Exploring Mycelium as a Sustainable Building Material: Minimizing Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Managing Waste in Hawaiʻi

Abstract

The built environment contributes nearly 40 percent of annual global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that accelerate climate change. As climate change continues to worsen, global temperatures rise, sea levels rise, and natural hazards become more frequent and intense. Due to Hawaiʻi’s isolated location, almost all materials used in the building and construction industry are imported. This necessity emits large amounts of CO2 during the process. As more materials are imported, more waste is generated during construction and demolition. While a lot can be recycled or reused, much of it still ends up in Hawaiʻi’s landfills in addition to other consumer products such as plastic bottles, disposable utensils, paper cups, and more. With limited land in Hawaiʻi, existing landfills eventually reach their capacity.This work explores the potential of using mycelium as a building material to develop a local closed-loop cycle in Hawaiʻi and integrate landfill waste. A series of experiments in this work discover that there are substrates that can be grown locally in Hawaiʻi and can be mixed with mycelium to form a variety of building materials. It was also discovered that landfill waste can be incorporated into the substrate mixtures to minimize waste generated in the landfill and prolong the life of existing landfills. The experiments include testing different substrates, testing different connections, incorporating landfill waste in substrates, and observing cultivation. The discoveries from these experiments are combined to show different ways that this material may be applied in Hawaiʻi at both large and small scales.