80% of a product’s environmental impact is determined during the design stage, which is why it’s imperative that we change the way we design and develop new products. We are excited by the possibility of a new aesthetic and new product categories as we design with materials that are rapidly renewable or have a lower carbon footprint – like bamboo. Natural materials have different environmental impacts as they are grown and harvested. Read on to learn how bamboo is different.
Bamboo looks like a tree, but it is not!
Bamboo is a renewable resource because it is actually a member of the grass family, even though it is typically mistaken as a tree. This is an important distinction because when you harvest a shoot of bamboo, the root system does not die like a tree would during some types of logging practices. Instead, it regrows using rhizomes, just like grass would when you mow your lawn.
How bamboo grows and propagates
Just like grass, bamboo uses rhizomes, a continuously growing horizontal underground stem that puts out horizontal shoots that eventually grow into new stalks of bamboo.
The bamboo we use to make products is a species known as Moso bamboo which grows quickly. Moso bamboo grows up to 3 feet/1 meter per day during a rapid growth phase in its first 45-60 days and only takes 4-5 years for the stalk to reach maturity at 4-5”/10-12cm in diameter. A birch tree, on the other hand, can take 40-50 years to reach a size suitable for harvesting.
How bamboo is harvested
When bamboo is harvested, it keeps its root systems intact. This is valuable on many levels because it allows the soil to stay in place, acting like a sponge to retain water while preventing erosion, soil loss, pollution, and flooding, as well as filtering out any toxins. This also allows bamboo to regenerate, which is why it is a renewable resource. Allowing the soil and roots to stay in place keeps more carbon stored within the ground, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Project Drawdown even credits bamboo production as an approach to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
The Bamboo Lifecycle
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The benefits of using natural materials to make our products may not always jump out at us – Bamboo farming is regenerative, which helps keep the soil and roots intact.
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