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
Boston 2022 Areas of Focus
Proposer Job Title
Chief Embodied Officer
Proposer Additional Info
Tom started Energia 12 years ago, a successful worker-cooperative focusing on operational building performance company. Energia is a model of a minority-owned enterprise and work force.
Tom founded HempStone 4 years ago to address embodied carbon and the decarbonization of our building stock. HempStone’s business model leverages Coopetition to enhance and change the way projects are staffed and managed.
Proposed Session Description
New England is now home to seven hempcrete structures, four of which HempStone has been principally involved in. Dive deep into successes and lessons learned building with hempcrete in New England. Discover ways in which these projects are contributing to lowering or negating their embodied carbon. Review costs, carbon accounting, design, and installation nuances. Explore how a more diverse workforce can add to a project and enhance site culture.
Diversity and Inclusiveness
Our speaker panel is diverse in terms of gender. The workforce on HempStone’s projects are intentionally curated to address gender balance on the job sites. Coopetition is an opportunity to leverage divergent thinking to enhance projects. Two of the projects to be highlighted are farmworker housing that addresses equity and affordable housing.
Learning Objectives
Participants will be exposed to different natural building products and assemblies, including lessons learned the hard way with specifying, sourcing and installation.
Quantify the costs and carbon impacts of these natural building materials through case studies.
Participants will discover how more broadly defining what a stakeholder is can translate into staffing projects differently and working cooperatively with companies in the same field.
Explore how marrying natural materials with high performance construction can result in the dramatic shift required to decarbonizing high performance buildings.
Has this session been presented before?
No
Session Format
Other (please describe below)
Session Format Details
60 minute session with 40 minutes of presentation and case studies and 20 minutes Q&A OR 90 minute session with 30 minute presentation, 30 minutes of case studies, and 30 minutes of Q&A
Recommended Length
60-minute session
90-minute session
Strongest Content Connection - Boston 2022
Comments about your speaker roster
TOM ROSSMASSLER MA CSL, BPI, USGBC
Tom started HempStone in Massachusetts and is currently importing hemp and lime from Europe as the main ingredients along with water to make Hempcrete. In the past year, HempStone completed multiple projects, held training workshops and educated students at design schools, and forged partnerships to begin to source and process natural building materials in the US. Tom has attended NESEA for 20+ years and is a lifetime member, spoken at GreenBuild, and spoken and been on numerous panels for energy-efficiency, social entrepreneurship. and employee-owned businesses. Tom has extensive experience with EnergyStar homes, LEED for Homes, Living Building Challenge, and Passive House building methodologies.
JENNIFER MARTIN, MA CSL, CPHC, PMP
Jennifer is a sustainable architecture design/builder with 20+ years of experience in low-carbon natural building and high-performance green construction. As a partner at HempStone, she serves as Catalyst to advocate for carbon-beneficial material use throughout the building assembly. Jennifer has a passion for responsible local material resource use, a deep understanding of collaborative culture, and a commitment to change the paradigms of the building industry. Jennifer has experience in LEED Platinum, Living Building Challenge, and Passive House building methodologies, and now puts her extensive experience in natural building and ecological design to use at HempStone.
Anything else you'd like to tell us about your session proposal?
Relevant projects in New England will be highlighted to inspire participants to act now and transform their work. Projects include a cost-effective single-family home in Goshen, MA, two small architectural farmworker dwellings in Taghkanic, NY, and a high-end innovative ocean-side home in Harwichport, MA
Reviewer 1
Craig, Beverly
Proposal #
192
Committee Decision
Rejected
Presenters
Full Description
In an ever-changing world, we as professionals, like our buildings, need to remain adaptive and resilient. Coopetition is a tool that aligns multiple stakeholders and businesses around a common vision to realize decarbonization in the built environment.