Australia in the early 1970s was a very different country to the one we know today. Gough Whitlam had just been elected. Digital watches and hand-held calculators were just being introduced, women had only been allowed into pubs a few years earlier, and global warming was yet to be a global issue. No one had heard of a political party called The Greens.
While some forward-looking visionaries were joining the growing environmental movement, larger ecological issues were far from mainstream Australian society and industry.
Looking into the future
However, my father, Mark Snyders, wanted to change that. Even back then he had his mind firmly set on encouraging Australians to use sustainable materials that were more suitable to our environment.
A trained engineer, he had worked in Asia for many years and had noticed that instead of building solid, heavy houses, the builders in some Asian countries would simply gather together raw materials from the environment around them and build a comfortable house to live in for the moment.
If the house was destroyed by a storm or simply wore out with old age, they would then return all the materials back to the earth and gather up new materials to build again.
Essentially, my father began to recognise the personal and global benefits of sustainable living. But, of course, no one called it that back then.
Building a legacy
So, in 1972, he decided to start a business importing bamboo products into Australia. To keep up with demand, he would travel to Asia on a regular basis, meeting and talking with craftspeople in small village communities about their bamboo crops and asking about the products they could produce for him.
He ended up making lasting relationships with people who would hand-make blinds, wall coverings and slatted wall tiles from the bamboo they grew themselves in nearby plantations.
The regular money he paid the villagers for their products enabled them to become more self-sufficient, sustaining them through the lean times. He was very proud of that because he believed that true sustainability is not just about the environment, but economic sustainability, as well.
Proud to carry on
That’s why, as his daughter, I’m so proud to build on his legacy. To continue the work he started and, to this day, continue to deal with many of the same villages (as well as many others) where he made connections over 50 years ago.
At the House of Bamboo, we still empower small communities to keep living in a sustainable manner, both environmentally and economically, while they help us to become more sustainable, and ironically, more like them.
This is what I see as my role today as CEO. I’m continuing the sustainable family legacy my father started way back in 1972, as well as spreading the message of sustainable living in the process. This is what gets me out of bed every morning… albeit very, very early!