MOSO’s head of sustainability Pablo van der Lugt has presented a TED talk at TEDx Erasmus University about the potential of bamboo to mitigate climate change and meet many resource demanding applications.
Within a century most commonly used building materials will be depleted. Yet there is a rapidly renewable, carbon negative – yet often overlooked – solution: giant bamboo. Because of its ability to restore degraded land, reforesting with bamboo could mitigate climate change and provide an enormous source of raw material. Furthermore, industrially processed bamboo can be used in a multitude of modern applications. Not only in the building industry, but also in interior design and the textile, paper and energy industry.
This TED talk provides an overview of the problem of material scarcity and ever increasing CO2 emissions, and how giant bamboo could play a leading role in turning the catastrophical effects of climate change around, by providing beautiful, environmentally friendly and aesthetically pleasing solutions. Did you know you could even 3D print bamboo, weave it into underwear and even wrap your latest I-phone in a bamboo case?
About the speaker:
Pablo van der Lugt, PhD MSc Eng, is a passionate advocate of renewable natural materials such as bamboo. He is the author of 5 books on sustainable building materials, including Booming Bamboo www.boomingbamboo.com (2017), which details the latest developments in design and architecture using bamboo.
Pablo van der Lugt finished his PhD Research about the environmental impact of industrial bamboo materials at Delft University of Technology in 2008. After his PhD, van der Lugt conducted various ambassador roles in the green building industry and has remained connected as guest lecturer bio-based materials to Delft University of Technology.
In the vision of van der Lugt in the essential transition towards a more circular economy there are tremendous opportunities for smart biobased materials made from fast-growing resources such as bamboo, to substitute carbon intensive, high performance materials such as tropical hardwood, steel, PVC and concrete.
