If you are an architect, designer, builder or landscaper you are probably finding yourself being asked by more and more clients these days to include sustainable building materials in your projects.
We can help you with one of the most sustainable materials of all time. One that we have been working with for over 45 years.
That material is bamboo.
Bamboo is simply one of the world’s greenest materials. It offers significant remediation from the effects of climate change, so specifying it for your projects contributes to them qualifying for a Green Star Rating.
Why Bamboo is Greener than Timber.
Firstly, bamboo is not a tree, it’s a grass. Which means it grows, and regrows, differently to timber.
When you cut down hardwood trees all that remains is a stump. You have to replant a new tree and this can take up to a century to regrow to the same size of the original tree.
However, being a grass, when you cut down bamboo, it simply regrows, from the same stalk. And how fast does it regrow? Well bamboo can take as little as a few months to regrow to a reasonable height, while a forest of bamboo can reach full maturity in only 6-7 years.
But this is not the only reason bamboo is a more environmentally sustainable material than timber.
It also produces 35% more oxygen than trees and stores 4 times the carbon of timber.
Regrowing plantation bamboo is better for the environment than cutting down trees as deforestation starts a cycle of drought and environmental decline that accounts for a fifth of all carbon emissions globally.
The Bamboo Paradox – Harvesting is greener than not harvesting
You probably did not realise the most amazing thing about bamboo. It’s actually a greener option to harvest bamboo than not to harvest it!?
How is this so?
When alive, bamboo does not live for as long as hardwood trees. When bamboo dies and decays, it releases carbon back into the atmosphere. That means a bamboo forest you leave growing is a poor carbon sink but if you harvest it, it becomes a great carbon sink.
New production technology for bamboo
The way that bamboo building materials are made has changed a lot in recent years and this too means it is even greener.
Bamboo is not only a renewable material but it has incredible properties.
It is as strong as steel in tensile strength.
It is stronger than concrete in compression.
And it’s much lighter in weight than timber and can be manufactured to produce almost identical products to timber.
The most sustainable material for the future – bamboo
There is no doubt that bamboo is the building material of the future.
You will find that our focus on innovation at Reknew Design and House of Bamboo means we have created refined designs that can be applied to both commercial and residential projects.
Transcending all trends, bamboo is the most conscientious building material you can choose to help you achieve a Green Star Rating. Of course that helps our planet too.
Please get in touch with us to discuss your needs for sustainable products for Green Star Rated projects or message me and I’ll respond.
Thanks for reading.
Jennifer Snyders