Environmental advantages
Bamboo – more than a wood alternative
Wood is a depleting natural resource whereas bamboo replenishes itself quickly. Bamboo is a grass with wood-like characteristics, growing up to 1 metre per day in tropical regions, making it the fastest growing plant on earth.
Environmentally friendly
Every year the parent bamboo plant develops new stems. These new stems can be harvested after 5 years in a mature plantation without decreasing the size of the forest. Regular harvesting actually improves the growth of the bamboo.
Moso opt for an environmentally friendly approach in the processing of bamboo strips into flooring, panels, veneer and matted tile products. A lot of the energy required in the factory comes from the burning of sawdust and bamboo leftovers.
If required 100% formaldehyde free glue can be used in production, otherwise all glues used by Moso have a low level of formaldehyde and easily meet the requirements set out in the European standard E1 norm.
Over the years, FSC has become an important international standard. However, for bamboo it has always been questionable if FSC certification is really necessary: bamboo is not a wood, it is a grass. And to produce bamboo products no deforestation is necessary or even possible: only the 5-6 years old plants are harvested.
The practical problem was that a lot of building contracts simply required FSC only materials. This would exclude bamboo automatically. In 2004 FSC has allowed bamboo into their system. In 2009 Moso was FSC certified and so was the bamboo veneer joint venture factory DMVP. Although the FSC certified bamboo raw material is still rare, Moso and DMVP can now offer FSC certified bamboo.
No threat to Pandas
Pandas live in the mountain ranges of central China and forage where the shorter species of bamboo are more accessible. The taller MOSO bamboo species has no leaf growth on the first metre of the stem, and is therefore not a food source for the panda.
