GreenFlip

The last few years have seen big changes in how people decorate their outdoor living spaces. Furniture designs keep improving, color schemes keep becoming more varied, and tech products keep becoming more affordable. One area that’s really been growing is using bamboo in outdoor décor. A sustainable, eco-friendly product, bamboo has many applications and can help create a unique look in any outdoor space. Here are some of the latest uses for it:

Furniture

When it comes to wood outdoor furniture, so much of it looks the same with the exception of the finish. With bamboo, you get something that’s truly different. Its round shape with clean lines is perfect for getting a modern look while retaining an Eastern or even tropical feel. It’s also one of the strongest wood plants on Earth, so your furniture will last for years with proper maintenance. Tables, chairs, benches, bars – there’s truly no limit to the bamboo furniture options out there.

Fencing

Going with a bamboo fence has become a popular option for those looking to make their home as green as possible, as you eliminate all the harvesting of trees that goes along with a traditional fence. While it’s a lightweight material, the strength of it makes it supremely durable, so damage from high winds or storms is a non-issue. It’s a great way to set your home apart from all the others with those same, boring wood designs, whether you se it as a high privacy fence or just something short to line the front yard.

Shaded Area

A covered area of some sort is key to having a great outdoor living space, as it lets you still enjoy the area no matter what the weather’s doing. One trend gaining steam is using bamboo in your covered area. Some homeowners are opting to have the whole thing constructed of bamboo, giving it almost the feel of being on an island resort, while others are covering the inside of the shelter roof with bamboo, making a much more appealing look than the drab wood or metal that’s up there. Whatever your preference is, it’s definitely worth looking into for a new home or remodeling job.

Accessories

The little things are what tie any room, indoors or out, together, and that’s another area where bamboo is really shining. All sorts of outdoor accessories, from fountains to planters to wind chimes, are now coming in bamboo designs. As we’ve said before, the light weight and strong nature of bamboo makes it ideal to use, as it’ll look good for years with minimal maintenance.

With all the advantages of bamboo, from its strength to its good looks to its eco-friendly nature, it’s easy to see why it’s becoming so popular in outdoor décor today. Try adding some bamboo features to your outdoor living space – your friends and neighbors are sure to be impressed!

About The Author – Tina Foreman is a writer with Outdoor Living and a green design enthusiast, specializing in outdoor remodeling projects. For more info, you can write to her at tina.foreman999@gmail.com

Concept

A house designed as a showcase to promote bamboo as sustainable building material, must be unusual and eye-catching.
Bamboo has been used for making everything from kitchenware to buildings for thousands of years in most Asian countries. Among the many beautiful methods of treating bamboo, highly sophisticated weaving techniques have been developed. Woven house is an attempt to take this tradition and use it in modern architecture and in a much larger scale than anyone have ever seen before. Birds are using weaving for making their nest from materials in their habitats.
Using the unique flexibility and strength of bamboo for weaving a vacation house, that appears futuristic and dynamic and gives a unique architectural experience, where walls, floors and ceiling is one continuously surface, that also can be shaped into sitting areas and shelves.
The woven bamboo surface can be a closed surface or semi-open to light.

Location

Can be anywhere, but most importantly on a site where Bamboo is growing, so less transport is needed,
meaning less impact on nature, and in an area where there is a tradition of weaving bamboo.

Construction

Heat shaped construction bamboo is used for making the framework of the building.
Roof is covered with bamboo shingles. Internal walls, floor and ceiling is woven bamboo.

By: Dr. Zakaria Siddiqui, Research Associate, J-PAL South Asia [With Joel Ruet, 2009, in J. Lesourne and W.C.Ramsay (eds) "Energy in India's future:Insights" IFRI, Paris]

Beyond India’s vast field of macroeconomics with their already sizeable concerns, lies a sea of variegated microeconomic issues: public/private coordination issues, locales, urban and rural specificities linked to poverty alleviation, regional variations, and particular dynamism of some firms which have already gone global and are inventing new business models. This paper shows that energy is no exception; contrary this subject has economic as well as political implications par excellence, and concerns macro as well macro levels. It exemplifies the complexities, progress and contradictions of the country, and its continuing national and social construction.

 Given India’s increasing growth rates and catching-up processes, and given its demographic dynamics, India is now shaping its own models (business, urban forms, adoption/development of technology) for the next decades.

 ———-

 In Hinduism, the goddess Shakti is associated with creative energy as well as motion. This idea is in line with the recompositions and inventiveness one sees in India. This image, thought belongs to the Hindu Pantheon, has been in fact rather “secularized” and its use here should be seen in this sense. Less of a religious symbol in contemporary India, Shakti has largely become a symbol of the state: Shakti Bhawan—literally the house of energy—is the official lnme by which every Indian knows the Ministry of Power and its Bureau of Energy Efficiency in Hindi, the second official language of India with English.

Read the Full Paper HERE.

Guest Post by: Pankaj Lal, University of Florida

Bioenergy production has increased significantly in the last decade, and recent legislative efforts in U.S. such as the discussion draft for the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 are expected to encourage even more growth. In the quest for energy sources to meet higher energy demand, the policy push for renewable energy, including woody biomass, is gaining momentum. Several other factors are also catapulting woody biomass use for energy. These include growing concerns about energy security and dependence on foreign oil, uncertainty associated with costs for fossil fuels such as petroleum, the possibility to improve forest health and reduce wildfire risk, and the potential to provide socio-economic benefits in the form of additional income from forestlands and new jobs.

Historically, woody biomass used for energy was comprised of waste from the production of lumber, pulp and paper, and other wood products. However, if bioenergy markets become competitive, use of woody biomass from logging residues, stands damaged by natural disturbances such as wildfire, pest outbreaks, storms, small diameter trees from thinning, plantations and other forests, and energy crops such as eucalyptus and poplar is quite possible. Biofuels from woody biomass, commonly called cellulosic or second generation fuels are shown to have advantages over starch-based fuels (corn ethanol for example) by avoiding the food versus fuel debate, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and yielding greater energy input-output ratio. However, several complex issues are influencing the development of these markets in economically efficient and environmentally benign ways. Some of the key issues that stand out are: biomass availability or supply; technology and market competitiveness; monetizing environmental benefits; soil, water and biodiversity impacts and  the uncertainty regarding interplay of carbon markets and  forest bioenergy.

Large variance in biomass supply estimates makes informed policy making difficult.  The available wood biomass supply information is, perhaps, essential to policymakers who establish renewable energy goals and formulate subsidies, credits, trade tariffs, and other interventions to realize those goals. On the bioenergy technology front, there is no emergent favorite technology.  Several technologies exist for converting wood biomass to liquid fuels, biopower, and bioproducts. While all technologies are proven to be possible, most of them are not yet economically competitive. Even for supposedly low hanging fruit in the country such as cofiring, there are significant challenges such as ash deposition, corrosion, and feedstock selection. Pubic research dollars are exploring all these technologies further in hopes of commercial success.

Another challenge seems to be the method of green accounting or integrated accounting, wherein social and environmental benefits accruing from woody bioenergy can be incorporated for unit cost analysis. This suggestion is consistent with findings that the public is willing to pay a premium for bioenergy to realize environmental benefits. This accounting approach can help in monetizing the benefits gained through GHG reduction. However, convincing general populace about non-market benefits and accounting still requires concerted efforts.

It is also imperative required that what woody biomass based energy should be sustainable. Bioenergy sustainability concerns regarding soil and water quality, biodiversity etc. range stand true for the whole supply chain — feedstock production, harvesting, transport, conversion, distribution, consumption, waste disposal– as well as those regarding job creation and societal benefit distribution. Several organizations at state (Forestry Departments for example), national (Environmental Protection Agency), and international (Global Bio-Energy Partnership and Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels) are trying to develop guidelines and/or standards to ensure the environmental, economic, and social sustainability of bioenergy markets.

 Another factor that influences the bioenergy-GHG emission relationship is the impact of payment for carbon offsets as an incentive for GHG reduction. Carbon offsets are project-based initiatives involving specific activities to reduce, avoid or sequester GHG emissions and are tradable in carbon markets. With a carbon market proposed in future as per provisions of Waxman Markey Bill, it is hypothesized that forest owners can gain carbon credits through ‘additional’ carbon sequestered on their lands. However its viability as project offsets, whereby, needs to be assessed relative to other carbon offset options such as tillage change in agriculture, improving efficiency of power plants, clean coal technologies, timely and important.

It is fair to say that wood based energy markets, if steered appropriately, offer a promise to ensure energy security, promote environmental quality, and realize social benefits. However, several complex issues are influencing the development of these markets. Solutions to these issues would result in winners and losers. Therefore, not surprisingly, stakeholders are increasingly participating and debating these issues.  However, it is imperative that each side should respect the positions and arguments of the other and strive to move forward collectively.  A sustained dialogue through meaningful partnerships amongst biomass suppliers, biomass users, and representatives of civil society is critical to realize woody bioenergy market potentials. 

India has huge natural bamboo stocks that have been an integral part of Indian culture for many millennia. Bamboo in many ways is the mainstay of the rural Indian economy, sparking considerable social and ecological spin-offs. In the early part of the century, large tracts of bamboo occurred in many parts of the country but were treated by forestry sector (which was then cast in a production forestry mode) as a weed of little economic value and were used mostly by the rural communities for crafts, making implements and as housing material. It was the discovery of bamboo as a source of long-fibre by the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun that started the process of using bamboo in a variety of industrial applications, so far unexplored, with several paper mills and rayon mills being set up. But in the absence of a clear policy of husbanding of the resource there was rapid degradation and decimation of the resource in much of the country. Bamboo resources plummeted so alarmingly that at present the resource is limited to few pockets in the country. Two-thirds of the bamboo in the country is restricted to the North-Eastern Region (NER) while the remaining one-third is spread across the country.

But there is hope for the resurgence of bamboo, and this is based on evidence of significant new and contemporary economic opportunities that have emerged over the past decade. A bamboo revolution that holds the potential of reversing economic downturns and ensuring profitability, is very much possible.  Bamboo is an untapped avenue of economic growth and a burgeoning bamboo sector can rope in prosperity, profits, and sustainable livelihoods.

 Despite the severe degradation of the resource in the past, India still has a considerable growing stock of bamboo, and comparative annual harvest figures[1] still place India at the top of the global league. It is important to realize the considerable latent potential that bamboo has to contribute to economic growth, poverty alleviation, generating employment, rehabilitating vast tracts of degraded land generated due to past agricultural and industrial practices and policies, and revitalizing the social, economic and ecological well-being of rural economies.

 In line with this, goals should be aimed to focus on recovering the resource lost to the rural poor, as it has been a natural capital that has helped them to keep their economies afloat even in times of significant cash crunches. Attempts should be made to replenish bamboo stocks, make it economically beneficial to rural communities in a way that it provides them opportunities to earn a sustainable income and improve their standard of living. Efforts should also be made to increase the economic opportunity from the use of bamboo as an industrial raw material, to raise employment opportunities (especially for the educated and unemployed rural youth), and to rehabilitate the degraded lands across the country (making available and productive a natural resource which is increasingly becoming scarce and expensive).

  DEMAND DRIVEN SCENARIOS

 As per the statistics available from the FAO, approximately 678,000 cubic meters of round wood logs were imported into India in 1997. The import quantity has gone up since then. According to the latest estimates available, the volume of logs imported was about 1.4 million cubic meters in 1998-1999. It is estimated that this figure would be around 2.0 million cubic meters for 1999-2000.

 The sawn wood and panels import, which was about 57,000 cubic meters, also would have gone up considerably, though no reliable figures are available. Although timber is normally obtained from government forests, community lands and private lands, the national timber production statistics report only timber extracted from government forests. These statistics indicate an increase in demand for wood even as there has been a decrease in the production of timber from government forests. The recorded production of timber accounts for less than half of the industrial wood demand in India.

 Each of the value-added industries that have been identified in the table above would pursue a growth rate based on the demand for the products. The demand, in turn, would be based on the increased acceptability of the products in the international and domestic markets. The demand will be a function of:

• 1. Increase in the cost of substitute materials such as wood, steel and other building materials
• 2. Recognition of the high durability of bamboo-based materials
• 3. Community appreciation of bamboo as a sustainable livelihood crop and their increased acceptance of the same

4. Mass usage of bamboo in government projects like housing and roads

5. Acceptance of bamboo as a material for flooring and furniture making as well as a food item among the higher income groups

From the year 2010 to 2015, the growth in the bamboo industry should be starting to acquire a definite contour. While the focus in the foundation years was on the industries that were already using bamboo as a raw material – the paper industry and handicrafts – and setting up the infrastructure and investment in new industries, the emphasis in this stage will be on the shift from lower value-added applications to higher value-added ones – bamboo board, flooring and bamboo shoot for example. This stage will mark the transformation of bamboo from a mere forest produce to a commercial commodity.