Biobased materials—those made from agricultural byproducts, plant fibers, forestry residues, or other renewable resources—offer promising pathways to reduce carbon emissions, strengthen regional economies, and build more resilient communities. Increasingly, high-performance building products can be grown, manufactured, and supplied within California’s own bioregions.
The Opportunity of Biobased Building Materials
Many materials needed for insulation, panels, finishes, and even structural components can be produced from regionally abundant biomass such as straw, hemp, fire-cleared wood, or lime-based residues. Using these materials reduces dependence on long, global supply chains that are vulnerable to disruptions, as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biobased materials can:
- Directly replace conventional products with minimal design changes
- Enable new construction methods that better align with regional climate and resources
- Repurpose underused biomass into durable, high-value products
- Store carbon, reducing embodied greenhouse gas emissions
Manufacturers are already turning agricultural and forestry byproducts into insulation, structural panels, mass timber elements, flooring, and concrete additives. Many of these materials are available at market scale and competitive with conventional options.
A Bioregional Approach to Biobased Materials
Although construction is inherently local, today’s building materials often come from global supply chains. This disconnect can weaken local economies and hide the environmental and social impacts of material production.
A bioregion is defined by its ecosystems, climate, soils, species, cultural history, and working lands—not political boundaries. Bioregional sourcing strengthens resilience by:
- Creating shorter, diversified supply chains
- Keeping economic value circulating locally
- Building relationships between people and the landscapes they depend on
- Supporting stewardship of regional ecosystems
- Encouraging innovation suited to local climate and culture
Every bioregion has unique assets—crops, soils, manufacturing capacity, climate, workforce, and cultural practices—that can support tailored building solutions rather than generic, standardized patterns.
Benefits of Biobased and Bioregional Materials
Environmental Benefits
- Lower embodied carbon through carbon-storing biomass
- Reduced extraction impacts from mining and fossil-based materials
- Improved indoor environmental quality through lower-toxicity products
- Support for regenerative land management and soil health
Economic Benefits
- Regional economic development, supporting farmers, processors, manufacturers, and logistics providers
- New markets for agricultural byproducts, generating additional revenue streams
- Stronger supply-chain resilience with local and diversified sources
- Opportunities for enterprises of all sizes, from small fabricators to major processors
Social & Community Benefits
- Stronger sense of place through materials rooted in local landscapes
- Local job creation in both rural and urban communities
- Healthier buildings with fewer toxic exposures
- More equitable participation by enabling small producers and community-based developers
- Reduced waste by repurposing abundant biomass into durable, high-performance products
Biobased Materials and Housing
Biobased products are increasingly market-ready for housing and small commercial buildings. By using carbon-storing, lower-toxicity, regionally sourced materials, projects can:
- Cut embodied carbon
- Reduce waste
- Strengthen local supply chains
- Support more affordable and flexible construction pathways
Partnerships for Advancing Biobased Materials
StopWaste partners with project teams, industry organizations, and building material producers to enable more biobased building materials to be used in construction. We have produced several reports with our partners to contribute to the sector’s understanding of the potential and opportunities:
