🌐 The House That Rice Built: Modern Mill’s Breakthrough Building Material

In 2018, I launched Simbly to attempt something close to impossible: build modern design, American-made, attainably priced, sustainable furniture. The vision was no compromises.

Except there was one compromise I couldn’t eliminate: the material still came from trees.

We used a responsibly harvested, FSC-certified plywood called Appleply. It was beautiful, high quality, and expensive. And we were still cutting down trees to make something better for the environment. 

In the 21st century, how is that still the answer?

That frustration eventually led me to co-found Plantd, which makes structural building panels from perennial grass. Along the way, I came across another company trying to answer a similar question in a very different way: Modern Mill.

Modern Mill is based in Mississippi, in the heart of America’s rice belt. Its product, ACRE, is made with upcycled rice hulls and can be used for trim, siding, cladding, cabinetry, furniture, and more. But what makes the company stand out is not just the material. It’s that Modern Mill has done the much harder thing: it has gotten builders, dealers, and contractors to actually adopt it.

ACRE cuts cleaner than wood. It screws without pre-drilling. It won’t crack, warp, or absorb water. It can be stained. It can run on a CNC router faster than MDF. It can live indoors or out. That kind of versatility is unusual enough. What’s even more unusual is translating it into real market traction in an industry that does not change easily.

Chandler Delinks has been at the center of that story since its start as employee number one. 18 million pounds of upcycled rice hulls later, he is the company’s Sales Director and has helped to drive the company’s growth.

Before Modern Mill, Chandler worked in construction. Then one day, he got a phone call from a CEO who wanted to show him some rice hulls. The call ran 90 minutes in a parking lot. Chandler saw the material in person soon after. The rest is one of the most successful and fastest stories of widespread market adoption for sustainable building materials.

Here’s what stood out from our conversation.

The company needed a wedge

"Okay, this material's amazing. There are other opportunities out there. Where is it? Trim boards."

Trim board—used to cover gaps, seams, and joints—required no certification, no new tools, and almost no installer training. It gave ACRE a way into homebuilding distribution channels.

Friction kills adoption

"You can't afford friction in any step of that process. It's always about what the customer needs."

The pivot to trim removed three obstacles at once: installation complexity, credentialing requirements, and the need to educate contractors on a new category. The product could prove itself with minimal risk.

Performance has to lead

"We want people to need this product so bad that sustainability just happens."

This came directly from an early furniture manufacturer who told Chandler he didn't care about upcycled rice hulls — he just cared about what the material could do. Modern Mill took that feedback and stopped leading with the sustainability story entirely.

The early problem was demand without access

"People were like, 'This stuff's amazing. Where can I get it?' And we're like, 'You can't.'"

Interest without distribution channels is where most materials startups stall. Modern Mill's answer was to find fabricators willing to seed the market — put samples in front of builders, attend architecture events, create visible proof points — until dealers had reason to stock it.

Then the market started talking back

"They picked up the phone and they said, 'This changes everything.'"

That call came from Trimboard.net in central Massachusetts, after they stained ACRE, left it on a loading dock for three months, and saw how it held up. They became one of Modern Mill's first real advocates — showing up at builder events, distributing samples, doing work the company couldn't yet do itself.

The channel can make you — or break you

"The system can break you as quickly as it built you."

When contractors started turning trim boards into siding on their own, Modern Mill slowed the rollout, built installation guidelines, and re-entered those applications on the company’s terms. Velocity without infrastructure is how a promising product earns a bad reputation.

A great product is not enough

"The product can be the best product possible, and it can still fail because you didn't execute properly in the system."

Modern Mill built training modules, installation guidelines, and regional support before they needed them at scale. The discipline came from watching what happens when distribution outruns the ability to manage the customer experience.

Be honest about the tradeoffs

"We're not perfect, but we're sort of the hybrid before we're the electric."

ACRE uses PVC resin, and Chandler doesn't hide it. His counter: PVC is 50% sea salt by chemistry. Add upcycled rice hulls, and ACRE contains less petroleum than standard PVC trim, less than polyethylene composites, and less than phenolic-resin bamboo products. That's not deflection. That's the actual math.

The real goal is contagious adoption

"If you have something remarkable that meets a need that they have, they're going to share it."

Chandler's internal measure: greater than 50% chance that any given customer tells the next contractor. If the installation experience doesn't generate word of mouth, something in the system isn't working.

Supercool takeaway

It’s one thing to invent a better, more sustainable building material. It’s another to get builders, dealers, and contractors to actually adopt it. Modern Mill has done both.

Operator Takeaways

Lead with performance, let sustainability follow. If the product doesn't win on its own terms, the sustainability story won't save it.

Build the adoption system before you need it. Get the system in place before demand outruns your ability to manage the experience.

Own the sustainability conversation honestly. Transparency isn't a liability. It's a brand.

This Week’s Podcast Episode

The House That Rice Built: Modern Mill’s Breakthrough Building Material

🎙️ Listen on Apple, Spotify, and all other platforms.

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This week’s Supercool sponsor

What does a building really cost over its lifetime?

Beyond First Cost
Rethinking building value in the age of Building Performance Standards

When you're weighing retrofit decisions, building performance standards (BPS), energy options, incentives, and budget constraints, the cheapest path up front isn't always the smartest over time.

In this fireside chat, the Johnson Controls team unpacks how owners and operators can think more clearly about lifecycle value in a rapidly shifting market.

They’ll explore how to balance first cost with long-term performance, navigate the growing pressure from BPS, and make better investment decisions amid more options and greater complexity.

What: A Fireside Chat: Optimizing Lifecycle Value: First Cost, Energy Choices, and Market Pressure

When: April 28, 12-1 pm, CST

Register: Reserve Your Spot Here

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Where Supercool Traveled This Week

PODCASTS

Past, Present, Future: Josh Dorfman - CEO & Host at Supercool

WTF For Cities: Green growth, innovation, technology, responsibility and vision - Josh Dorfman

Productivi-Tree: Sustainability Without Sacrifice: How to Make Green Your Default

Where Supercool Is Heading Next Week

I’ll be in Raleigh this coming Monday, April 20, for a live Supercool podcast recording with Kathryn Polkoff of Hoofprint Biome. We’ll discuss the growth of climate tech across the Research Triangle in North Carolina, and I’ll share insights from Supercool and Plantd about driving market adoption for climate innovation.

Details and registration are here.

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