Tom Rossmassler
Username
Tom Rossmassler
Proposer First Name
Tom
Proposer Email
tom@hempstone.net
Proposer Last Name
Rossmassler
Proposer Company/Organization
Hempstone, LLC
Proposer Phone
(413) 326-1860
Proposer Job Title
Chief Embodied Officer

Boston 2023 Areas of Focus

Proposer Additional Info
Tom founded HempStone 5 years ago to address the decarbonization of our building stock. HempStone’s business model leverages Coopetition to enhance and change the way projects are staffed and managed. Hempstone has pioneered hempcrete and hemp insulation in New England and has worked on dozens of projects and trained hundreds of architects, builders, and owners over the past 4 years. Hempstone is working with multiple native communities across the country to build vertically integrated seed to sovereignty models to simultaneously address poverty, housing and jobs in their communities. Tom previously ran Energia, a successful primarily Latinx worker-cooperative focusing on operational building performance.
Proposed Session Description
Thousands of structures are being built or renovated utilizing natural high-performance materials. Discover successes and lessons learned from projects employing bio-based materials such as straw, hemp, wood, and earth to lower embodied carbon. Explore how diverse workforces and companies can enhance building culture while addressing social justice and justice of place. Learn how these materials are poised to scale dramatically in the next 5 years and why it is imperative we do so.
Diversity and Inclusiveness
The speakers are gender diverse and represent organizations that are highly focused on DEI and construction industry impact on marginalized communities. They are pioneering ways to flip the scrip on how to operate in more wholistic and inclusive ways . New Frameworks is a multi-racial, women-, queer- and trans-owned worker cooperative committed to a kinder sort of building. Hempstone staffs their projects, and partners to staff projects, with diverse and often local employees and subcontractors. Looking not only at the completed building but at the full life cycle of a building product... we know that marginalized communities are at greater risk of being impacted by the negative impacts of industrialized supply chains. We will address how natural materials can begin to address the health of communities through this transition to healthier, regenerative materials and production methods. Committing to a culture of respect, belonging, and joy in both architectural and construction teams is not only a moral imperative for re-enfranchising members of marginalized communities to have access to the development of the built environment, It is a requirement to both meet the workforce crisis facing the construction industry, as well as the ability to bring together the best talent possible to the address the issues of climate, biodiversity, health, and equity crises facing our society.
Learning Objectives
Learn how to specify, source and install differing natural building products and assemblies.
Quantify the costs and carbon impacts of these natural building materials with examples from case studies.
Discover how more broadly defining what an employee or stakeholder can be translates into staffing projects differently and working cooperatively with companies in the same field.
Understand the broader natural materials marketplace and the potential near term impacts from the scaling of these materials and methods.
Has this session been presented before?
No
Additional Comments
This session is a summary of the latest information in the field from three differing but complimentary professionals who have not previously presented together.
Target Audiences Level of Expertise
Level 1 - No prior knowledge needed.
Session Format
Presentation followed by facilitated discussion or breakout groups
Session Format Details
Presentations with case studies followed by Q&A
Recommended Length
60-minute session
90-minute session

Strongest Content Connection - Boston 2023

Comments about your speaker roster
The speakers have broad and complimentary experience in running socially just organizations, experience with affordable housing development, research into emerging carbon beneficial technologies and carbon accounting, and first-hand experience with designing and building natural high-performance projects. Jonsara Ruth is co-founder and Design Director of Healthy Materials Lab (HML) at Parsons School of Design, where she is an Associate Professor and Founding Director of the MFA Interior Design program. At HML, Jonsara brings creative leadership to the goal of improving the health of underserved communities through the transformation of design and material practices. At Parsons, Jonsara cultivates new understandings of design through her teaching, research, and convening experts from a wide variety of fields to explore and debate intertwined, cross-disciplinary topics at large-scale symposia and public events. Material curiosities drive her research. Jonsara is a designer, artist, and founder of Salty Labs, a collaborative studio improving human and environmental health through imaginative design. She has led creative and production teams to achieve award-winning designs and mass-produce the healthiest, environmentally friendly children’s furniture available in America to improve indoor air quality and overall health. Elevating everyday human experience is her underlying pursuit. Her designs have been published widely. She serves on the board of the Sustainable Furnishings Council, Mount Sinai’s Stakeholder Advisory Board for Community Engagement Core, and regularly participates as a guest lecturer at design industry and academic events. Jonsara was recently awarded, with Alison Mears, the 2022 Women in Architecture Innovation Award from Architectural Record, and together co-edited Material Health: Design Frontiers, released in February 2023. Jacob Deva Racusin is Director of Building Science and Sustainability with New Frameworks Natural Design/Build. As a consultant, designer, and educator, Jacob merges his passions for ecological stewardship, relationship to place, and social justice. Jacob is also an Embodied Carbon Analyst and BEAM Trainer and Co-Developer with Builders For Climate Action. Jacob has authored two books and numerous articles, and instructs on topics of building science and climate impact. An active member of the Carbon Leadership Forum, Jacob is engaged in code and policy development, professional training, and other initiatives supporting the transition to a more just industry. Tom Rossmassler began HempStone in 2018 to provide radically responsible natural solutions for lowering embodied carbon in the built environment. Based in New England, HempStone is helping build carbon-beneficial infrastructure through consultation, construction, supply, and training services for hempcrete and other natural building systems. HempStone is currently developing plug & play block and panel systems to scale this natural high-performance technology for maximum impact. Tom is a lifetime member of NESEA, spoken at GreenBuild, and been on numerous panels for energy-efficiency, social entrepreneurship, natural building and employee-owned businesses. Tom has extensive experience EnergyStar homes, LEED for Homes, Living Building Challenge, and Passive House building methodologies.
Anything else you'd like to tell us about your session proposal?
All the speakers have recently attended and in most cases spoken at multiple conferences focusing on natural high-performance and net carbon-storing building materials. They come with the latest in research, just business models and practices, carbon and cost accounting, and manufacture and actual field application to the table.
Reviewer 1
Widjaja, Karno
Proposal #
137
Committee Decision
Rejected

Presenters

Full Description
We are being challenged in three ways to remain effective and relevant. As professionals, like our buildings, we need to remain adaptive and resilient. With a decarbonization imperative, our buildings are now requiring us to make bold choices in natural materials specification. Lastly and most importantly, we simply cannot decarbonize the built environment using the same stratified and marginalized workforces. Social justice through worker cooperatives and coopetition can align employees and multiple stakeholders around a common vision to realize the environmental imperative.