Moso bamboo:
The fast growing hardwood alternative!

The giant bamboo species Moso belongs to the fastest growing plants in the world. It reaches its final length of up to 20 meters within a couple of months (with a speed of up to 1 meter a day during the growing season!). It takes the stem around 4-5 years to mature and acquire its excellent hardwood like characteristics (hardness, strength, dimensional stability). This stands in clear contrast with tropical hardwoods. These take over 50 years to mature, are increasingly scarce and often more expensive.

Sustainable bamboo forestry

One bamboo plant consists of several poles and new shoots will grow from the mother plant every year. Generally 20-25% of the poles in a sustainable bamboo forest or plantation can be harvested each year. This happens without decreasing the number of poles per hectare! The plant does not die after harvesting (as with trees), so no deforestation. On the contrary, by harvesting the mature plants, the yield and quality of the plantation actually increases.

Carbon storage in bamboo

Through photosynthesis, plants absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) and convert it into glucose (building block for biomass) and oxygen. The CO2 is stored in the material for the lifetime of the product, and even longer if the product is upcycled / recycled into new, durable products. Due to the fast growth – and related high yields – Moso bamboo locks far more CO2 in the durable products pool compared to wood species. The locked amount of CO2 can be calculated rather simply by looking at the density of the material and taking into account the bio-based content. For example, Bamboo X-treme® locks just over 1,660 kg CO2 per m³ of bamboo.

Read more about CO2 storage in bamboo

FSC® bamboo certification

FSC® is the leading certification scheme for responsible forestry. It was created to prevent the continuous depletion of forests. Although as being a giant grass with an annual thinning scheme, depletion of forests is not an issue for bamboo, in many building projects bamboo is requested with FSC® certification nonetheless. Bamboo has been included in the FSC® system since 2008 being one of the first bamboo companies to be certified and most products can be supplied with an FSC®-certification.

FSC® certification details

Can you imagine a growing speed of 1 meter a day?

Responsible production

Apart from sustainable sourcing, MOSO® also wants to do what is right in the production phase. Not only for the product quality but also for the environment and the people involved. Therefore we comply with the most stringent norms and procedures regarding quality (ISO 9001) and health and safety (FSC®, ISO 14001).

Healthy indoor environment

A healthy indoor climate is important. In Europe and the USA there are very strict rules and norms regarding indoor emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). In Europe the emission of formaldehyde is regulated in the EN717-1 norm. The maximum tolerated level is called E1 and all MOSO® products comply with this. Several MOSO® products even comply with the strictest level: E0 – no formaldehyde emission detectable! Furthermore, all MOSO® Bamboo floors have been rated A and A+ in France with respect to emissions of VOCs: the best classification possible!

Durable = sustainable

Durability is an important yet often overlooked aspect of sustainability. The longer the lifetime of product the lower the environmental impact will be, simply because it will take longer before you need to replace it. Durability depends highly on the quality and characteristics (such as hardness, density, stability, etc) of the product. MOSO® products score very high on all these factors making the product very durable and therefore sustainable!

More about certification
Durable bamboo flooring

Easy to recycle

Of course we hope you can enjoy the MOSO® product for many years, but there will be a moment when it has ended its life cycle. At that moment another characteristic of bamboo will become important: it is easily recycled, for example as resource to make chipboard. Alternatively, it can be burnt in a biomass energy plant to create green electricity. In this way the use of fossil fuels is reduced.

Carbon Footprint

MOSO® has conducted several LCA studies, including carbon footprint studies, together with Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) and NIBE (LCA experts). The 2015 LCA report, available at www.moso-bamboo.com/lca, was the first of its kind and resulted in many new findings about the carbon footprint of bamboo products. The environmental impact of MOSO® Bamboo Products, excluding the carbon sequestration effect, has also been published in 2016 and updated in 2022 in an official Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) following EN 15804 (www.moso-bamboo.com/epd).

More information about LCA

The future: 100% Cradle to Cradle compliant bamboo

One of the key benefits of bamboo is the rapid renewability, with stems growing to maturity within 5 years. To put this into practice and understand this benefit even more, MOSO® gives a 25 years warranty on Bamboo X-treme® for outdoor applications. During the warranty period, the bamboo has already grown back 5 times. It is clear that MOSO®’s industrial bamboo products, made from upto 98%* of sustainably sourced bamboo material from the fastest growing plant on earth, is therefore a natural fit with the biocycle of the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) concept. MOSO® is actively working in collaboration with leading glue manufacturers to develop a bio-based adhesive to bind the bamboo strips.
*depending on the product.

Discover Booming Bamboo

Get in touch

Would you like to receive more information about the sustainability of MOSO® Bamboo Products?
Please feel free to contact us!

Dr. ir. Pablo van der Lugt
Bamboo Ambassador at Moso International B.V., the Netherlands

Contact us
Pablo van der Lugt Sustainability Manager MOSO
Go to top