Is Bamboo the New Pine for the Lumber Industry?

Picture credit: Rizome 

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Approximately 15 billion trees are cut each year — about half of them used by the construction industry. That’s the equivalent of 24.7 million acres, an area the size of Portugal — or a football field being cut down every six seconds.

Demand for lumber shows no signs of slowing down. While many large lumber companies such as Weyerhaeuser Co. WY and Boise Cascade Co. BCC have implemented sustainable forestry practices, the fact that trees take 20-60 years to mature makes it challenging to keep up with demand and still meet global reforestation goals. 

Rizome, a Florida-based company reports that its bamboo products can alleviate the shortage of raw materials required for lumber while contributing to the global goal of ending deforestation by 2030.  

Bamboo is the “Miracle Timber” 

Bradenton-based Rizome calls bamboo the “miracle timber.” According to the company, bamboo matures in three to five years compared with 20 to 60 years for trees, draws down ten times more carbon, grows 15 times faster than pine, and the resulting lumber products are as tough and durable as those made from conventional trees. Bamboo is also fire and drought resistant, making it a good candidate for restoring degraded lands. 

Despite the environmental good that bamboo can bring, the absence of a reliable supply chain of timber-grade bamboo lumber has limited its use in construction, Rizome says.

The company is aiming to change all that. 

Identifying timber-grade bamboo species and developing agriculture technologies to scale growth were the company’s first challenges. Rizome found their first agricultural partners in the Philippines, where the company opened its first manufacturing facility in 2021. The first engineered bamboo products have been allocated for the company’s North American customers.

According to the company, it is now partnering with citrus farmers in Florida and other subtropical regions in the Americas to serve the needs of the region. The first harvest for USA production is planned for 2026.  

“The more bamboo we plant, the more building materials we can sell, and the more CO2 we draw down,” the company says on its crowdfunding page.

The market for green building materials is growing almost as fast as bamboo itself, projected to increase from $217 billion in 2020 to $384 billion in 2025, Rizome says. At the same time, the total market for engineered wood is expected to grow to $400 billion by 2027.

“We are confident that our engineered bamboo products will increasingly be used in place of wood as fast as we can produce them.”

Bamboo can be used in most traditional wood applications in the building industry and is “naturally gorgeous” as well as being affordable, strong, and fire-resistant, Rizome says. It might just help save the planet too.

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This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.