Bamboo, Too

Quoted in Dwell Magazine in reference to a person’s choice of flooring, Eric Corey Freed said, “Guilt is no way to approach environmentalism. You shouldn’t feel guilty. What you should do is question where the wood for your floor comes from.” Grist Magazine wrote about being bamboozled, Dwell talked about bamboo in this month’s article, and Green Source mentioned it recently as well. Everyone else is doing it, so I thought I would opine on bamboo, too.

When I visited China in May, I was amazed by the labyrinth-work of bamboo used as scaffolding for workers laboring away on huge buildings. From what I understand, curious observers from around the world have visited China to study their method of scaffolding. The bamboo is strong, yet forgiving, and it’s easy to set up, take down, and re-use.

When it comes to green building, bamboo is often referenced with regards to flooring. Bamboo flooring is an LEED alternative, but should it be? EcoTimber sells the stuff that they harvest from plantations. It’s good because it grows in various climates and takes about four to six years to be ready-to-use. EcoTimber makes its bamboo flooring with low-VOC finishes, but not all bamboo floor makers do that, so watch out! In Freed’s lingo, people take bamboo and finish it with that “nasty oil-based toxic lacquer.” So what’s the purpose of using bamboo?

Bamboo has a quick harvest life and it makes economic, business sense for bamboo sellers. Being a bamboo grower wouldn’t be that bad of a gig. It’s quick, cheap, and multiplies like rabbits—especially when compared to the slow poke tree. Bamboo is easier to replace than a tree, and in some ways, it’s better than a tree. It’s stronger. Often, the end product comes directly from the cheap manufacturing country of China (cheap being a reference to cost, not necessarily the quality). And therein lies the rub.

The amazing eco-grass, bamboo, travels half-way across the globe before it finalizes in the floor of your nice, elegant, modern, new, sustainable, LEED-residential certified home or LEED-platinum office building. Feels good right? Depends.

You shouldn’t feel guilty about buying goods from China because that’s not really a big deal. Plainly put, they can manufacturer goods cheaper than we can, and still pay their workers a fair rate (generally speaking). They’ve learned to cut all the waste out of the manufacturing process. That’s okay, but here’s what you should start thinking about: The cost of that bamboo includes a transportation premium. Built into the price of bamboo is the cost of shipping and transporting bamboo half-way across the globe. So a slice of the price, includes payment for oil, gas, and/or coal, depending on the transportation methods.

How’s that for being green? To me, it conflicts with one of sustainable movement’s basic tenets—acquire materials locally. If you’re importing the materials from half-way across the globe, how are you supposed to be financially independent? To add to that, in my opinion, bamboo’s popularity will grow exponentially in the future, so are we going to keep shipping it all considering it will grow in almost any climate? There needs to be local farms growing the stuff; with our American ingenuity, someone has to be able to make bamboo floors locally for less than the Chinese (considering they’re paying for shipping, too).

Extra Links:
+Wikipedia on Bamboo
+Bamboo of the Americas
+American Bamboo Society 
+Environmental Bamboo Foundation
+A Thousand Uses of Bamboo