The Build Back Bio story 3
A thriling tale of innovation, entrepreneurship, and daring: that’s Build Back Bio’s story. In our Build Back Bio series, learn what brought an engineer, a biologist, and a businessman together with the aim of revolutionising Ukraine’s construction industry while contributing to its reconstruction.
Build Back Bio will build 450 homes in Ukraine over the next 3 years.
To give you an idea of scale, large construction companies in the Netherlands can produce around 1,000 houses a year[1]. Build Back Bio, comprised of two companies a fraction of the size of industrial construction companies and one NGO, will build almost half as many as this, in a country at war.
350 of these homes will be completed to ‘casco’ level, which means they will be made wind and rain proof, but not fully furnished and finished. This will be for those families and individuals who couldn’t afford a home, but can afford to finish their home to their specifications. Build Back Bio will help them find good contractors and negotiate prices to finalise their homes.
100 houses will be fully finished and furnished. The funds to ensure this will come from the UPF fund, and are meant for families who cannot afford to put any funds towards the reconstruction of their home.
This is an ambitious goal, but it’s not the only thing Build Back Bio wants to achieve.
The overarching dream that brings the Build Back Bio partnership together is to prove that building with bio-based materials, entirely according to circular reconstruction methods, can be done at scale and at cost.
Ideally, by the end of this project, a thriving bio-based construction market will exist in Ukraine, where competitors compete and innovate. Bio-based building should become known as a safe, healthy, energy efficient, and affordable option for anyone who wants to build a house.
To get there, Build Back Bio have also partnered with PROFBUD (the Trade Union of Construction and Building Materials Industry Workers of Ukraine). PROFBUD is Ukraine’s main labour union in Ukraine fighting for safe and fair working conditions, and unites more than fifty thousand workers in the construction and building materials industry.
Together with them, Build Back Bio will make sure that all the project’s construction activity is in line with the strictest Ukrainian labour laws, emphasising safety and fair wages.
War permitting, all of Build Back Bio’s resources are currently slated to come from the local community in which it will build. Its straw will be sourced from local farmers, and the project will work with PROFBUD and the vocational school of Chernihiv to train people to operate the straw panel machine line and get involved in construction of homes. We will train anyone in bio-based construction who is interested. We are looking to understand how we can best involve individuals who have not traditionally been involved in the construction industry, including women.
Chernihiv is only the beginning. Build Back Bio will expand into other regions in Ukraine, to build houses that are safe, environmentally friendly, low carbon, and energy efficient – we can’t wait.
Thank you for reading our three-part series introducing the Build Back Bio partnership. To stay in touch, follow Rawblox, OpenDoorUkraine, and Hempire’s LinkedIn pages, where we will be posting regularly to keep you up to date.
[1] Depending on the year, company, tenders and permits awarded.