217687 That's Alyssa in the background. 83 00:07:37,390.44217687 --> 00:07:38,530.44217687 She's in charge of our marketing. 84 00:07:38,540.44217687 --> 00:07:47,217.9138322 So we're doing everything that people are talking about with a carbon negative product working towards a carbon neutral process. 85 00:07:47,227.9138322 --> 00:07:57,497.9138322 And having zero waste because we're turning our waste hemp into our energy and selling our sawdust and our sand dust as a bio filler for hemp plastics. 86 00:07:57,502.9138322 --> 00:08:09,936.24716553 The fun fact is that most most of your hemp plastics in the United States are being made by our sawdust are our sand dust that we send up to Michigan or Minnesota, and they compound it with recycled plastic to turn into pellets. 87 00:08:09,946.24716553 --> 00:08:11,896.24716553 Right now they're making cannabis package. 88 00:08:12,189.58049887 --> 00:08:14,679.58049887 We would like to make Trex happening out of it in the future. 89 00:08:14,689.58049887 --> 00:08:19,139.58049887 And there's my wife, I brought her over from China with me when we were doing this with Bamboo. 90 00:08:19,149.58049887 --> 00:08:28,474.58049887 So if you've seen Bamboo flooring, that was my college project, unfortunately, I have to say 21 years ago now, Hey, you've gotten a lot of experience since then, Yes. 91 00:08:28,479.58049887 --> 00:08:32,528.16326531 I I just shaved my beard at New Year's because I'm getting too many gray hairs. 92 00:08:32,582.80045351 --> 00:08:32,882.80045351 Nice. 93 00:08:32,882.80045351 --> 00:08:33,272.80045351 Nice. 94 00:08:33,272.80045351 --> 00:08:34,332.80045351 But that's really cool. 95 00:08:34,332.80045351 --> 00:08:43,1.11111111 I was about to ask where did you, how did you come up with this process? But a lot of it was, inspired by what you were doing with bamboo flooring over in China, right? Yeah. 96 00:08:43,391.11111111 --> 00:08:52,521.11111111 So when I was in college, I went and studied in China for a semester and did an internship at a bamboo flooring mill, and they were trying to figure out how to make bamboo floor. 97 00:08:52,531.11111111 --> 00:08:54,31.11111111 Densified so harder. 98 00:08:54,31.11111111 --> 00:09:03,56.11111111 So you could use it for commercial applications because bamboo's traditionally soft, and so if you were putting it in a restaurant, high heels were putting dings and dents and chairs and things. 99 00:09:03,522.77777778 --> 00:09:14,252.77777778 So there was this big rush or race to figure out how do you make bamboo high density like an old growth wood, that way it can be used for flooring, furniture, cabinetry, things that need to have that dur. 100 00:09:14,822.77777778 --> 00:09:21,252.77777778 And we came up with a way of impregnating it with glues and then compressing it together and baking it in an oven, like a loaf of bread. 101 00:09:21,612.77777778 --> 00:09:26,178.82086168 So you can make a log out of something that used to be a bunch of little strips or fibers. 102 00:09:26,188.82086168 --> 00:09:28,743.82086168 And I wasn't the inventor of that process. 103 00:09:28,743.82086168 --> 00:09:40,519.95464852 I was early on in it where I was putting together a lot of the actual day-to-day standard operating procedures and wrote a math equation out of it, an algorithm that kind of took the whole process and put it in numbers. 104 00:09:40,529.95464852 --> 00:09:43,49.95464852 And I did get my name on some of the patents and stuff like that. 105 00:09:43,59.95464852 --> 00:09:46,563.28798186 And actually lived there for 14 years making bamboo logs. 106 00:09:46,578.28798186 --> 00:09:46,938.28798186 Nice. 107 00:09:46,943.28798186 --> 00:09:50,374.92063492 And then you came back over here 14 years ago or when did that? 2018. 108 00:09:50,384.92063492 --> 00:09:51,344.92063492 Okay, gotcha. 109 00:09:51,374.92063492 --> 00:10:01,231.58730159 So that was literally my god, five years ago when the farm bill passed and the research on this was to a point where it made sense to actually jump into doing template. 110 00:10:01,236.58730159 --> 00:10:12,228.00453515 This was the thing, and when we were setting it up, we saw this whole carbon scenario that people were calling for and made in America where people were looking for a carbon negative product. 111 00:10:12,238.00453515 --> 00:10:30,511.33786848 Let's face it, that's a problem when cars are emitting as much carbon as they are, or the built industry, which is concrete and wood and rebar and steel and all this are throwing so much carbon into the air, you're digging it out of the earth and you're throwing it back up into the air and then expecting something not to change. 112 00:10:30,521.33786848 --> 00:10:34,871.33786848 And the reality is some sort of pollutants in the air cause more heat on the. 113 00:10:34,881.33786848 --> 00:10:36,81.33786848 The plain and simple of it. 114 00:10:36,321.33786848 --> 00:10:49,946.33786848 And so if you can do something that's pulling some of those pollutants, some of that carbon outta the air and sticking it back in the soil, why not? You can make a pile of money if you wanna go to Wall Street, but if you wanna do something right or good, you probably gotta roll up your sleeves and do it. 115 00:10:49,956.33786848 --> 00:10:56,132.81179138 And Murray State University, when I came up with this crazy idea, we're gonna make HempWood, they said, sure, let's figure it. 116 00:10:56,609.47845805 --> 00:10:58,889.47845805 and so that's how we ended up in Kentucky. 117 00:10:58,894.47845805 --> 00:10:59,164.47845805 Nice. 118 00:10:59,224.47845805 --> 00:11:09,837.52834467 And I love that how you were mentioning like all those things that like, how you built your whole process with, the old shipping containers, and you used like the old tobacco, drying kind like processes. 119 00:11:09,837.52834467 --> 00:11:18,947.98185941 You really like taking whatever you have in your environment and just like making it a way to, apply it to what you have now and to make your new HempWood in this new format. 120 00:11:18,952.98185941 --> 00:11:23,315.34013605 Rather than trying to say oh, I'm gonna find all these new resources and build something completely new. 121 00:11:23,315.34013605 --> 00:11:29,75.34013605 You were like, how can we use what's around? I think that's like really awesome that you were able to do that absolutely. 122 00:11:29,80.34013605 --> 00:11:33,480.34013605 Significantly necessary because America doesn't make very much anymore. 123 00:11:33,490.34013605 --> 00:11:39,90.34013605 And so if people aren't making machines here anymore, and you have to see if something actually works. 124 00:11:39,90.34013605 --> 00:11:56,639.62585034 When we were standing this place up, we bought the press because I was familiar with that with Bamboo, but our first oven, before we could take that shipping container and turn it into a 20 foot oven, we went on Facebook Marketplace and we found an oven that was used for powder coating motorcycle. 125 00:11:56,939.62585034 --> 00:12:00,579.62585034 Motorcycle frames and went and bought that thing as our proof of concept. 126 00:12:00,969.62585034 --> 00:12:11,274.62585034 It was like 3000 bucks when we had to drive six hours to get pick it up And that's how we figured out, oh yeah, this is the temperature we've gotta bake bake the blocks before we set it up in a full scale oven. 127 00:12:11,284.62585034 --> 00:12:16,174.62585034 And then that full scale oven, we had to figure out how do we hook that up to our waist so we could have a carbon negative. 128 00:12:16,184.62585034 --> 00:12:23,9.62585034 And the soy base glue was the exact same way we were working with Oregon State University and Murray State University. 129 00:12:23,9.62585034 --> 00:12:31,309.62585034 Both have chemistry departments that are really good at these organic chemistries, and we figured out it worked in a lab and then we had to figure out how to do it on a full scale. 130 00:12:31,319.62585034 --> 00:12:34,499.62585034 So we went to Tractor Supply and bought some horse. 131 00:12:35,16.29251701 --> 00:12:44,16.29251701 Like the watering troughs for horses and we're filling it up with a hundred gallons of glue at a time and then soaking our hemp stalks in it and literally just picking it up. 132 00:12:44,346.29251701 --> 00:12:54,641.29251701 And we built some racks out of Wood two by fours, and we're sending it out in the sun to dry, to figure out, hey, how does this process work? And then pressing it into a log and modifying it and adapting it. 133 00:12:54,651.29251701 --> 00:13:01,531.292517 Before we then bought tobacco barns and started using those as dryers, but we had them hooked up to natural gas. 134 00:13:01,541.292517 --> 00:13:11,441.292517 So we had a silo dryer, what's used for drying silos of corn beans hooked up to the bottom of a tobacco barn, throwing in hot air to recirculate through. 135 00:13:11,451.292517 --> 00:13:15,578.20861678 And it worked, but it wasn't big enough and it was using natural gas. 136 00:13:15,615.45351474 --> 00:13:16,725.45351474 Petroleum based product. 137 00:13:17,115.45351474 --> 00:13:32,305.45351474 And so then we said, all right, how do we do this? But using a renewable energy? And the answer was a bio burner heating fluids, which we'd learned from the tobacco industry because they do have wood chip burners that you can hook up to tobacco barns. 138 00:13:32,315.45351474 --> 00:13:37,155.45351474 But the tobacco barns were too small and not quite what we were looking for, so we had to find a rail car. 139 00:13:37,165.45351474 --> 00:13:40,645.45351474 And then the guts from five tobacco barns shoved into one rail. 140 00:13:41,208.78684807 --> 00:13:45,418.78684807 So it's continuing to develop the HempWood process like that. 141 00:13:45,508.78684807 --> 00:13:52,222.1201814 Now, our second facility, which is here as well, makes the finished goods, the flooring, and most of that equipment is off the shelf. 142 00:13:52,232.1201814 --> 00:13:55,272.1201814 You can buy most of your flooring equipment. 143 00:13:55,702.1201814 --> 00:14:07,442.1201814 From established manufacturers, whether they're in the US or overseas, you can find a lot of that stuff from other wood mills that are shutting down or other wood mills that have additional old equipment, things like that. 144 00:14:07,497.1201814 --> 00:14:11,427.1201814 But you do have to modify the process because hemp input is so hard and durable. 145 00:14:11,437.1201814 --> 00:14:14,107.1201814 It's got the density of a 200 year old Brazilian cherry. 146 00:14:14,117.1201814 --> 00:14:15,707.1201814 It's 20% harder than hickory. 147 00:14:15,717.1201814 --> 00:14:19,947.1201814 So we had to get diamond tooling to be able to cut the tongue and groove profile. 148 00:14:19,957.1201814 --> 00:14:23,387.1201814 And we had to set it up on a engineered platform. 149 00:14:23,392.1201814 --> 00:14:25,237.1201814 We learned, which is a plywood backer. 150 00:14:25,327.1201814 --> 00:14:31,462.1201814 We use a Columbia pry products, West Virginia Poplar as the backer, and it uses that same soy based glue. 151 00:14:31,492.1201814 --> 00:14:36,373.59410431 They were the ones who helped us and taught us what is the minimum requirements for doing the soy based glue. 152 00:14:36,463.59410431 --> 00:14:40,434.05895691 We had to obviously adapt it to our HempWood, but we use a West Virginia. 153 00:14:40,444.05895691 --> 00:14:42,39.05895691 which means everything is locally sourced. 154 00:14:42,49.05895691 --> 00:14:45,229.05895691 We have the glue that puts it together. 155 00:14:45,259.05895691 --> 00:14:50,759.05895691 We cut it with a diamond tooling, and then we had to modify the coatings that we put on it. 156 00:14:50,764.05895691 --> 00:14:56,409.05895691 Cuz most coatings are petroleum based and they are not as healthy as you would want 'em to be. 157 00:14:56,419.05895691 --> 00:14:59,719.05895691 And so we found the cleanest boner coating that you could apply. 158 00:14:59,719.05895691 --> 00:15:05,579.05895691 And then, We did it by hand for the first two years and then we just are finally starting to get that part of it mechanized too. 159 00:15:05,584.05895691 --> 00:15:05,944.05895691 Nice. 160 00:15:05,949.05895691 --> 00:15:06,724.05895691 That's really awesome. 161 00:15:06,729.05895691 --> 00:15:30,741.09977324 And being able to, Just use that innovation and that spirit of just like always considering how you can you, manipulate it and make it work better and what is your hope for creating HempWood, like now in, in this marketplace? Where do you see it going? Right now it fits best if you're going for a residential application for a healthy material because nobody wants to have dirty toxins inside of their house. 162 00:15:30,751.09977324 --> 00:15:33,421.09977324 Whether you have children and you're worried about them getting asthma. 163 00:15:33,831.09977324 --> 00:15:40,711.09977324 Or whether you have some sort of elderly people in your house that already have respiratory issues. 164 00:15:40,861.09977324 --> 00:15:43,231.09977324 Nobody wants to put something dirty into your home. 165 00:15:43,241.09977324 --> 00:15:48,396.09977324 So that works very well for us as far as putting it as a residential product. 166 00:15:48,406.09977324 --> 00:15:51,536.09977324 And then for commercial, it's a fire resistant. 167 00:15:51,902.76643991 --> 00:15:55,139.43310657 20% harder than hickory carbon negative product. 168 00:15:55,149.43310657 --> 00:16:02,749.43310657 And so all of the architect and design firms are really running wild with it because they say, this is what everybody's talking about doing. 169 00:16:02,759.43310657 --> 00:16:15,849.43310657 There's these crazy guys down in Kentucky that are really doing it And so that's our main points right now is a face grade hardwood that's a replacement for oak, hickory, walnut, Brazilian, cherry, tes, all of those and is a interior. 170 00:16:16,389.43310657 --> 00:16:24,859.43310657 Now in the future we are working towards a recycled plastic with our sawdust, Trex style decking for exterior, but that's a year or two down the road. 171 00:16:24,869.43310657 --> 00:16:38,357.76643991 We're also working towards a structural wood, what we call O H B oriented hemp board, to be able to build structural elements of a house, potentially even some studs or L V L. 172 00:16:38,367.76643991 --> 00:16:41,427.7664399 But that's a 2025 market launch product. 173 00:16:41,437.7664399 --> 00:16:58,573.9319728 So right now we're just doing what everyone's supposed to do and getting HempWood out into the market and people like yourself that are actually preaching the good word of sustainability and healthy materials are definitely of our goes along the path because we lived upon that. 174 00:16:58,573.9319728 --> 00:17:00,133.9319728 If you build it, they will come. 175 00:17:00,707.2653061 --> 00:17:07,569.6575964 And Covid changed everybody's priorities for what they were looking towards for a couple of years. 176 00:17:07,749.6575964 --> 00:17:22,569.6575964 And now things are finally getting back on track and you throw a recession and a war on the other side of the world into it, and people are forgetting that like you're supposed to just do what's right and be nice to your neighbor rather than try to. 177 00:17:23,782.9909297 --> 00:17:36,670.1111111 The country next door, or try to sneak dirty chemicals into a product and then because you can make it cheaper, there's no reason to make flooring for the United States in Cambodia. 178 00:17:37,248.0136054 --> 00:17:40,38.0136054 Which is where the majority of the flooring in the US comes from now. 179 00:17:40,48.0136054 --> 00:17:45,671.3469388 So I do encourage everybody who's watching this or looking at this to just read the origin of where their product comes from. 180 00:17:45,681.3469388 --> 00:18:05,981.3469388 Because why would you cut down an oak tree in France or Ukraine to send to Cambodia to married up to a piece of formaldehyde, glue, plywood from Russia to sell in a store in ca? And the reason is because you can make more money doing the wrong thing than you can doing the right thing. 181 00:18:05,991.3469388 --> 00:18:08,331.3469388 And the powers that be have found that out. 182 00:18:08,421.3469388 --> 00:18:16,621.3469388 That dollar an hour labor in poor countries allows someone in the big city trading house to make more profit off of it. 183 00:18:16,631.3469388 --> 00:18:22,234.6802721 And the more people realize, That your local economy is what keeps things rolling. 184 00:18:22,244.6802721 --> 00:18:27,104.6802721 The more they'll realize that shop, locals buy something made in the country that you're in. 185 00:18:27,494.6802721 --> 00:18:42,824.6802721 You don't have to buy something from a huge corporation because in order for those huge corporations to make the profit margins that they need to pay the stock market and to pay all of the powers that be in there, they have to cut corners, which is labor and material, and. 186 00:18:42,834.6802721 --> 00:18:54,324.6802721 If people wake up to that and say, I'd rather have a healthy material that I can go on YouTube and check out the Instagram or YouTube channels for HempWood and see how it was made. 187 00:18:54,594.6802721 --> 00:18:59,494.6802721 Where it was made, and who's making it than your floor or your. 188 00:18:59,504.6802721 --> 00:19:01,124.6802721 Kitchen table actually has a meaning to you. 189 00:19:01,134.6802721 --> 00:19:05,334.6802721 It actually, you can say, Hey look, I heard the story where Tommy was an intern. 190 00:19:05,724.6802721 --> 00:19:24,244.2834467 Now he's the plant manager four or five years in, and he's running his team of eight or 10 guys making him put every day, and you can live the story of what we're doing here, rather than say yeah, it was cheap and I bought it at Lowe's, and it was made by a company like Shaw or Mohawk that had a Cambodian. 191 00:19:24,254.2834467 --> 00:19:27,974.2834467 Potentially child labor, putting it together with some dirty chemicals. 192 00:19:27,984.2834467 --> 00:19:29,124.2834467 And that's the reality. 193 00:19:29,129.2834467 --> 00:19:30,110.3945578 That's what happens. 194 00:19:30,380.3945578 --> 00:19:49,23.2290249 It's the same thing as like when they caught McDonald's doing the burgers that were made with animals that were rejected from your prime grade, but they were grown in South America where they cut down the rainforest because you could easily grow more beef down there and feed 'em with so, that exposes, oh, that's how McDonald's was making their profit. 195 00:19:49,28.2290249 --> 00:19:51,338.2290249 That's how Lows and Home Depot are doing their stuff too. 196 00:19:51,348.2290249 --> 00:19:55,318.2290249 It's just people haven't quite caught on to Hey, if it's made in America, there's some rules. 197 00:19:55,328.2290249 --> 00:20:02,240.9614512 And if it's made overseas, there's an opaque kind of layer to that you don't quite know and you can't quite see. 198 00:20:02,245.9614512 --> 00:20:06,576.9365079 And people will go buy certifications to tell you yeah, this is healthy and clean. 199 00:20:06,593.8412698 --> 00:20:08,578.8412698 and they're just buying the certification. 200 00:20:08,588.8412698 --> 00:20:12,643.8412698 They're not going to all the extent of yeah, we're using our waste as our energy. 201 00:20:12,653.8412698 --> 00:20:19,428.2290249 We're using a plant-based glue because I don't want to have a clean room in my factory where you can apply a dirty glue. 202 00:20:19,433.2290249 --> 00:20:19,873.3877551 Definitely. 203 00:20:19,873.3877551 --> 00:20:27,632.8888889 And I know you mentioned a couple times that you're in conjunction working with a number of the local universities and everything around, your plants. 204 00:20:27,842.8888889 --> 00:20:37,477.3560091 What first allowed you to start, collaborating with them? Or was this kind of from the beginning that you started working? So you always have to reach out to the universities first. 205 00:20:37,487.3560091 --> 00:20:42,57.3560091 So I've worked with Oregon State University since 2008 with various projects. 206 00:20:42,67.3560091 --> 00:20:48,397.3560091 And so I talked to Oregon State University and said, Hey, I'm trying to figure out this soy-based glue that came from your campus. 207 00:20:48,402.3560091 --> 00:20:53,557.3560091 And I think it was about 2000, 2001, they started doing some soy-based glu research there. 208 00:20:53,567.3560091 --> 00:20:56,427.3560091 And so I reached out to them about the glue and Murray State. 209 00:20:56,607.3560091 --> 00:20:57,447.3560091 I called Murray. 210 00:20:57,457.3560091 --> 00:21:08,715.6893424 and said, I was looking for a place that was gonna have a thousand tons of hemp stocks per year, and that the internet told me Murray State planted the first hemp in the United States since it became legal in 2014. 211 00:21:08,725.6893424 --> 00:21:13,645.6893424 And that historically hemp had grown in this region because of the climate in the soil. 212 00:21:14,5.6893424 --> 00:21:15,545.6893424 Some of the best in the us and. 213 00:21:15,555.6893424 --> 00:21:16,905.6893424 Before it was illegal. 214 00:21:17,145.6893424 --> 00:21:23,375.6893424 If it made sense to grow it here, then it seems like it would make sense that it's gonna grow here after it becomes legal again. 215 00:21:23,385.6893424 --> 00:21:29,899.0226757 And Murray State University literally answered the phone with Dean Brandon from the at school here. 216 00:21:29,904.0226757 --> 00:21:32,696.9705215 When I called him, he said, what do you do? I said I make bamboo floor. 217 00:21:32,696.9705215 --> 00:21:33,641.1655329 And he's in China. 218 00:21:33,701.1655329 --> 00:21:34,451.1655329 I was like, yeah. 219 00:21:34,511.1655329 --> 00:21:36,304.0680272 He's okay, it's Chinese number. 220 00:21:36,304.0680272 --> 00:21:37,54.0680272 That came up on my. 221 00:21:37,617.4580499 --> 00:21:39,297.4580499 And so that checks out. 222 00:21:39,307.4580499 --> 00:21:44,937.4580499 And he said, are you gonna pay your farmers and pay your employees before you pay yourself, and you're welcome to come down and have a go. 223 00:21:44,947.4580499 --> 00:21:47,257.4580499 And so that's how we figured it out. 224 00:21:47,287.4580499 --> 00:21:56,927.4580499 When I showed up, he actually gave me a building on campus and said, Hey, on the school farm, he was like, here's a building you can start doing some of your research at where you try to get your feet underneath of you for the rest of it. 225 00:21:56,937.4580499 --> 00:21:58,287.4580499 And that's literally led. 226 00:21:58,297.4580499 --> 00:22:04,577.4580499 20 plus employees here in Murray, Kentucky, just because Murray State University said, yeah, we'll have a go. 227 00:22:04,587.4580499 --> 00:22:05,427.4580499 Wow, that's awesome. 228 00:22:05,437.4580499 --> 00:22:05,857.4580499 I love that. 229 00:22:05,867.4580499 --> 00:22:11,967.4580499 What I would say or my ask from you and your listeners and your group, Go on the website, order a sample pack. 230 00:22:12,357.4580499 --> 00:22:15,237.4580499 We'll credit it towards your first large scaled order. 231 00:22:15,327.4580499 --> 00:22:16,477.4580499 It's hempwood.com. 232 00:22:16,507.4580499 --> 00:22:22,537.4580499 Give us a like on Instagram or TikTok or Facebook or YouTube and just check out what we do. 233 00:22:22,537.4580499 --> 00:22:26,17.4580499 There's the origin story on all the different platforms. 234 00:22:26,17.4580499 --> 00:22:29,147.4580499 We've got videos about how we make it and tell people about it. 235 00:22:29,507.4580499 --> 00:22:32,387.4580499 Try to make this thing understood and known. 236 00:22:32,397.4580499 --> 00:22:39,337.4580499 So when someone walks into a flooring, Next year or the year after, they are not surprised in saying, wow, hepa, that's. 237 00:22:39,347.4580499 --> 00:22:42,227.4580499 And then they go and buy oak or vinyl flooring. 238 00:22:42,237.4580499 --> 00:22:44,667.4580499 They look at it and say, HempWood, I've heard of that. 239 00:22:44,937.4580499 --> 00:22:48,577.4580499 That is a legitimate option for putting into my home. 240 00:22:48,817.4580499 --> 00:22:51,947.4580499 And they already have a little background that they know it's a clean material. 241 00:22:52,67.4580499 --> 00:22:53,387.4580499 They know it's made in America. 242 00:22:53,447.4580499 --> 00:22:54,647.4580499 They know it's durable. 243 00:22:54,657.4580499 --> 00:23:00,790.0997165 They know the history of being the only carbon negative, or at least hopefully by that time, other people are starting to do it. 244 00:23:01,180.0997165 --> 00:23:02,580.0997165 So we can just say we were the. 245 00:23:03,81.6564874 --> 00:23:11,95.3412946 Not the only, that's our goal to get everybody else to step their game up, but it starts with the market and your listeners knowing and understanding what we're doing here. 246 00:23:11,105.3412946 --> 00:23:11,855.3412946 Yeah, definitely. 247 00:23:11,855.3412946 --> 00:23:12,245.3412946 For sure. 248 00:23:12,245.3412946 --> 00:23:15,524.2641971 And I'll have all the links down the show notes and everything like that too. 249 00:23:15,525.137213 --> 00:23:26,375.7607958 And then do you see as your goals for the next six months or so? Get through this recession scenario, where the wintertime is always the most difficult seasonal time of the year for building materials. 250 00:23:26,375.7607958 --> 00:23:26,975.7607958 For building. 251 00:23:26,975.7607958 --> 00:23:28,325.7607958 For production. 252 00:23:28,330.7607958 --> 00:23:33,825.7607958 You've got weather problems, you've got daylight hour problems, you've got all of that. 253 00:23:33,915.7607958 --> 00:23:41,0.7607958 So kind of cruise through the first quarter really sharpen our blade to be ready to kick down the door. 254 00:23:41,10.7607958 --> 00:23:47,630.7607958 Come, the warm weather starting to come back, and we want to grow and become profitable in the second quarter of this year. 255 00:23:47,640.7607958 --> 00:23:52,50.7607958 We have hit gross profitability some months, but never net profitability. 256 00:23:52,60.7607958 --> 00:23:59,270.7607958 We want people to understand what we're doing and understand that hemp input is not just for the. 257 00:23:59,275.7607958 --> 00:24:06,885.7607958 People that don't have to care about the price of things because now we're getting different grades of he input flooring where you can find some of our flooring. 258 00:24:07,65.7607958 --> 00:24:12,885.7607958 If you need something that's more on a budget, you can find some stuff at 5 99 a square foot. 259 00:24:12,895.7607958 --> 00:24:22,385.7607958 You can get some of our common grade prefinished at 7 99 a square foot, and then you can get our premium select grade at 9 99 a square foot. 260 00:24:22,395.7607958 --> 00:24:25,485.7607958 So it fits a lot of different tranches of people's budget. 261 00:24:25,495.7607958 --> 00:24:47,265.7607958 Whereas maybe you don't wanna put hemp put in your entire house or in your entire building, but you can put it in your home office, your yoga studio, your wine cellar, or an accent wall in your house where it can be a piece of something that kind of reminds you that I did make the choice for the healthy, sustainable material, even if it's just an accident like that behind the. 262 00:24:47,729.0941291 --> 00:24:49,409.0941291 Thing's only three foot by eight foot. 263 00:24:49,409.0941291 --> 00:24:50,549.0941291 That's 24 square feet. 264 00:24:50,759.0941291 --> 00:24:57,49.0941291 You can do that for a couple hundred bucks and every day you look at it and you say, some people look in the mirror and say, oh, hey, I'm ready to go. 265 00:24:57,49.0941291 --> 00:24:57,769.0941291 Take the world on. 266 00:24:57,779.0941291 --> 00:25:03,639.0941291 You can wake up every day and look at your accent wall and say, you know what? That puts me in a good mood because I made the right decision. 267 00:25:03,649.0941291 --> 00:25:04,189.0941291 Yeah, definitely. 268 00:25:04,216.8492311 --> 00:25:10,188.8220203 You made a choice to buy a sustainable product that was made in America and, is carbon negative, which is great. 269 00:25:10,221.3617028 --> 00:25:14,846.7245146 It's not like you might not and made an accent wall that was just another, ochre or something like that. 270 00:25:14,889.8651042 --> 00:25:19,116.0329046 It's something that you can remind yourself of how you made the sustainable choice, which is really awesome. 271 00:25:19,446.0329046 --> 00:25:19,803.4705463 For sure. 272 00:25:19,808.4705463 --> 00:25:21,128.4705463 100%, man. 273 00:25:21,128.4705463 --> 00:25:22,368.4705463 You get it, Yeah, definitely. 274 00:25:22,630.7834715 --> 00:25:41,276.1009318 And I'd love to ask this question too, what are you currently learning right now? What am I currently learning? The biggest takeaway from 2022 that is a hard pill to swallow is that no matter how good of a job you do, no matter how clean of a product you do, money dictates the majority of decisions, unfortunately. 275 00:25:41,286.1009318 --> 00:25:46,352.7675985 And so even if somebody wants to make the correct. 276 00:25:46,819.4342652 --> 00:25:48,649.4342652 In a building material, they're gonna put somewhere. 277 00:25:48,659.4342652 --> 00:25:53,112.7675985 At the end of the day, what they can afford is what they actually choose to do. 278 00:25:53,122.7675985 --> 00:26:00,572.7675985 And so it's up to us as a manufacturer to come up with maybe not a cheaper product quality-wise. 279 00:26:01,7.7675985 --> 00:26:07,797.7675985 But different grades of product like you do in the wood industry where you have a select grade and you have a common grade, and you have a rustic grade. 280 00:26:07,807.7675985 --> 00:26:15,647.7675985 And allow people to make their own decision on what they can afford or what they want to do, rather than just saying, Hey, one size. 281 00:26:16,317.7675985 --> 00:26:17,962.7675985 you have to give the options. 282 00:26:17,972.7675985 --> 00:26:18,812.7675985 Yeah, definitely. 283 00:26:18,815.2052402 --> 00:26:19,140.2052402 That's good. 284 00:26:19,140.2052402 --> 00:26:34,965.5793899 And where do you see being able to reduce prices in the future as you're able to scale further or what's holding your product back from, being more cost competitive? We are directly competitive, even cheaper than domestic. 285 00:26:35,608.9127232 --> 00:26:38,873.9127232 So when people say, oh, it's not competitive, oh, that's not the case anymore. 286 00:26:38,883.9127232 --> 00:26:43,223.9580747 We've we've brought our costs down by about 20% every year since we started. 287 00:26:43,583.9580747 --> 00:26:44,543.9580747 So three years in a row. 288 00:26:44,703.9580747 --> 00:26:45,23.9580747 Nice. 289 00:26:45,28.9580747 --> 00:26:48,393.9807504 We've reduced our price to our customers by 20%. 290 00:26:48,398.9807504 --> 00:26:51,998.9807504 We do expect that to continue for this coming year. 291 00:26:52,3.9807504 --> 00:26:54,163.9807504 I don't know how to pull it off the following year. 292 00:26:54,173.9807504 --> 00:26:55,523.9807504 I guess we'll see when we get there. 293 00:26:55,533.9807504 --> 00:27:00,133.9807504 So what we have to do is just make sure people are comparing apples to apples. 294 00:27:00,143.9807504 --> 00:27:05,897.3140838 So if for domestic hardwood flooring, we are at cost parody, in some cases even less. 295 00:27:05,907.3140838 --> 00:27:14,187.3140838 But if you're comparing us to flooring that's made overseas, then we are not as cheap as if you're comparing us to. 296 00:27:14,962.3140838 --> 00:27:17,92.3140838 That's a completely different product range. 297 00:27:17,102.3140838 --> 00:27:19,778.9807504 So for domestic hardwood, yep, we've got it. 298 00:27:19,788.9807504 --> 00:27:29,913.9807504 But as far as a made in a lower cost country or made with a cheaper base material like vinyl, you're comparing apples to orange. 299 00:27:29,918.9807504 --> 00:27:30,368.9807504 Definitely. 300 00:27:30,368.9807504 --> 00:27:32,554.7857391 It's just like you're not even comparing the same product. 301 00:27:32,554.7857391 --> 00:27:33,814.7857391 They don't have the same features. 302 00:27:33,814.7857391 --> 00:27:36,7.6428819 They don't have, the same durability. 303 00:27:36,7.6428819 --> 00:27:36,859.2528593 They don't have any of that. 304 00:27:36,859.2528593 --> 00:27:37,830.6360792 It's, different products. 305 00:27:37,896.9059205 --> 00:27:38,316.9059205 for sure. 306 00:27:38,376.9059205 --> 00:27:39,36.9059205 Absolutely. 307 00:27:39,46.9059205 --> 00:27:40,66.9059205 So fantastic. 308 00:27:40,71.9059205 --> 00:27:41,631.9059205 One last question here. 309 00:27:41,698.9807504 --> 00:27:46,414.0034262 If anybody wants to follow you, reach out to you, how can they best get in touch? Absolutely HempWood.com, 310 00:27:46,434.0034262 --> 00:27:50,754.0034262 and if you go on there, you can get ahold of us via our chat app. 311 00:27:50,994.0034262 --> 00:27:53,744.0034262 You can get ahold of us sales@hempwood.com. 312 00:27:53,764.0034262 --> 00:27:59,164.0034262 You can fill out some of the different inquiry forms on there, whether it's for flooring or general question. 313 00:27:59,174.0034262 --> 00:28:02,174.0034262 You can get ahold of us on Instagram, which is hemp input underscore. 314 00:28:02,184.0034262 --> 00:28:06,692.3367595 You can get us on our YouTube channel, on our Facebook, or even on Pinterest. 315 00:28:07,52.3367595 --> 00:28:08,162.3367595 So it's all over the place. 316 00:28:08,162.3367595 --> 00:28:10,842.3367595 You just look up HempWood and all roads lead to road Great. 317 00:28:10,842.3367595 --> 00:28:11,744.9444692 Thank you so much Greg. 318 00:28:11,744.9444692 --> 00:28:15,229.9444692 It's been awesome talking to you about HempWood and how your sustainable product. 319 00:28:15,234.9444692 --> 00:28:20,299.9444692 So thank you so much and I hope to have you back on sometime so we can check up and see how you guys are going. 320 00:28:20,309.9444692 --> 00:28:21,29.9444692 Absolutely. 321 00:28:21,34.9444692 --> 00:28:21,899.9444692 Thanks Bud. 322 00:28:21,899.9444692 --> 00:28:39,569.9444692 And if you enjoyed this interview with Greg Wilson from Hemp Wood and how they have created sustainable flooring and hardwood products that is price competitive with any hardwood on the market while being sustainable and not using petroleum products, then I invite you to check out sheets and giggles. 323 00:28:39,629.9444692 --> 00:28:47,819.9444692 They have some of the softest, most sustainable bedding in the world with their eucalyptus sheets, mattresses, and all their other giggles. 324 00:28:47,849.9444692 --> 00:28:50,579.9444692 So if you would like to check out another product that. 325 00:28:51,129.9444692 --> 00:28:55,569.9444692 Disrupting another industry by being so much more sustainable. 326 00:28:55,749.9444692 --> 00:28:59,769.9444692 Then definitely make sure you check out this interview with sheets and.
.333333333An industry that I had never thought of before, was in hardwood flooring. 3 00:00:13,853.333333333 --> 00:00:18,818.333333333 because they're using petroleum products to make the floor water resistant. 4 00:00:18,828.333333333 --> 00:00:22,758.333333333 Not to even mention vinyl, which is just basically plastic. 5 00:00:22,768.333333333 --> 00:00:26,741.666666667 And not only that, but this hardwood flooring is coming from.
Hardwood trees that are being cut down and deforestation has become a very massive issue in terms of the ecosystems where these trees are cut down.
(00:36):
Not only that, but these trees are also carbon deposits as well.
So impacting climate change on a major. 9 00:00:44,126.666666667 --> 00:00:51,868.333333333 However, my guest today, Greg Wilson, will be talking about his sustainable hardwood alternative HempWood. 10 00:00:51,986.666666667 --> 00:00:53,936.666666667 There's no petroleum products. 11 00:00:53,946.666666667 --> 00:01:02,886.666666667 No deforestation because they're just harvesting from hemp and they don't have to cut down the entire plant to be able to produce their hardwood products. 12 00:01:02,941.666666667 --> 00:01:04,661.666666667 Making this sustainable. 13 00:01:04,671.666666667 --> 00:01:14,401.666666667 So make sure you stick around to hear about the sustainable option when it comes to hardwoods, and it's not just for flooring, but so much more. 14 00:01:14,411.666666667 --> 00:01:18,441.666666667 So make sure you stay tuned for this entire amazing episode. 15 00:01:54,457.7324263 --> 00:01:58,978.53741497 Greg, do you mind telling us about HempWood and what you guys do? Yeah, sure. 16 00:01:59,8.53741497 --> 00:02:00,238.53741497 So my name is Greg Wilson. 17 00:02:00,398.53741497 --> 00:02:05,266.97278912 I'm here in Murray, Kentucky, where we are the only manufacturers of HempWood in the world. 18 00:02:05,626.97278912 --> 00:02:09,281.99546485 So HempWood is something new, different, and a little bit strange. 19 00:02:09,735.32879819 --> 00:02:13,425.32879819 Every time people hear about it, they say, wow, that's cool. 20 00:02:13,785.32879819 --> 00:02:14,55.32879819 What. 21 00:02:14,755.32879819 --> 00:02:22,235.32879819 And so that tells us that 99% of America and probably a higher percentage in the world don't know or haven't heard of HempWood. 22 00:02:22,265.32879819 --> 00:02:30,164.33106576 And so we have to go out and preach the gospel every day to everyone who calls in and remember that like it's the first time somebody's heard about it. 23 00:02:30,254.33106576 --> 00:02:37,594.33106576 So even though it's the same story, to us, it's brand new and exciting and just has that kind of the first day of. 24 00:02:38,307.66439909 --> 00:02:39,687.66439909 Opportunity with everybody. 25 00:02:39,697.66439909 --> 00:02:45,465.99773243 And so HempWood is a carbon negative product that is 100% made in America. 26 00:02:45,475.99773243 --> 00:02:50,859.33106576 It is more durable than your domestic hardwoods like Hickory oak or walnut. 27 00:02:50,869.33106576 --> 00:02:59,582.66439909 And it has no VOCs because we developed a plant-based glue to replace formaldehyde, which is traditionally in your engineered wood product. 28 00:02:59,592.66439909 --> 00:03:01,907.66439909 And now vinyl is the new kit on the. 29 00:03:02,374.33106576 --> 00:03:04,604.33106576 For flooring, which is where we compete mainly. 30 00:03:04,614.33106576 --> 00:03:12,109.33106576 And vinyl's got a bunch of dirty chemicals, even dirtier than from Outy that people tend to not talk about because it's waterproof and cheap. 31 00:03:12,119.33106576 --> 00:03:16,149.33106576 So he wood is the only carbon negative hardwood solution out there. 32 00:03:16,159.33106576 --> 00:03:20,489.33106576 It's because we make our own thermal energy from our waste right here at the plant. 33 00:03:20,819.33106576 --> 00:03:24,425.99773243 And we have hydroelectric that comes in to do our electric. 34 00:03:24,729.33106576 --> 00:03:26,409.33106576 So we're here in Murray, Kentucky. 35 00:03:26,559.33106576 --> 00:03:39,699.86394558 We're in coordination with Murray State University, Hudson School of Ag, and that's where most of our higher quality tech employees come from, whether it's from the Ag school or from the engineering school, things like that. 36 00:03:39,849.95464853 --> 00:03:42,909.95464853 Most of our team is very young, like you would see in silicon. 37 00:03:43,499.69387755 --> 00:03:48,651.16780045 With the exception of myself now being 40, a lot of our plant managers are in their mid twenties. 38 00:03:48,671.02040816 --> 00:03:53,470.07936508 Our marketing team is headed by Alyssa and she just graduated last May. 39 00:03:53,475.07936508 --> 00:04:04,779.12698413 And so you can see that the youthful kind of rigor that it takes to run a tech startup is running around here in the form of AgTech instead of software that you find in ca. 40 00:04:04,789.12698413 --> 00:04:05,629.12698413 Yeah, definitely. 41 00:04:05,639.12698413 --> 00:04:06,179.12698413 That's awesome. 42 00:04:06,229.12698413 --> 00:04:11,310.60090703 And you said, you mentioned that you're using a different kind of glue instead of formaldehyde. 43 00:04:11,535.60090703 --> 00:04:14,642.74376417 What is that exactly? Can you go into that more? I'm curious. 44 00:04:14,669.20634921 --> 00:04:15,132.47165533 Yeah, sure. 45 00:04:15,492.47165533 --> 00:04:20,764.7845805 So actually I'll start to explain the process a little bit and the glue is on the front end of that. 46 00:04:21,64.7845805 --> 00:04:25,444.7845805 So we take hemp stops that grow in three to four. 47 00:04:25,754.72789116 --> 00:04:29,474.72789116 And pull carbon at the fastest rate of any land-based plant. 48 00:04:29,484.72789116 --> 00:04:34,114.72789116 Now, I can say that seaweeds and things like that in the water actually pull carbon at a faster rate from my understanding. 49 00:04:34,858.06122449 --> 00:04:44,960.01133787 But most plants pull according to the Fibonacci sequence, 162% of what the biomass of the plant is how much carbon it took pulling from the air to grow that. 50 00:04:44,965.01133787 --> 00:04:47,185.01133787 And that's where our company's called fi. 51 00:04:47,746.67800453 --> 00:04:49,696.67800453 It's not actually HempWood, that's just the product. 52 00:04:49,706.67800453 --> 00:04:52,136.67800453 So we grow this hemp locally here. 53 00:04:52,316.67800453 --> 00:04:59,101.67800453 It's either grown by us or at the school or by our contracted farmers, all within a hundred miles of the plant of the factory here. 54 00:04:59,111.67800453 --> 00:05:05,371.67800453 Then it comes in, we break open the cell structure of it and we impregnate it with proteins from soyer. 55 00:05:05,381.67800453 --> 00:05:11,711.67800453 And the soy flour is actually leftover soy flour that doesn't meet food grade after they press the oil. 56 00:05:11,721.67800453 --> 00:05:12,711.67800453 Out of the seeds. 57 00:05:13,11.67800453 --> 00:05:23,35.1814059 So once you press your oils out, then you grind it up and make flour, and we steal those proteins to reinforce the cell wall of the hemp herd, which is the woody core of the hemp plant. 58 00:05:23,385.1814059 --> 00:05:34,161.84807256 And then the fiber is still longitudinally intact with that woody core, given it the strength from the hemp fiber that everybody knows is in rope and canvas sacks and things like that. 59 00:05:34,161.84807256 --> 00:05:35,151.84807256 That's super strong. 60 00:05:35,161.84807256 --> 00:05:36,781.84807256 So you get your strength from the fiber. 61 00:05:36,791.84807256 --> 00:05:49,11.84807256 You get your woody products or your kind of wood feel and look from the core, which is similar to BALs of wood, but it's reinforced the cell walls just like a tree is growing over 200. 62 00:05:49,518.51473923 --> 00:05:52,45.18140589 a tropical hardwood is super hard, super dense. 63 00:05:52,355.18140589 --> 00:05:57,297.58503401 We're making our product more dense by that soy protein to reinforce the walls there. 64 00:05:57,302.58503401 --> 00:05:58,164.34240363 So it's a bridge. 65 00:05:58,207.39229025 --> 00:06:11,487.39229025 Once we soak it in this adhesive that's based outta soy and it's got some organic acid and some dish detergent in there to keep the molding insects out, then we dry it in our dryers that were actually converted, from being a rail. 66 00:06:11,980.72562358 --> 00:06:33,0.72562358 Into taking the guts from five tobacco barns, the radiators and the fans, hooking that up to our bio burner, which turns our waste hemp into heat, which heats of fluid goes through these radiators and is used for drying out our hemp with the soy protein glue in it, similar to what you do with tobacco when you're curing tobacco, but we do it with hemp, with protein in it. 67 00:06:33,10.72562358 --> 00:06:38,990.72562358 Then once that's dried out to 15% moisture content or less, we press it into log. 68 00:06:39,0.72562358 --> 00:06:51,960.72562358 And once we press it into those logs in this 3000 ton press that we have right here in front of us, then those logs are loaded into an oven that used to be an old shipping container that also has some of these radiators from tobacco barns. 69 00:06:51,990.72562358 --> 00:06:57,76.93877551 Obviously we're in tobacco country, so you can see we're grabbing what's around us everywhere here and sticking it together. 70 00:06:57,86.93877551 --> 00:07:01,816.93877551 We then, fueled the heat for that oven as well by our. 71 00:07:02,310.27210884 --> 00:07:07,530.27210884 So we have Biowaste thermal that's doing our ovens, kilns, dryers and the building. 72 00:07:07,540.27210884 --> 00:07:22,300.27210884 And then once it comes outta that, we open it back up, we cut it into planks, and then we turn it into flooring, furniture, cabinetry, and any sort of a hardwood replacement you're looking for, whether it's architectural, millworks, trims, things like that. 73 00:07:22,385.44217687 --> 00:07:25,220.44217687 You can see actually the accent wall on the wall back there is hemp. 74 00:07:25,230.44217687 --> 00:07:25,860.44217687 In the gray. 75 00:07:25,860.44217687 --> 00:07:26,280.44217687 In the white. 76 00:07:26,290.44217687 --> 00:07:27,580.44217687 The floor in here is HempWood. 77 00:07:27,580.44217687 --> 00:07:28,240.44217687 There's Tommy. 78 00:07:28,450.44217687 --> 00:07:29,470.44217687 He was our first intern. 79 00:07:29,470.44217687 --> 00:07:32,660.44217687 Now he's our plant manager, Four years later, there's tables there. 80 00:07:32,710.44217687 --> 00:07:33,450.44217687 Nice for HempWood. 81 00:07:33,480.44217687 --> 00:07:36,30.44217687 You can even see cabinets and picture frames on the wall. 82 00:07:36,90.44217687 --> 00:07:37,380.44217687 That's Alyssa in the background. 83 00:07:37,390.44217687 --> 00:07:38,530.44217687 She's in charge of our marketing. 84 00:07:38,540.44217687 --> 00:07:47,217.9138322 So we're doing everything that people are talking about with a carbon negative product working towards a carbon neutral process. 85 00:07:47,227.9138322 --> 00:07:57,497.9138322 And having zero waste because we're turning our waste hemp into our energy and selling our sawdust and our sand dust as a bio filler for hemp plastics. 86 00:07:57,502.9138322 --> 00:08:09,936.24716553 The fun fact is that most most of your hemp plastics in the United States are being made by our sawdust are our sand dust that we send up to Michigan or Minnesota, and they compound it with recycled plastic to turn into pellets. 87 00:08:09,946.24716553 --> 00:08:11,896.24716553 Right now they're making cannabis package. 88 00:08:12,189.58049887 --> 00:08:14,679.58049887 We would like to make Trex happening out of it in the future. 89 00:08:14,689.58049887 --> 00:08:19,139.58049887 And there's my wife, I brought her over from China with me when we were doing this with Bamboo. 90 00:08:19,149.58049887 --> 00:08:28,474.58049887 So if you've seen Bamboo flooring, that was my college project, unfortunately, I have to say 21 years ago now, Hey, you've gotten a lot of experience since then, Yes. 91 00:08:28,479.58049887 --> 00:08:32,528.16326531 I I just shaved my beard at New Year's because I'm getting too many gray hairs. 92 00:08:32,582.80045351 --> 00:08:32,882.80045351 Nice. 93 00:08:32,882.80045351 --> 00:08:33,272.80045351 Nice. 94 00:08:33,272.80045351 --> 00:08:34,332.80045351 But that's really cool. 95 00:08:34,332.80045351 --> 00:08:43,1.11111111 I was about to ask where did you, how did you come up with this process? But a lot of it was, inspired by what you were doing with bamboo flooring over in China, right? Yeah. 96 00:08:43,391.11111111 --> 00:08:52,521.11111111 So when I was in college, I went and studied in China for a semester and did an internship at a bamboo flooring mill, and they were trying to figure out how to make bamboo floor. 97 00:08:52,531.11111111 --> 00:08:54,31.11111111 Densified so harder. 98 00:08:54,31.11111111 --> 00:09:03,56.11111111 So you could use it for commercial applications because bamboo's traditionally soft, and so if you were putting it in a restaurant, high heels were putting dings and dents and chairs and things. 99 00:09:03,522.77777778 --> 00:09:14,252.77777778 So there was this big rush or race to figure out how do you make bamboo high density like an old growth wood, that way it can be used for flooring, furniture, cabinetry, things that need to have that dur. 100 00:09:14,822.77777778 --> 00:09:21,252.77777778 And we came up with a way of impregnating it with glues and then compressing it together and baking it in an oven, like a loaf of bread. 101 00:09:21,612.77777778 --> 00:09:26,178.82086168 So you can make a log out of something that used to be a bunch of little strips or fibers. 102 00:09:26,188.82086168 --> 00:09:28,743.82086168 And I wasn't the inventor of that process. 103 00:09:28,743.82086168 --> 00:09:40,519.95464852 I was early on in it where I was putting together a lot of the actual day-to-day standard operating procedures and wrote a math equation out of it, an algorithm that kind of took the whole process and put it in numbers. 104 00:09:40,529.95464852 --> 00:09:43,49.95464852 And I did get my name on some of the patents and stuff like that. 105 00:09:43,59.95464852 --> 00:09:46,563.28798186 And actually lived there for 14 years making bamboo logs. 106 00:09:46,578.28798186 --> 00:09:46,938.28798186 Nice. 107 00:09:46,943.28798186 --> 00:09:50,374.92063492 And then you came back over here 14 years ago or when did that? 2018. 108 00:09:50,384.92063492 --> 00:09:51,344.92063492 Okay, gotcha. 109 00:09:51,374.92063492 --> 00:10:01,231.58730159 So that was literally my god, five years ago when the farm bill passed and the research on this was to a point where it made sense to actually jump into doing template. 110 00:10:01,236.58730159 --> 00:10:12,228.00453515 This was the thing, and when we were setting it up, we saw this whole carbon scenario that people were calling for and made in America where people were looking for a carbon negative product. 111 00:10:12,238.00453515 --> 00:10:30,511.33786848 Let's face it, that's a problem when cars are emitting as much carbon as they are, or the built industry, which is concrete and wood and rebar and steel and all this are throwing so much carbon into the air, you're digging it out of the earth and you're throwing it back up into the air and then expecting something not to change. 112 00:10:30,521.33786848 --> 00:10:34,871.33786848 And the reality is some sort of pollutants in the air cause more heat on the. 113 00:10:34,881.33786848 --> 00:10:36,81.33786848 The plain and simple of it. 114 00:10:36,321.33786848 --> 00:10:49,946.33786848 And so if you can do something that's pulling some of those pollutants, some of that carbon outta the air and sticking it back in the soil, why not? You can make a pile of money if you wanna go to Wall Street, but if you wanna do something right or good, you probably gotta roll up your sleeves and do it. 115 00:10:49,956.33786848 --> 00:10:56,132.81179138 And Murray State University, when I came up with this crazy idea, we're gonna make HempWood, they said, sure, let's figure it. 116 00:10:56,609.47845805 --> 00:10:58,889.47845805 and so that's how we ended up in Kentucky. 117 00:10:58,894.47845805 --> 00:10:59,164.47845805 Nice. 118 00:10:59,224.47845805 --> 00:11:09,837.52834467 And I love that how you were mentioning like all those things that like, how you built your whole process with, the old shipping containers, and you used like the old tobacco, drying kind like processes. 119 00:11:09,837.52834467 --> 00:11:18,947.98185941 You really like taking whatever you have in your environment and just like making it a way to, apply it to what you have now and to make your new HempWood in this new format. 120 00:11:18,952.98185941 --> 00:11:23,315.34013605 Rather than trying to say oh, I'm gonna find all these new resources and build something completely new. 121 00:11:23,315.34013605 --> 00:11:29,75.34013605 You were like, how can we use what's around? I think that's like really awesome that you were able to do that absolutely. 122 00:11:29,80.34013605 --> 00:11:33,480.34013605 Significantly necessary because America doesn't make very much anymore. 123 00:11:33,490.34013605 --> 00:11:39,90.34013605 And so if people aren't making machines here anymore, and you have to see if something actually works. 124 00:11:39,90.34013605 --> 00:11:56,639.62585034 When we were standing this place up, we bought the press because I was familiar with that with Bamboo, but our first oven, before we could take that shipping container and turn it into a 20 foot oven, we went on Facebook Marketplace and we found an oven that was used for powder coating motorcycle. 125 00:11:56,939.62585034 --> 00:12:00,579.62585034 Motorcycle frames and went and bought that thing as our proof of concept. 126 00:12:00,969.62585034 --> 00:12:11,274.62585034 It was like 3000 bucks when we had to drive six hours to get pick it up And that's how we figured out, oh yeah, this is the temperature we've gotta bake bake the blocks before we set it up in a full scale oven. 127 00:12:11,284.62585034 --> 00:12:16,174.62585034 And then that full scale oven, we had to figure out how do we hook that up to our waist so we could have a carbon negative. 128 00:12:16,184.62585034 --> 00:12:23,9.62585034 And the soy base glue was the exact same way we were working with Oregon State University and Murray State University. 129 00:12:23,9.62585034 --> 00:12:31,309.62585034 Both have chemistry departments that are really good at these organic chemistries, and we figured out it worked in a lab and then we had to figure out how to do it on a full scale. 130 00:12:31,319.62585034 --> 00:12:34,499.62585034 So we went to Tractor Supply and bought some horse. 131 00:12:35,16.29251701 --> 00:12:44,16.29251701 Like the watering troughs for horses and we're filling it up with a hundred gallons of glue at a time and then soaking our hemp stalks in it and literally just picking it up. 132 00:12:44,346.29251701 --> 00:12:54,641.29251701 And we built some racks out of Wood two by fours, and we're sending it out in the sun to dry, to figure out, hey, how does this process work? And then pressing it into a log and modifying it and adapting it. 133 00:12:54,651.29251701 --> 00:13:01,531.292517 Before we then bought tobacco barns and started using those as dryers, but we had them hooked up to natural gas. 134 00:13:01,541.292517 --> 00:13:11,441.292517 So we had a silo dryer, what's used for drying silos of corn beans hooked up to the bottom of a tobacco barn, throwing in hot air to recirculate through. 135 00:13:11,451.292517 --> 00:13:15,578.20861678 And it worked, but it wasn't big enough and it was using natural gas. 136 00:13:15,615.45351474 --> 00:13:16,725.45351474 Petroleum based product. 137 00:13:17,115.45351474 --> 00:13:32,305.45351474 And so then we said, all right, how do we do this? But using a renewable energy? And the answer was a bio burner heating fluids, which we'd learned from the tobacco industry because they do have wood chip burners that you can hook up to tobacco barns. 138 00:13:32,315.45351474 --> 00:13:37,155.45351474 But the tobacco barns were too small and not quite what we were looking for, so we had to find a rail car. 139 00:13:37,165.45351474 --> 00:13:40,645.45351474 And then the guts from five tobacco barns shoved into one rail. 140 00:13:41,208.78684807 --> 00:13:45,418.78684807 So it's continuing to develop the HempWood process like that. 141 00:13:45,508.78684807 --> 00:13:52,222.1201814 Now, our second facility, which is here as well, makes the finished goods, the flooring, and most of that equipment is off the shelf. 142 00:13:52,232.1201814 --> 00:13:55,272.1201814 You can buy most of your flooring equipment. 143 00:13:55,702.1201814 --> 00:14:07,442.1201814 From established manufacturers, whether they're in the US or overseas, you can find a lot of that stuff from other wood mills that are shutting down or other wood mills that have additional old equipment, things like that. 144 00:14:07,497.1201814 --> 00:14:11,427.1201814 But you do have to modify the process because hemp input is so hard and durable. 145 00:14:11,437.1201814 --> 00:14:14,107.1201814 It's got the density of a 200 year old Brazilian cherry. 146 00:14:14,117.1201814 --> 00:14:15,707.1201814 It's 20% harder than hickory. 147 00:14:15,717.1201814 --> 00:14:19,947.1201814 So we had to get diamond tooling to be able to cut the tongue and groove profile. 148 00:14:19,957.1201814 --> 00:14:23,387.1201814 And we had to set it up on a engineered platform. 149 00:14:23,392.1201814 --> 00:14:25,237.1201814 We learned, which is a plywood backer. 150 00:14:25,327.1201814 --> 00:14:31,462.1201814 We use a Columbia pry products, West Virginia Poplar as the backer, and it uses that same soy based glue. 151 00:14:31,492.1201814 --> 00:14:36,373.59410431 They were the ones who helped us and taught us what is the minimum requirements for doing the soy based glue. 152 00:14:36,463.59410431 --> 00:14:40,434.05895691 We had to obviously adapt it to our HempWood, but we use a West Virginia. 153 00:14:40,444.05895691 --> 00:14:42,39.05895691 which means everything is locally sourced. 154 00:14:42,49.05895691 --> 00:14:45,229.05895691 We have the glue that puts it together. 155 00:14:45,259.05895691 --> 00:14:50,759.05895691 We cut it with a diamond tooling, and then we had to modify the coatings that we put on it. 156 00:14:50,764.05895691 --> 00:14:56,409.05895691 Cuz most coatings are petroleum based and they are not as healthy as you would want 'em to be. 157 00:14:56,419.05895691 --> 00:14:59,719.05895691 And so we found the cleanest boner coating that you could apply. 158 00:14:59,719.05895691 --> 00:15:05,579.05895691 And then, We did it by hand for the first two years and then we just are finally starting to get that part of it mechanized too. 159 00:15:05,584.05895691 --> 00:15:05,944.05895691 Nice. 160 00:15:05,949.05895691 --> 00:15:06,724.05895691 That's really awesome. 161 00:15:06,729.05895691 --> 00:15:30,741.09977324 And being able to, Just use that innovation and that spirit of just like always considering how you can you, manipulate it and make it work better and what is your hope for creating HempWood, like now in, in this marketplace? Where do you see it going? Right now it fits best if you're going for a residential application for a healthy material because nobody wants to have dirty toxins inside of their house. 162 00:15:30,751.09977324 --> 00:15:33,421.09977324 Whether you have children and you're worried about them getting asthma. 163 00:15:33,831.09977324 --> 00:15:40,711.09977324 Or whether you have some sort of elderly people in your house that already have respiratory issues. 164 00:15:40,861.09977324 --> 00:15:43,231.09977324 Nobody wants to put something dirty into your home. 165 00:15:43,241.09977324 --> 00:15:48,396.09977324 So that works very well for us as far as putting it as a residential product. 166 00:15:48,406.09977324 --> 00:15:51,536.09977324 And then for commercial, it's a fire resistant. 167 00:15:51,902.76643991 --> 00:15:55,139.43310657 20% harder than hickory carbon negative product. 168 00:15:55,149.43310657 --> 00:16:02,749.43310657 And so all of the architect and design firms are really running wild with it because they say, this is what everybody's talking about doing. 169 00:16:02,759.43310657 --> 00:16:15,849.43310657 There's these crazy guys down in Kentucky that are really doing it And so that's our main points right now is a face grade hardwood that's a replacement for oak, hickory, walnut, Brazilian, cherry, tes, all of those and is a interior. 170 00:16:16,389.43310657 --> 00:16:24,859.43310657 Now in the future we are working towards a recycled plastic with our sawdust, Trex style decking for exterior, but that's a year or two down the road. 171 00:16:24,869.43310657 --> 00:16:38,357.76643991 We're also working towards a structural wood, what we call O H B oriented hemp board, to be able to build structural elements of a house, potentially even some studs or L V L. 172 00:16:38,367.76643991 --> 00:16:41,427.7664399 But that's a 2025 market launch product. 173 00:16:41,437.7664399 --> 00:16:58,573.9319728 So right now we're just doing what everyone's supposed to do and getting HempWood out into the market and people like yourself that are actually preaching the good word of sustainability and healthy materials are definitely of our goes along the path because we lived upon that. 174 00:16:58,573.9319728 --> 00:17:00,133.9319728 If you build it, they will come. 175 00:17:00,707.2653061 --> 00:17:07,569.6575964 And Covid changed everybody's priorities for what they were looking towards for a couple of years. 176 00:17:07,749.6575964 --> 00:17:22,569.6575964 And now things are finally getting back on track and you throw a recession and a war on the other side of the world into it, and people are forgetting that like you're supposed to just do what's right and be nice to your neighbor rather than try to. 177 00:17:23,782.9909297 --> 00:17:36,670.1111111 The country next door, or try to sneak dirty chemicals into a product and then because you can make it cheaper, there's no reason to make flooring for the United States in Cambodia. 178 00:17:37,248.0136054 --> 00:17:40,38.0136054 Which is where the majority of the flooring in the US comes from now. 179 00:17:40,48.0136054 --> 00:17:45,671.3469388 So I do encourage everybody who's watching this or looking at this to just read the origin of where their product comes from. 180 00:17:45,681.3469388 --> 00:18:05,981.3469388 Because why would you cut down an oak tree in France or Ukraine to send to Cambodia to married up to a piece of formaldehyde, glue, plywood from Russia to sell in a store in ca? And the reason is because you can make more money doing the wrong thing than you can doing the right thing. 181 00:18:05,991.3469388 --> 00:18:08,331.3469388 And the powers that be have found that out. 182 00:18:08,421.3469388 --> 00:18:16,621.3469388 That dollar an hour labor in poor countries allows someone in the big city trading house to make more profit off of it. 183 00:18:16,631.3469388 --> 00:18:22,234.6802721 And the more people realize, That your local economy is what keeps things rolling. 184 00:18:22,244.6802721 --> 00:18:27,104.6802721 The more they'll realize that shop, locals buy something made in the country that you're in. 185 00:18:27,494.6802721 --> 00:18:42,824.6802721 You don't have to buy something from a huge corporation because in order for those huge corporations to make the profit margins that they need to pay the stock market and to pay all of the powers that be in there, they have to cut corners, which is labor and material, and. 186 00:18:42,834.6802721 --> 00:18:54,324.6802721 If people wake up to that and say, I'd rather have a healthy material that I can go on YouTube and check out the Instagram or YouTube channels for HempWood and see how it was made. 187 00:18:54,594.6802721 --> 00:18:59,494.6802721 Where it was made, and who's making it than your floor or your. 188 00:18:59,504.6802721 --> 00:19:01,124.6802721 Kitchen table actually has a meaning to you. 189 00:19:01,134.6802721 --> 00:19:05,334.6802721 It actually, you can say, Hey look, I heard the story where Tommy was an intern. 190 00:19:05,724.6802721 --> 00:19:24,244.2834467 Now he's the plant manager four or five years in, and he's running his team of eight or 10 guys making him put every day, and you can live the story of what we're doing here, rather than say yeah, it was cheap and I bought it at Lowe's, and it was made by a company like Shaw or Mohawk that had a Cambodian. 191 00:19:24,254.2834467 --> 00:19:27,974.2834467 Potentially child labor, putting it together with some dirty chemicals. 192 00:19:27,984.2834467 --> 00:19:29,124.2834467 And that's the reality. 193 00:19:29,129.2834467 --> 00:19:30,110.3945578 That's what happens. 194 00:19:30,380.3945578 --> 00:19:49,23.2290249 It's the same thing as like when they caught McDonald's doing the burgers that were made with animals that were rejected from your prime grade, but they were grown in South America where they cut down the rainforest because you could easily grow more beef down there and feed 'em with so, that exposes, oh, that's how McDonald's was making their profit. 195 00:19:49,28.2290249 --> 00:19:51,338.2290249 That's how Lows and Home Depot are doing their stuff too. 196 00:19:51,348.2290249 --> 00:19:55,318.2290249 It's just people haven't quite caught on to Hey, if it's made in America, there's some rules. 197 00:19:55,328.2290249 --> 00:20:02,240.9614512 And if it's made overseas, there's an opaque kind of layer to that you don't quite know and you can't quite see. 198 00:20:02,245.9614512 --> 00:20:06,576.9365079 And people will go buy certifications to tell you yeah, this is healthy and clean. 199 00:20:06,593.8412698 --> 00:20:08,578.8412698 and they're just buying the certification. 200 00:20:08,588.8412698 --> 00:20:12,643.8412698 They're not going to all the extent of yeah, we're using our waste as our energy. 201 00:20:12,653.8412698 --> 00:20:19,428.2290249 We're using a plant-based glue because I don't want to have a clean room in my factory where you can apply a dirty glue. 202 00:20:19,433.2290249 --> 00:20:19,873.3877551 Definitely. 203 00:20:19,873.3877551 --> 00:20:27,632.8888889 And I know you mentioned a couple times that you're in conjunction working with a number of the local universities and everything around, your plants. 204 00:20:27,842.8888889 --> 00:20:37,477.3560091 What first allowed you to start, collaborating with them? Or was this kind of from the beginning that you started working? So you always have to reach out to the universities first. 205 00:20:37,487.3560091 --> 00:20:42,57.3560091 So I've worked with Oregon State University since 2008 with various projects. 206 00:20:42,67.3560091 --> 00:20:48,397.3560091 And so I talked to Oregon State University and said, Hey, I'm trying to figure out this soy-based glue that came from your campus. 207 00:20:48,402.3560091 --> 00:20:53,557.3560091 And I think it was about 2000, 2001, they started doing some soy-based glu research there. 208 00:20:53,567.3560091 --> 00:20:56,427.3560091 And so I reached out to them about the glue and Murray State. 209 00:20:56,607.3560091 --> 00:20:57,447.3560091 I called Murray. 210 00:20:57,457.3560091 --> 00:21:08,715.6893424 and said, I was looking for a place that was gonna have a thousand tons of hemp stocks per year, and that the internet told me Murray State planted the first hemp in the United States since it became legal in 2014. 211 00:21:08,725.6893424 --> 00:21:13,645.6893424 And that historically hemp had grown in this region because of the climate in the soil. 212 00:21:14,5.6893424 --> 00:21:15,545.6893424 Some of the best in the us and. 213 00:21:15,555.6893424 --> 00:21:16,905.6893424 Before it was illegal. 214 00:21:17,145.6893424 --> 00:21:23,375.6893424 If it made sense to grow it here, then it seems like it would make sense that it's gonna grow here after it becomes legal again. 215 00:21:23,385.6893424 --> 00:21:29,899.0226757 And Murray State University literally answered the phone with Dean Brandon from the at school here. 216 00:21:29,904.0226757 --> 00:21:32,696.9705215 When I called him, he said, what do you do? I said I make bamboo floor. 217 00:21:32,696.9705215 --> 00:21:33,641.1655329 And he's in China. 218 00:21:33,701.1655329 --> 00:21:34,451.1655329 I was like, yeah. 219 00:21:34,511.1655329 --> 00:21:36,304.0680272 He's okay, it's Chinese number. 220 00:21:36,304.0680272 --> 00:21:37,54.0680272 That came up on my. 221 00:21:37,617.4580499 --> 00:21:39,297.4580499 And so that checks out. 222 00:21:39,307.4580499 --> 00:21:44,937.4580499 And he said, are you gonna pay your farmers and pay your employees before you pay yourself, and you're welcome to come down and have a go. 223 00:21:44,947.4580499 --> 00:21:47,257.4580499 And so that's how we figured it out. 224 00:21:47,287.4580499 --> 00:21:56,927.4580499 When I showed up, he actually gave me a building on campus and said, Hey, on the school farm, he was like, here's a building you can start doing some of your research at where you try to get your feet underneath of you for the rest of it. 225 00:21:56,937.4580499 --> 00:21:58,287.4580499 And that's literally led. 226 00:21:58,297.4580499 --> 00:22:04,577.4580499 20 plus employees here in Murray, Kentucky, just because Murray State University said, yeah, we'll have a go. 227 00:22:04,587.4580499 --> 00:22:05,427.4580499 Wow, that's awesome. 228 00:22:05,437.4580499 --> 00:22:05,857.4580499 I love that. 229 00:22:05,867.4580499 --> 00:22:11,967.4580499 What I would say or my ask from you and your listeners and your group, Go on the website, order a sample pack. 230 00:22:12,357.4580499 --> 00:22:15,237.4580499 We'll credit it towards your first large scaled order. 231 00:22:15,327.4580499 --> 00:22:16,477.4580499 It's hempwood.com. 232 00:22:16,507.4580499 --> 00:22:22,537.4580499 Give us a like on Instagram or TikTok or Facebook or YouTube and just check out what we do. 233 00:22:22,537.4580499 --> 00:22:26,17.4580499 There's the origin story on all the different platforms. 234 00:22:26,17.4580499 --> 00:22:29,147.4580499 We've got videos about how we make it and tell people about it. 235 00:22:29,507.4580499 --> 00:22:32,387.4580499 Try to make this thing understood and known. 236 00:22:32,397.4580499 --> 00:22:39,337.4580499 So when someone walks into a flooring, Next year or the year after, they are not surprised in saying, wow, hepa, that's. 237 00:22:39,347.4580499 --> 00:22:42,227.4580499 And then they go and buy oak or vinyl flooring. 238 00:22:42,237.4580499 --> 00:22:44,667.4580499 They look at it and say, HempWood, I've heard of that. 239 00:22:44,937.4580499 --> 00:22:48,577.4580499 That is a legitimate option for putting into my home. 240 00:22:48,817.4580499 --> 00:22:51,947.4580499 And they already have a little background that they know it's a clean material. 241 00:22:52,67.4580499 --> 00:22:53,387.4580499 They know it's made in America. 242 00:22:53,447.4580499 --> 00:22:54,647.4580499 They know it's durable. 243 00:22:54,657.4580499 --> 00:23:00,790.0997165 They know the history of being the only carbon negative, or at least hopefully by that time, other people are starting to do it. 244 00:23:01,180.0997165 --> 00:23:02,580.0997165 So we can just say we were the. 245 00:23:03,81.6564874 --> 00:23:11,95.3412946 Not the only, that's our goal to get everybody else to step their game up, but it starts with the market and your listeners knowing and understanding what we're doing here. 246 00:23:11,105.3412946 --> 00:23:11,855.3412946 Yeah, definitely. 247 00:23:11,855.3412946 --> 00:23:12,245.3412946 For sure. 248 00:23:12,245.3412946 --> 00:23:15,524.2641971 And I'll have all the links down the show notes and everything like that too. 249 00:23:15,525.137213 --> 00:23:26,375.7607958 And then do you see as your goals for the next six months or so? Get through this recession scenario, where the wintertime is always the most difficult seasonal time of the year for building materials. 250 00:23:26,375.7607958 --> 00:23:26,975.7607958 For building. 251 00:23:26,975.7607958 --> 00:23:28,325.7607958 For production. 252 00:23:28,330.7607958 --> 00:23:33,825.7607958 You've got weather problems, you've got daylight hour problems, you've got all of that. 253 00:23:33,915.7607958 --> 00:23:41,0.7607958 So kind of cruise through the first quarter really sharpen our blade to be ready to kick down the door. 254 00:23:41,10.7607958 --> 00:23:47,630.7607958 Come, the warm weather starting to come back, and we want to grow and become profitable in the second quarter of this year. 255 00:23:47,640.7607958 --> 00:23:52,50.7607958 We have hit gross profitability some months, but never net profitability. 256 00:23:52,60.7607958 --> 00:23:59,270.7607958 We want people to understand what we're doing and understand that hemp input is not just for the. 257 00:23:59,275.7607958 --> 00:24:06,885.7607958 People that don't have to care about the price of things because now we're getting different grades of he input flooring where you can find some of our flooring. 258 00:24:07,65.7607958 --> 00:24:12,885.7607958 If you need something that's more on a budget, you can find some stuff at 5 99 a square foot. 259 00:24:12,895.7607958 --> 00:24:22,385.7607958 You can get some of our common grade prefinished at 7 99 a square foot, and then you can get our premium select grade at 9 99 a square foot. 260 00:24:22,395.7607958 --> 00:24:25,485.7607958 So it fits a lot of different tranches of people's budget. 261 00:24:25,495.7607958 --> 00:24:47,265.7607958 Whereas maybe you don't wanna put hemp put in your entire house or in your entire building, but you can put it in your home office, your yoga studio, your wine cellar, or an accent wall in your house where it can be a piece of something that kind of reminds you that I did make the choice for the healthy, sustainable material, even if it's just an accident like that behind the. 262 00:24:47,729.0941291 --> 00:24:49,409.0941291 Thing's only three foot by eight foot. 263 00:24:49,409.0941291 --> 00:24:50,549.0941291 That's 24 square feet. 264 00:24:50,759.0941291 --> 00:24:57,49.0941291 You can do that for a couple hundred bucks and every day you look at it and you say, some people look in the mirror and say, oh, hey, I'm ready to go. 265 00:24:57,49.0941291 --> 00:24:57,769.0941291 Take the world on. 266 00:24:57,779.0941291 --> 00:25:03,639.0941291 You can wake up every day and look at your accent wall and say, you know what? That puts me in a good mood because I made the right decision. 267 00:25:03,649.0941291 --> 00:25:04,189.0941291 Yeah, definitely. 268 00:25:04,216.8492311 --> 00:25:10,188.8220203 You made a choice to buy a sustainable product that was made in America and, is carbon negative, which is great. 269 00:25:10,221.3617028 --> 00:25:14,846.7245146 It's not like you might not and made an accent wall that was just another, ochre or something like that. 270 00:25:14,889.8651042 --> 00:25:19,116.0329046 It's something that you can remind yourself of how you made the sustainable choice, which is really awesome. 271 00:25:19,446.0329046 --> 00:25:19,803.4705463 For sure. 272 00:25:19,808.4705463 --> 00:25:21,128.4705463 100%, man. 273 00:25:21,128.4705463 --> 00:25:22,368.4705463 You get it, Yeah, definitely. 274 00:25:22,630.7834715 --> 00:25:41,276.1009318 And I'd love to ask this question too, what are you currently learning right now? What am I currently learning? The biggest takeaway from 2022 that is a hard pill to swallow is that no matter how good of a job you do, no matter how clean of a product you do, money dictates the majority of decisions, unfortunately. 275 00:25:41,286.1009318 --> 00:25:46,352.7675985 And so even if somebody wants to make the correct. 276 00:25:46,819.4342652 --> 00:25:48,649.4342652 In a building material, they're gonna put somewhere. 277 00:25:48,659.4342652 --> 00:25:53,112.7675985 At the end of the day, what they can afford is what they actually choose to do. 278 00:25:53,122.7675985 --> 00:26:00,572.7675985 And so it's up to us as a manufacturer to come up with maybe not a cheaper product quality-wise. 279 00:26:01,7.7675985 --> 00:26:07,797.7675985 But different grades of product like you do in the wood industry where you have a select grade and you have a common grade, and you have a rustic grade. 280 00:26:07,807.7675985 --> 00:26:15,647.7675985 And allow people to make their own decision on what they can afford or what they want to do, rather than just saying, Hey, one size. 281 00:26:16,317.7675985 --> 00:26:17,962.7675985 you have to give the options. 282 00:26:17,972.7675985 --> 00:26:18,812.7675985 Yeah, definitely. 283 00:26:18,815.2052402 --> 00:26:19,140.2052402 That's good. 284 00:26:19,140.2052402 --> 00:26:34,965.5793899 And where do you see being able to reduce prices in the future as you're able to scale further or what's holding your product back from, being more cost competitive? We are directly competitive, even cheaper than domestic. 285 00:26:35,608.9127232 --> 00:26:38,873.9127232 So when people say, oh, it's not competitive, oh, that's not the case anymore. 286 00:26:38,883.9127232 --> 00:26:43,223.9580747 We've we've brought our costs down by about 20% every year since we started. 287 00:26:43,583.9580747 --> 00:26:44,543.9580747 So three years in a row. 288 00:26:44,703.9580747 --> 00:26:45,23.9580747 Nice. 289 00:26:45,28.9580747 --> 00:26:48,393.9807504 We've reduced our price to our customers by 20%. 290 00:26:48,398.9807504 --> 00:26:51,998.9807504 We do expect that to continue for this coming year. 291 00:26:52,3.9807504 --> 00:26:54,163.9807504 I don't know how to pull it off the following year. 292 00:26:54,173.9807504 --> 00:26:55,523.9807504 I guess we'll see when we get there. 293 00:26:55,533.9807504 --> 00:27:00,133.9807504 So what we have to do is just make sure people are comparing apples to apples. 294 00:27:00,143.9807504 --> 00:27:05,897.3140838 So if for domestic hardwood flooring, we are at cost parody, in some cases even less. 295 00:27:05,907.3140838 --> 00:27:14,187.3140838 But if you're comparing us to flooring that's made overseas, then we are not as cheap as if you're comparing us to. 296 00:27:14,962.3140838 --> 00:27:17,92.3140838 That's a completely different product range. 297 00:27:17,102.3140838 --> 00:27:19,778.9807504 So for domestic hardwood, yep, we've got it. 298 00:27:19,788.9807504 --> 00:27:29,913.9807504 But as far as a made in a lower cost country or made with a cheaper base material like vinyl, you're comparing apples to orange. 299 00:27:29,918.9807504 --> 00:27:30,368.9807504 Definitely. 300 00:27:30,368.9807504 --> 00:27:32,554.7857391 It's just like you're not even comparing the same product. 301 00:27:32,554.7857391 --> 00:27:33,814.7857391 They don't have the same features. 302 00:27:33,814.7857391 --> 00:27:36,7.6428819 They don't have, the same durability. 303 00:27:36,7.6428819 --> 00:27:36,859.2528593 They don't have any of that. 304 00:27:36,859.2528593 --> 00:27:37,830.6360792 It's, different products. 305 00:27:37,896.9059205 --> 00:27:38,316.9059205 for sure. 306 00:27:38,376.9059205 --> 00:27:39,36.9059205 Absolutely. 307 00:27:39,46.9059205 --> 00:27:40,66.9059205 So fantastic. 308 00:27:40,71.9059205 --> 00:27:41,631.9059205 One last question here. 309 00:27:41,698.9807504 --> 00:27:46,414.0034262 If anybody wants to follow you, reach out to you, how can they best get in touch? Absolutely HempWood.com, 310 00:27:46,434.0034262 --> 00:27:50,754.0034262 and if you go on there, you can get ahold of us via our chat app. 311 00:27:50,994.0034262 --> 00:27:53,744.0034262 You can get ahold of us sales@hempwood.com. 312 00:27:53,764.0034262 --> 00:27:59,164.0034262 You can fill out some of the different inquiry forms on there, whether it's for flooring or general question. 313 00:27:59,174.0034262 --> 00:28:02,174.0034262 You can get ahold of us on Instagram, which is hemp input underscore. 314 00:28:02,184.0034262 --> 00:28:06,692.3367595 You can get us on our YouTube channel, on our Facebook, or even on Pinterest. 315 00:28:07,52.3367595 --> 00:28:08,162.3367595 So it's all over the place. 316 00:28:08,162.3367595 --> 00:28:10,842.3367595 You just look up HempWood and all roads lead to road Great. 317 00:28:10,842.3367595 --> 00:28:11,744.9444692 Thank you so much Greg. 318 00:28:11,744.9444692 --> 00:28:15,229.9444692 It's been awesome talking to you about HempWood and how your sustainable product. 319 00:28:15,234.9444692 --> 00:28:20,299.9444692 So thank you so much and I hope to have you back on sometime so we can check up and see how you guys are going. 320 00:28:20,309.9444692 --> 00:28:21,29.9444692 Absolutely. 321 00:28:21,34.9444692 --> 00:28:21,899.9444692 Thanks Bud. 322 00:28:21,899.9444692 --> 00:28:39,569.9444692 And if you enjoyed this interview with Greg Wilson from Hemp Wood and how they have created sustainable flooring and hardwood products that is price competitive with any hardwood on the market while being sustainable and not using petroleum products, then I invite you to check out sheets and giggles. 323 00:28:39,629.9444692 --> 00:28:47,819.9444692 They have some of the softest, most sustainable bedding in the world with their eucalyptus sheets, mattresses, and all their other giggles. 324 00:28:47,849.9444692 --> 00:28:50,579.9444692 So if you would like to check out another product that. 325 00:28:51,129.9444692 --> 00:28:55,569.9444692 Disrupting another industry by being so much more sustainable. 326 00:28:55,749.9444692 --> 00:28:59,769.9444692 Then definitely make sure you check out this interview with sheets and.
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