Bamboo: Not Just for Pandas Anymore

May 02, 2008

Though trees are not normally considered a renewable resource, in a sustainably managed forest, they can be. This is especially true of bamboo, which is booming in a range of green markets.

Bamboo is one of the fastest growing woody plants on earth, with some species growing a meter a day. Moso bamboo, the heartiest and most plentiful variety, can grow to heights of sixty feet with a six-inch diameter and matures in just five years. Consequently, bamboo is high yield and can be harvested faster than slow-growing or old-growth hardwoods, resprouting from its own root system after harvest. It is also extremely resilient, and was one of the first plants to regrow after the atomic bomb decimated Hiroshima.

It seems that anything that wood can do, bamboo can do better. Bamboo has been especially successful in green building, where it is extremely durable as a hardwood. Bamboo, though a grass, is denser and harder than the flagship hardwood red oak and competes with the tensile strength of steel. Like hardwoods, bamboo is available in a range of colors attained by caramelizing its internal sugars. Bamboo can sustain high impacts without denting and is less susceptible to moisture damage than other hardwoods. Bamboo is primarily used in green building for flooring, but also for crown molding, rebar, paneling, roofing, blinds, furniture, and plywood.

Smith and Fong Co. of San Francisco, which deals in bamboo and palm woods, was recently certified as the first bamboo plywood supplier to meet the standards of the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) with its Plyboo product. FSC ratings guarantee a sustainable lumber supply chain, and were previously not offered to bamboo.

John McIsaac of Smith and Fong explains, “Bamboo is the most naturally perfect sustainable resource with regard to architecture and building products.” McIsaac said that because bamboo stands create their own dense ecosystem, bamboo is naturally resistant to pests, needs little water and grows without heavy nutrients, eliminating the need for fertilizer, pesticides and irrigation. Bamboo plywood and building materials are in high demand to help builders meet LEED certification requirements.

Bamboo can serve a range of other varied purposes as well. Its anti-microbial and moisture-wicking properties are being taken advantage of for textiles, appearing as sheets and clothing. Bamboo pulp can be used for paper, its shoots are edible, and bamboo briquettes are used for fuel. The roots and have been used as an Eastern medical treatment for hundreds of years. Bamboo products offer consumers and green builders a silver-bullet solution in their efforts to be sustainable.