European Union is constantly updating old and adapting new directives and regulations to answer different problems set forth by the 21st century. One of such directives is 2010/31/EU - a piece of Energy package which sets a goal to reduce primary energy use by 20% and to achieve 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, and for all buildings to be zero-energy buildings, when built after year 2020. To achieve these goals, next to existing building materials, a new, innovative, and more sustainable materials needs to be studied and implemented. One of these possible materials is hemp concrete – a self-bearing thermal insulation material that consist of hemp shives and carbon neutral binder (lime or sapropel). Its mechanical properties seem promising, and thermal conductivity below 0,08 W/m*K (Sassonia et al 2014) is significant result for a material that sequesters more CO2 then is created in its life cycle (Ip and Miller 2012). In the paper an effect of three different binders and pre-compression of the mix were studied, physical and mechanical properties were assessed and compared.