Is Bamboo A Green Product?

ByWeBuyItGreen: promoting green living and fair trade

I recently had a discussion about WeBuyItGreen with a builder on another site.  He saw the Tropical Bamboo Hideaway caption on our home page and said that he had recently heard that bamboo is no longer considered a green product.  His remarks raised some interesting questions not only about bamboo, but also about policy regarding advertising on our site.  The builder explained that the environmental advantage gained by the fact that bamboo is a rapidly renewable resource is outweighed by the environmental cost of transporting the bamboo such a long distance from where it is grown.  The problem leads to difficult questions like, "How far away from its point of origin does the bamboo have to be before it is no longer green?" . . . pretty complex. 

This raises the sticky issue of who decides what qualifies as "green."  Our Meaning of Green page does provide guidelines regarding qualities of a green product, and as pointed out there, the issue is complicated, requiring judgments about the impact of a product upon the environment at many junctures (from cradle to grave).  The position taken at WeBuyItGreen is that advertisers must be specific about explaining why their products/services are "green."  But this site will not play the role of the green police or gatekeeper that determines which of these claims are valid.  Most ads on this site are posted on advertising forums, and all ads on the site can be discussed in the forums.  This allows people to post challenges or questions when they doubt a claim that a product or business is green.  Our hope is that a Wikipedia sort of quality control will emerge if many eyes are watching, and anyone can post an opinion.  Moreover, these sorts of conversations can serve an educational function for all of us.  Admittedly, it will never replace a LEED or EnergyStar sort of rating system for certifying "green," but let's face it--certification is not always feasible.  There are many areas in which a certification program does not yet exist.  So the forum context is an alternative for achieving some quality control.  There is a great deal at stake in defining "green," and I'm afraid that the power to define and apply the term is open to abuse.  So on this site, the plan is to rely on the power of free expression of opinion and individual judgment to determine what qualifies as green.