This article looks into bamboo as a means of carbon sequestration. It is based on a recent interview that I read with Dr Hans Friederich, who is the Director General of INBAR. You can find a link to it here.

Going back to square one with bamboo, it is a grass, not a tree. This enables it to grow rapidly.

This means that unlike trees which need to be felled, bamboo can be harvested like a crop, after which it will grow back vigorously.

This makes it an ideal means of carbon sequestration.

Bamboos can reach maturity in 5 years, meaning that they are able to keep up with rapid and ever-increasing demand.

Bamboos produce excellent charcoal and so can help to reduce deforestation worldwide, which is itself a significant source of carbon emissions.

Please see below for a useful insight from Dr Hans Friederich:

“Apart from charcoal, there are many other long-lasting products that can be made from bamboo, and while they remain intact, they hold onto carbon the giant grass sequestered while still on the farm.”

Bamboo is a highly sustainable material with thousands of end uses, to name but a few, this includes: textiles, building materials and packaging containers. These products are high quality and durable, as well as sustainably produced.

These advantages properties, combined with the looming and as yet unresolved threat posed by climate change, mean that bamboo is increasingly looking like a promising solution for meeting societal needs whilst simultaneously sequestering carbon.

What you need to know

This article looked into bamboo as a means of carbon sequestration.

Bamboo’s rapid pace of growth and ability to be harvested annually after 5 years worth of growing time make it an ideal crop for material intensive industries in the 21st century.

With the additional capability to store carbon within the thousands of durable products that can be made from bamboo, this carbon sequestration capacity should be seized upon as a key enabler of sustainability.

Thank you for reading,

By Barnaby Nash

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below, or reach out to me on social media. What do you think needs to be done to promote the benefits of bamboo as a sustainable resource?

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