World Bamboo Organization Video

World Bamboo Organization

Had a magnificent message from one of our supporters attaching this incredible video for the Bamboo Day with a very strong and heart touching message.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did…

It is estimated that there are more than two billion hectares - that is nearly 5 billion acres - of deforested and degraded land around the world. We've heard about planting trees, yes, but it is time to plant bamboo. Bamboo is resilient & adaptable - with immense biodiversity. Bamboo can restore degraded land, mitigate climate change and alleviate poverty. It is time to plant bamboo.

#thebestbamboo #PlantBamboo #BambooisGrowing #UNSDGs #KewDeclaration #UNGlobalCompact #landrestoration #degradedland #climatemitigation #alternativetimber #alleviatepoverty #carboncapture #agroforestry #KeepBambooStrong #bamboo

Are Green Buildings less expensive than traditional buildings?

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Proyecto Guardianes Playa del Carmen - Diseño y construcción by Arquitectura Mixta

Are Green Buildings less expensive than traditional buildings?

The growing positioning of green buildings and sustainable architecture is one of the results of the energy crisis and climate change. Experts and construction groups are often debating which method is cheaper between constructions made with natural materials like Bamboo or those with traditional materials such as cement. At The Best Bamboo, we will address this question.

Talking about construction using ecological materials implicitly addresses green building. This method includes several environmental and social requirements for the future of construction and it will set the path in the coming years (The Sustainabilist).

Why is the world speaking about Green Buildings?

As mentioned before, one of the challenges that society is now facing due to the current situation is environmental care analyzed from different perspectives, including construction. It is estimated that in the next decades, constructions similar to the size of New York City will be built every day. And, given that the urban population is currently producing 40% of the global carbon footprint, infrastructure solutions are increasingly evident and urgent (Redshift).

In response to the climate damage caused by the traditional construction methods and materials, the industry is progressively requiring the inclusion of green construction and sustainable architecture elements.

The Arc at Green School by IBUKU

Benefits of Green Buildings

Green building’s main objective is to reduce the environmental impact of traditional construction methods and materials. The following are some of its benefits:

Proyecto Kaybe Tulum - Diseño y construcción by Arquitectura Mixta

• Greenhouse emission reduction

When choosing materials for Green Building, experts consider their carbon footprint, and, therefore, natural materials like Bamboo are preferred (NCBI). Bamboo is a versatile material that can be used in different ways, including bamboo poles, bamboo splits / bamboo

slats, planks, and other structural elements. Also, it absorbs 5 to 10 times more CO2 than other types of wood. (The Third Pole)

Read: The focus of the future will be green buildings.

• Versatility in sizes and spaces

Green Building projects can be done regardless of their size thanks to the versatility of the materials used (i.e., soil, stones, or wood such as bamboo poles ).

• Resources optimization

Contrary to traditional construction, Green Building considers resources optimization from different fronts, including designs based on the cutting-edge energy management systems, reuse and optimization of water consumption during construction and subsequent use of the space, and higher savings in investment and maintenance of buildings (The Sustainabilist).

• Lower costs

Green Building projects require lower investments; savings are mainly reported in the use of natural materials, smart energy and water consumption during project execution, and lower use of heavy machinery. Also, energy efficiency drives a reduced consumption of energy resources in the maintenance and use stages.

The ideal product for Green Building

Materials used for green constructions can have a significant impact on environmental preservation and provide savings for construction projects. These include stones, soil, adobe, cob, and wood, as the leading input.

Wood is recyclable and CO2 neutral. Construction systems worldwide have traditionally used wood as the main material, and among the different types of wood used in construction, Bamboo stands out.

Bamboo lumber can turn into columns, planks, panels, and other structural elements giving a unique appearance to each project. This is a versatile and easy and fast-growing material that can be shaped to the weather conditions of almost any location and helps the environment thanks to its CO2 absorption.

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Laminated Bamboo Lumber by The Best Bamboo

If you are thinking of a project that requires the use of Bamboo, The Best Bamboo has different product lines that fit your needs.

Contact us for more info!

Bamboo Fiber - Bamboo Pipes

Navigating through my LinkedIn today found a post from a person I admire: Hans Friederich, Director- General of the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR)

I have been working for some years exploring the uses for bamboo fibers and with GRASSBuilt, great advances were done in America. As a true believer of added values I wanted to show you parts of the article that are extremely interesting. At the end you will find a direct link if you would like to read the full content.

Source: makingitmagazine.net

Good business: Opening the bamboo curtain

9 January 2018

Profile of Xinzhou Bamboo, a company using innovative bamboo winding technology to produce low-carbon, long-lasting and cheaper piping

Bamboo is one of the fastest growing and most powerful plants in the world. According to Hans Friederich, Director- General of the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), “Bamboo has thousands of uses – from paper and packaging to furniture and flooring – and we are discovering new applications every year. We have even heard of bamboo being used for wind turbine blades! People are always surprised at the products bamboo can make. This is because of the plant’s amazing properties: it is flexible but also very resilient, and as a member of the grass family, reaches maturity far quicker than most types of tree.”

Bamboo pipes

YE Ling put the two together. With decades of experience in research and development of composite pressure pipe and containers behind him, in 2006 Ye pioneered wound bamboo composite pipeline technology. In the following year, he established a research and development team to test the feasibility of the concept. Today, Ye is director of the Engineering Research Centre for Bamboo Winding Composites (ERCBWC), part of the State Forestry Administration, and is chairman of the board of Zhejiang Xinzhou Bamboo-based Composites Technology Co., Ltd. (Xinzhou Bamboo).

The company uses bamboo as reinforced materials, processing the thin-walled and hollow bamboo into a continuous strip of sheet material. Bamboo winding pipe has the advantage of high-compression strength, doesn’t corrode and has outstanding electricity and thermal insulation performance. It can replace most welded steel pipe, polyethylene pipe, pre-stressed steel tube concrete pipe and other traditional pipes in the market, and can be widely applied to municipal water supply and drainage pipe networks, irrigation and other water transport areas. It has the potential to significantly reduce the use of plastic, steel and cement.

Unlike plastic, steel, cement and other traditional pipe materials, the wound bamboo composite pipes are environmentally friendly. Bamboo is a sustainable, low-carbon resource. As Ye proudly says, “Replacing traditional pipelines with wound bamboo composite pipelines means replacing high-polluting, high-energy-consuming, non-renewable materials with renewable resources,” adding that it also means saving money. Even conservative estimates suggest that they can reduce costs by 20%.

For Full Article Click HERE

Bamboo Social Housing

Hi to all! Wanting to share a beautiful social housing project by Lucila Aguilar Arquitectos and with the consultancy of a good friend Jorg Stamm - worldwide renowned bamboo expert!

Please like and share if you appreciate good, honest, and affordable bamboo construction.

Architectural project: GROW YOUR HOUSE

Design: Lucila Aguilar Arquitectos

Website: www.lucilaaguilar.com

Advice: Jorg Stamm, construction expert with bamboo.

Structural calculation: BCI Structural.

Built area: 127 m2

Location: Tuzantán, Chiapas

Photographs: Lucila Aguilar

Year: 2017

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Background:

The project began as a social housing proposal that Uumbal manages for its field workers. Uumbal is an agro-forestry company with 15,000 hectares of pine and palm plantations in southeastern Mexico -Chiapas, Veracruz, Tabasco and Campeche.

An investigation was made about their current housing situation, needs, customs and challenges to be solved. It was proposed to propose solutions that promote well-being, generate technology transfer, support the local economy and provide viable solutions for a better quality of life. A "Consultative Council" is created, a multidisciplinary group that provides guidance, ideas, and experience to enrich the project. Among the participants are Jorge Esteve, of AMSA; Arch. Juan Pablo Serrano, who actively collaborates in the design; Luis Atias, of COPRI; Enrique Lomnitz and Delfin Milton from Isla Urbana; Arq Raúl de Villafranca, and Lorena Vazquez Ordaz, of The Hunger Project.

The Book: BOOMING BAMBOO is OUT NOW!

You can weave it, laminateit, spin it into fabric, even3D print it. Bamboo is one of the most versatile materials in the world, yet it is still relatively unknown in world of design. The first book of its kind, Booming Bamboo, written by Dr Pablo van der Lugt and published by Materia, explores the most innovative applications for this material, in architecture and design, but also in a multitude of other modern uses.

Bamboo can be used in nearly all (creative) industries: in construction, (interior) architecture, mobility, products, sports, fashion, packaging, and many more. With climate change and resource scarcity looming over our heads, bamboo is a super versatile material that can help us create a more sustainable and circular society using biobased materials.

Abundantly illustrated, Booming Bamboo provides a comprehensive overview of the enormous potential of bamboo. It starts by introducing the hard facts regarding global problems that we are facing, such as resource scarcity and climate change. The first part of the book introduces bamboo as a fast-growing, sustainable and renewable resource and explains how bamboo can play a vital role in climate change mitigation as well as in restoring ecosystems through reforestation. The second part of the book presents the various ways in which bamboo can be transformed into many different, exciting materials and fabrics. The book concludes by showcasing the most magnificent, innovative and inspiring bamboo products and projects that have been developed to date, examples of which you can see on the photos above (click on the photos for more information).

About the author
Pablo van der Lugt devoted both his Master and his PhD research at Technical University Delft to bamboo and bamboo materials, and currently active as Sustainability expert in the wood- and bamboo industry. With Booming Bamboo, he shows that in the essential transition towards a more circular economy, there are tremendous opportunities for bamboo.

About the publisher
Booming Bamboo is published by Materia, with the support of INBAR(International Network for Bamboo and Rattan), and MOSO International, a pioneer in innovative bamboo solutions for indoors and outdoors. They work together to promote the use of bamboo worldwide. Both organizations also celebrate their 20th anniversary this year.

For more about the book and how to buy it, click here.

An ocean full of plastic!

Hace menos de un mes, investigadores de la organización 5 Gyres Institute presentaron las cifras de una investigación que estaban realizando desde 2007.

La conclusión fue que en total podía haber unas 270.000 toneladas flotando en los mares del mundo. Es decir, una cantidad tan grande como para llenar 10.000 camiones.

Pero pese a lo asombroso de esas cifras, algunos ambientalistas habían insistido en que esos datos apenas pueden llegar a ser un representación de lo que verdaderamente hay en el océano, pues tan sólo se registró lo que aparecía flotando en la superficie. Ahora, una investigación dirigida por la universidad de Plymouth y publicada por la Royal Society Open Science parece darles la razón.

Según este estudio, buena parte de la huella contaminante del ser humano está en las partes más profundas y remotas del agua, donde habría alrededor de 4.000 millones de fibras microscópicas de plástico por cada kilómetro cuadrado, o sea, una cifra cuatro veces mayor de lo que puede encontrarse en las aguas costeras.

La razón por la que esas diminutas partículas no son visibles en las imágenes que se han tomado es que el plástico se ha ido desintegrando poco a poco en pequeñas fibras microscópicas que han ido a parar a los fondos marinos del mundo. Allí se pueden encontrar desde 1,4 hasta 40 muestras de entre dos y tres milímetros de longitud por cada 50 milímetros de sedimentos.

Eso sólo sugiere que el hábitat marino está padeciendo un mal mucho mayor del que se pensaba. Y además, como había dicho en diciembre Marcus Eriksen, director de investigación de 5 Gyres, tratar de contener semejante problema es un asunto que requiere de un esfuerzo que no todos los países están dispuestos a hacer. El actual modelo para gestionar los materiales plásticos, dijo aquella vez, es ecológicamente insostenible.

Fuente: http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/medio-ambiente/un-oceano-repleto-de-plastico-articulo-535968