The Environmental Friendliness of Bamboo Flooring

Paramount Benefits

One of the paramount benefits associated with using bamboo to manufacture flooring is that it is the fastest growing plant on Earth. Bamboo has been known to grow as much as 1 meter in a single day¹. This means that bamboo can be replenished at remarkably rapid rates, particularly when compared to other flooring materials such as oak, maple, or cedar which are used in wood flooring. Bamboo can be harvested for commercial use after just 6 years of growth². In contrast, trees can take as long 10-30 years to be replenished as a commercial resource.

Tree Respiration & Bamboo

Ecologists also point out that bamboo is exceptionally efficient at taking in CO2 and latching on to the carbon, while releasing pure oxygen – more so than most trees. This is the case because the faster a plant grows (remember bamboo is the fastest on Earth) the more effectively it absorbs CO2 and releases purified O2 into the air³. In addition, bamboo is traditionally grown in fields without pesticides and chemical agents. As a result, raising and disposing bamboo for commercial use, unlike many other flooring materials, does not add toxic poisons to the air and soil which would contaminate the surrounding environs and likely spread to other areas as well.

Replenishment

Another important point is that the more consumers purchase bamboo flooring, the less trees will have to be chopped down for lumber. Now, acknowledging that deforestation is responsible for “25 percent of all carbon emissions released into the atmosphere, through the burning and cutting of 34 million acres of trees annually” – this eco-benefit is not to be underestimated. It has the potential to become a major countermeasure to climate change⁴. Also, by aiding in the fight against deforestation, bamboo saves the trees which combat soil erosion and flooding, while oxygenating our air and saving freshwater fish habitats⁵. Claims have been made that bamboo can “invade” areas in which it is grown, contributing to deforestation. However, such assertions are generally overstated, particularly when grown commercially. This is the case for two reasons. First, bamboo seeds have an extremely low germination rate, and therefore their rate of expansion is limited even in areas where their competition for water, light and growing room has been eliminated. Second, companies constantly regulate their bamboo’s growth and expansion rates with the intention of keeping it from growing out of control, which would make it extremely arduous and costly to harvest for commercial use⁶.

Give More, Get More

In short, recognizing that giving back at least as much, if not more, than you take from our green Earth is a core tenet of environmentalists and ecologists across the globe, bamboo appears to be a beautifully green flooring material indeed.

Web References:

Recent Green Flooring & Environmentally Friendly Resources:

• Green Flooring Section Launched at FloorMall.com
• Armstrong - The Unlikely Environmentalist
• Cork Flooring - More Than Meets The Eye
• Flooring Websites - (Not) All Created Equal
• The Flooring Industry Changes with the Times
• Making Hardwood Flooring Manufacturing a Green Process
• Is Carpeting Green?
• Floor Covering Industry News Sources
• Bamboo Flooring - Sustainable Floor Covering made from Bamboo
• Cork Flooring is Green Flooring

Archived Environmentally Friendly Resources:

• The Environmental Friendliness of Bamboo Flooring
• The Environmental Friendliness of Cork Flooring
• Comparison: Bamboo & Cork