Austin Tile Design Studio & Gallery

63046 Layton Ave, Bend, OR 97701
541-385-5772
www.austin-tile.com

Hours: Monday 8:00-5:00 Tuesday 8:00-5:00 Wednesday 9:00-6:00 Thursday 8:00-5:00 Friday: 8:00-5:00 Saturday: 9:00-2:00

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FSC Bamboo Facts, and Rumors Cleared Up

I’ve received enough questions about FSC certified Bamboo that I wanted to share some thoughts. I hope this addresses any questions you may have had.

Much of the concern about Bamboo not being green because of labor practices and carbon load is based on false or mistaken information being promoted by the hardwood industry, and in particular by MFMA (the Maple Flooring Manufacturers Association). Their recent statement challenging Bamboo to become FSC-certified was full of factual errors and mischaracterizations. That being said, our distributors are working diligently with raw materials suppliers to get their plantations FSC-certified, and hope that in the not-too-distant future we will be able to offer FSC-certified Bamboo products. One of our largest plantations is already in the process of getting certified. The funny thing is, getting a Bamboo plantation FSC-certified is as easy as doing the paperwork and paying the fees, because the Bamboo is already grown under very sustainable practices given that it requires no pesticides, fertilizers, etc. Also, contrary to the misinformation from the hardwood folks, natural rainforests are not being cleared to plant Bamboo. In fact, our Bamboo all comes from drier regions on plantations that have either been there for hundreds of years or were planted more recently on previously degraded agricultural lands.

The factories that we get our products from are not sweat shops and do not employ children or prisoners. They are ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 certified, modern, clean facilities with good worker safety records that pay fair market wages and offer medical benefits to their employees (to supplement state-sponsored health care).

The carbon footprint of Bamboo is nowhere near as bad as it’s been cracked up to be by some of its critics. NONE of those criticisms are ever accompanied by any substantiating data. Here’s why: because of the extreme efficiency of ocean freight and the fact that the Bamboo is grown and processed close to the coast in China, the fuel used in transporting the Bamboo to one of the costal warehouses is actually LESS than the fuel used to transport domestically-grown hardwoods from the midwest or upper Appalachia (where most good quality hardwoods come from in the US) to one of those same warehouses. Ocean freight is approximately 10 times more efficient than trucking, so the longer distances are more than offset by the diesel used up on ’s highways. This whole business about the product not being green because it has to be shipped all the way from is simply misguided, unless of course you live in the midwest or and are buying from a local hardwood mill. Funny thing is, I know from a direct source that many of these same hardwood companies that are criticizing Bamboo are having their Oak dried and milled in China for shipment back to the US to be sold just down the road from the stump where the tree was cut.

In my opinion, a locally-grown and milled FSC-certified hardwood product is indeed more green than Bamboo, but there are precious few people in the US who are in a position to take advantage of that combination of conditions, and in many cases its impossible for consumers to actually verify where the wood was cut and processed and how it was transported through each step in the process.

I hope this clears up any questions that you may have had. Feel free to contact us if you are still skeptical, and would like more information. Thanks.

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Posted 04:26 PM October 10, 2008