Building bricks from renewable raw materials-The BOHECO Boys!Climate Change fighters in their own right.Elsie Gabriel

 

Building bricks from renewable raw materials-

The BOHECO Boys!

Climate Change fighters in their own right.

Elsie Gabriel

We all talk about sustainable building materials, eco friendly crop based materials contributing to  low carbon emissions but the BOHECO Boys walk the talk; and talk the walk, literally through Hemp….

I believe these boys originally from the H.R.College of Commerce Mumbai have come a long way. And how! So, if you must know Hemp is a crop, a very domesticated crop, used since time immemorial for everything from food, clothing, rope, paper and plastic to even car parts. Research has outlined that hemp is incredibly versatile and can be utilized as cooking oil and cosmetic products as well.

So how are these boys climate change fighters in their own right? Well, for one, they provide relief to the atmosphere by researching and conducting a new green economy rather than invest in an already established polluting easy job, they  uplift socio-economic standards of local farmers, identify and utilize the untapped value of natural geographic advantages. In a time of high unemployment, they have endorsed that hemp could provide farmers green jobs, motivating cultivators to keep growing this ancestral crop, and most of all producing biodegradable bi products from Hemp which contribute to  environmentally sustainable industries, thus fighting global warming and climate change.

The need for crops and plants to grow, for trees and healthy cultivation to continue has never been greater. Given all of these benefits these boys are surely true environmentalists.

It is also believed that the Hemp fibre requires very little water to turn into cotton cloth. That’s cutting production carbon emissions by half already.

 The BOHECO boys are still researching on a variety of low carbon building materials from Hemp. As well as reducing the environmental footprint, Hemp will be stronger than steel they believe.It was the first time ever I saw the Hemp bricks.Hopefully these will contribute to more sustainable green buildings.

“Hemp plastic is completely biodegradable and let's the Earth breathe,” Says Jahan Peston Jamas co-founder of  BOHECO,  India’s first industrial hemp company which now works with the Indian union and state governments to reform the agriculture industry with natural fibres, Adds Jahan,“Hemp can be used to make nearly 25,000 products including textiles, oil, milk, paper, biodegradable plastics, tofu, flour, protein powder, bio-fuel and construction material.”

I have known Jahan as a school kid, winning the trophy for his school at a tough debate competition,ever since he rocked the stage and shook the audience with his powerful articulate deliveries, I knew this boy would go far.Ofcourse Sarla Jamas, his Mother is his true motivator and guides all the BOHECO boys through thick and thin,sharpening their skills to continue being strong professionals.  

 

 

 Team BOHECO is presently composed of  seven full time co-founders and first generation agri-entrepreneurs,  with undergraduate, post graduate and PHD academic qualifications, they are a very enterprising lot.

Master Chef Vicky Ratnani cooking with BOHECO Hemp oil.

BOHECO began with handloom fabrics but today the Hemp Couture is actually BOHECO’s in-house fashion brand. Now they work with local industry and farmers to manufacture innovative agro-products for pharmaceutical, construction, energy, paper, food,cooking oil, textile, lubricants, automobile, oil and cortage industries from the industrial hemp crop and now are working to use this model pan-India for poverty alleviation, empowerment and rural development.

 ‘Educate. Cultivate. Elevate’  is their mission statement, they are green advocates in every sense.

 Research shows that Henry Ford spent more than a decade researching and building his Model-T car which was not only constructed from hemp but was also designed to run off hemp bio-fuel? These BOHECO boys are here to stay, and carry on the legacy of Hemp which I believe, Ford would have saluted them for!

The BOHECO boys make a safe, strong and clean future for the environment, always researching and developing. Well this year 2015, on April 22^nd which marks the 45^th anniversary of world EARTH DAY , the BOHECO boys could not have paid a better tribute to planet Earth!