Offsetting With Bamboo

Recently I was considering planting something to help offset my CO2 emissions, not like a forest or anything major, just something for in my small city centre back garden. Trees are certainly not a great choice, and the neighbours might object to anything too large, plus it certainly would not look right.

Whilst trawling around the internet, bamboo seems like the ideal solution to my constraints. Bamboo is quick-growing, versatile , non-timber forest product whose rate of biomass generation is unsurpassed by any other plant. Each year bamboo will increase its total biomass by ten to thirty percent, in comparison trees achieve an increase of two to five percent. In addition to this bamboo offers the versatility that it has a variety of purposes, it has been used in housing, furniture and the construction industry in Asia, where for centuries it has been used to create scaffolding which can tower to hundreds of storeys high. The pictures (not they are big files) are from Hong Kong, of a building around 30 storeys high, as you can see, they have used bamboo scaffolding to create a cocoon around the structure from which construction work can be carried out. Those that have travelled to Asia's major cities will know that buildings like this are a regular occurrence as the economies in these regions continue to develop.

So why choose bamboo over trees? Bamboo minimizes CO2 gases and generates up to 35% more oxygen then equivalent stand of trees sequestering 62 tonnes of CO2 per hectare per year, a forest of young trees sequester only 15 tonnes per hectare over an equivalent time period. Bamboo removes CO2 from the atmosphere through photosynthesis by using carbon as an energy source and converting it into plant tissue which releases oxygen (O2) as a by-product.

There are over 1500 species of bamboo, with mature sizes ranging from 10cm to over 36m (120ft) with a diameter of up to 30cm. It is essential that if you plan to grow bamboo that you seek advice on which type of bamboo is best suited to you as bamboo can grow and spread irratically, overrunning your garden. For more advice on bamboo offsetting visit the Environmental Bamboo Foundation.