Sustainability Stamps
Utilizing rapidly Renewable Resources is an essential component of sustainable development. Virgin natural resources are commonly used to create building products, which can harm places that many people care most about such as biologically diverse Rainforests. Making intelligent purchasing decisions that help to ensure appropriate steps have been taken in sustainable management practices such as purchasing certified woods through the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) or Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC) third-party programs are critically important to sustain our earth's carrying-capacity and help control climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions associated with deforestation. Unfortunately, close to 95% of all wood specified for building projects are not FSC or SFI certified, so we obviously have a long way to go to create the market shift.
The population is increasing and so are the demands on our natural resources. Renewable Resources offer solutions that help to defray our dependency on virgin materials derived from scarce natural resources. Interestingly, timber was once included in the context of a renewable resource, but for the past fifty years we have depleted this resource faster than we have restored it, especially in areas where the soils are acidic, fragile, and in forests where nutrients contained in the biomass are not put back into the soils upon clear cutting or harvesting, like Tropical Rainforests.
Bamboo is an excellent alternative to traditional hardwood flooring or conventional wood building materials and it is a rapidly Renewable Resource!
According to experts in the lumber industry; today, almost 1 million acres of forest vanish per week. This hasty rate of deforestation has forced many world economies to rethink their business and manufacturing practices. A sixty-foot tree cut for market takes 60 years to replace. Whereas, a sixty-foot bamboo cut for market takes only 59 days to replace! Bamboo is officially recognized as the world's fastest growing plant on Earth. And regarding the durability of this material, the strand or fossilized bamboo flooring carried by Green Designs and Supply actually has a tensile strength of steel and is twice as hard as Oak!
Bamboo is known to produce greater biomass and 30% more oxygen than a hardwood forest of comparable size, while improving watersheds, preventing erosion, restoring soil, providing sweet edible shoots and even removing toxins from contaminated soils. Bamboo helps reduce the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) gases, helping to curb climate change. In fact, some bamboo sequesters up to 12 tons of CO2 per hectare, which makes it a highly efficient plant, and conducive for fresh air. Bamboo can be selectively harvested on an annual basis and can even regenerate without replanting.
Refer to our Flooring and Building Materials category to learn about the bamboo products carried by Green Designs and Supply. For services that lead in proper planning and design, contact a professional from our team by calling (651) 603-1326.