 Rapidly
Renewable
Our definition of “rapidly renewable” is a plant that
grows (or, in the case of cork, bark that regrows) to harvestable
size in fifteen years or less. There are a large number of plants,
and even some trees (e.g. plantation
teak),
that meet this definition, but by far and away the most significant
when it comes to flooring is bamboo.
Products bearing the rapidly renewable icon qualify for LEED credit
Mrc6. Click here to
find out more.
Following are excerpts from www.bamtex.com,
a division of Wood Flooring International that focuses on bamboo
and palm flooring:
Bamboo is…
- the fastest growing wood-type plant on this planet (botanically,
bamboo is a grass, not a tree). It grows one third faster than
the fastest growing tree. Some species can grow up to 1 meter
per day. One can almost "watch it grow". This growth
pattern makes it easily accessible in a minimal amount of time.
Size ranges from miniatures to towering culms of 60 meters.
- a critical element in the balance of oxygen/carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere. Bamboo is the fastest growing canopy
for the re-greening of degraded areas and generates more oxygen
than equivalent stand of trees. It lowers light intensity and
protects against ultraviolet rays and is an atmospheric and soil
purifier.
- a viable replacement for wood. Bamboo is one
of the strongest building materials. In the tropics is it possible
to plant and grow your own bamboo home. In a plot 20m x 20m2,
in the course of 5 years, two 8m x 8m homes can be constructed
from the harvest. Every year after that the yield is one additional
house per plot.
- versatile with a short growth cycle. There
are over 1000 species of bamboo on the earth. The diversity makes
bamboo adaptable to many environments. It can be harvested in
3-5 years versus 10-20 years for most softwoods. Bamboo tolerates
extremes of precipitation, from 30-250 inches of annual rainfall.
- an
essential structural material in earthquake architecture. In
Limon, Costa Rica, only the bamboo houses from the National Bamboo
Project stood after their violent earthquake in 1992.
- a
critical element of the economy. Bamboo and its related industries
already provide income, food and housing to over 2.2 billion
people worldwide. There is a 3-5 year return on investment for
a new bamboo plantation versus 8-10 years for rattan. Governments
such as India, China and Burma with 19,800,000 hectares of bamboo
reserves collectively, have begun to focus attention on the economic
factors of bamboo production.
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