The substitution of fast-growing biogenic materials for high-carbon footprint extractive materials is increasingly discussed as a climate change mitigation tool. This review is based on a comprehensive literature search conducted in Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases for publications, focusing on keywords such as “bamboo” and “sustainable construction”. Through this literature and bibliometric analysis, we identify the relative interest in timber bamboo as a sustainable building material and review the carbon-capturing and structural properties that underly bamboo’s growing research interest. However, this has yet to translate into any material degree of adoption in mainstream construction. Given the near absence of subsidies, regulatory mandates, and “green premiums”, timber bamboo must become fully cost-competitive with existing materials to achieve adoption and provide its carbon-mitigation promise. In addition to academic sources, the review draws on the professional expertise of the authors, who have extensive experience in the bamboo industry. Using this expertise, the main problems preventing timber bamboo’s cost competitiveness are analyzed with possible solutions proposed. The combination of rigorous research and industry insights ensures practical applicability. Finally, the beneficial climate prospects of adopting timber bamboo buildings in substitution for 25% of new cement buildings is projected at over 10 billion tons of reduced carbon emissions from 2035 to 2050 and nearly 45 billion tons of reduced carbon emissions from 2035 to 2100.

Global construction activity remains the least responsive large economic sector to the exigencies of global climate change. The focus has centered on operating emissions of buildings, while upfront embodied emissions in building materials remain unabated. Softwood timber, a commonly used building material, can remove and store atmospheric carbon in buildings for decades. However, the upfront climate benefits of using softwoods in building frames are limited due to the multi-decadal growth and harvest cycles of forest plantations. The objective of this study was to demonstrate that fast-growing Eucalyptus is a superior carbon sequestration feedstock for building materials compared to slow-growing softwoods. We quantified the relative carbon benefits of Eucalyptus to a group of commonly used North American softwoods in an all-carbon-pools, risk-adjusted model that compares the net present value of carbon flows over a 100-year period. Using a novel carbon benefit multiple metric, the analysis shows that short-rotation, high-yield Eucalyptus plantations are 2.7× to 4.6× better at sequestering atmospheric carbon than softwoods, depending on the various risk perception scenarios. The results indicate that building decarbonization can be enhanced by using fast-growing and high-yielding Eucalyptus species plantations.

Standard carbon accounting methods and metrics undermine the potential of fast-growing biogenic materials to decarbonize buildings because they ignore the timing of carbon uptake. The consequence is that analyses can indicate that a building material is carbon-neutral when it is not climate-neutral. Here, we investigated the time-dependent effect of using fast-growing fibers in durable construction materials. This study estimated the material stock and flow and associated cradle-to-gate emissions for four residential framing systems in the US: concrete masonry units, light-frame dimensional timber, and two framing systems that incorporate fast-growing fibers (bamboo and Eucalyptus). The carbon flows for these four framing systems were scaled across four adoption scenarios, Business as Usual, Early-Fast, Late-Slow, and Highly Optimistic, ranging from no adoption to the full adoption of fast-growing materials in new construction within 10 years. Dynamic life cycle assessment modeling was used to project the radiative forcing and global temperature change potential. The results show that the adoption of fast-growing biogenic construction materials can significantly reduce the climate impact of new US residential buildings. However, this study also reveals that highly aggressive, immediate adoption is the only way to achieve net climate cooling from residential framing within this century, highlighting the urgent need to change the methods and metrics decision makers use to evaluate building materials.

Despite improving operational efficiency of buildings, annual emissions from construction remain stubbornly high. The substitution of fast-growing biogenic materials for high-carbon footprint extractive materials is increasingly discussed as a mitigation tool. Here we identify the relative interest in timber bamboo as such a tool through literature and biobliometric analysis. We review the carbon capturing and structural properties of timber bamboo that underly bamboo’s growing research interest, which, however, has yet to translate to any material degree of adoption in mainstream construction. Given the near absence of subsidies, regulatory mandates and “green premiums”, timber bamboo must become fully cost competitive with existing materials to achieve adoption and provide its carbon mitigation promise. The main problems preventing timber bamboo’s cost competitiveness are analyzed with possible solutions proposed. Finally, the beneficial climate prospects of adopting timber bamboo buildings in substitution for 25% of new cement buildings is projected at over 10 billions tonnes of reduced carbon emissions from 2035 to 2050 and nearly 45 billion tonnes of reduced carbon emissions from 2035 to 2100.

Decarbonizing buildings globally requires accurately quantifying the global warming impact of construction materials. However, standard carbon accounting methods and metrics undermine the potential of fast-growing biogenic materials because they ignore the timing of carbon uptake. The consequence is that analyses can indicate a building material is carbon-neutral when it is not climate-neutral. Here, we investigated the time-dependent effect of using fast-growing fibers in durable construction materials. The study estimated the material stock and flow and associated cradle-to-gate embodied emissions for four residential framing systems in the US: concrete masonry units, light-frame dimensional timber, and two framing systems that incorporate fast-growing fibers (bamboo and Eucalyptus). The carbon flows for these four framing systems were then scaled across four adoption scenarios, ranging from business-as-usual (no adoption of fast-growing fibers) to highly optimistic (full adoption of fast-growing materials in new construction within 10 years). Dynamic Life Cycle Assessment modeling was used to project radiative forcing and global temperature change potential. The results show that adoption of fast-growing biogenic construction materials can significantly reduce the climate impact of new US residential buildings within this century under reasonable adoption scenarios. However, net climate-cooling from residential framing will require highly aggressive, immediate adoption of fast-growing biogenic materials.

Global construction activity remains the least responsive large economic sector to the exigencies of global climate change. Focus has centered on operating emissions of buildings, while upfront embodied emissions in building materials remain unabated. Two of the most used building materials, steel and concrete, together produce more than 14 percent of total annual greenhouse gas emissions [1]. In contrast, softwood timber, another commonly used building material, can remove and store atmospheric carbon in buildings for decades. However, the upfront climate benefits of using structural-grade softwoods in durable building frames are limited due to the multi-decadal growth and harvest cycles. Here, we compare the use of fast-growing Brazilian Eucalyptus to a group of commonly used North American softwoods (spruce, pine, and fir) in a three-stage climate risk model that results in a novel Carbon Benefit Multiple, which quantifies the relative carbon removal benefits in a risk adjusted framework. The analysis shows that short rotation, high yield Eucalyptus is 2.7x to 4.6x better at removing atmospheric carbon than softwoods depending on various risk perception scenarios. The analysis indicates that building decarbonization can benefit by using fast growing and high yielding Eucalyptus species compared to traditionally used softwood species.