Engineered bamboo used for flooring and furniture at FAO's Philippines conference room.

Philippines Rom - FAO, © FAO-Giuseppe Carotenuto (https://flic.kr/p/eQZocC)

The use of engineered bamboo as a suitable CO2 neutral material for construction has been showcased in the Philippines Room at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) headquarters in Rome.

A feature within a recent FAO-Forestry paper titled 'Forestry for a low-carbon future. Integrating forests and wood products in climate change strategies' (available here) presents four remarkable examples of the use of wood and bamboo in recently renovated meeting rooms at FAO headquarters. The title of the feature 'Walking the talk: innovative use of wood and bamboo in FAO conference rooms' conveys FAO's commitment to practise what it preaches in terms of the sustainable use of agricultural and forestry resources and the reduction of poverty and climate change. An effort that is aligned with the Paris Agreement (updated info here) signed by 180 parties of the convention in 2015 and that so far, has been ratified by 27 countries (accounting for 39.08% of global Green House Gasses-GHG emissions).

Amphibia BASE (UK) & Amphibia Group (COL) celebrate the publication of this short, but extremely pertinent two pages feature. It definitely invites the general public and everyone involved with the materials selection process to consider the use of innovative, CO2 neutral and bio-based solutions in their homes and buildings anywhere in the world.