Lamboo Bamboo

Based in Springfield, Illinois, Lamboo Inc. specializes in manufacturing high-performance engineered bamboo for a variety of commercial, residential, and industrial applications.

Luke Schuette founded Lamboo in 2003. As a student of architecture at Southern Illinois University, Schuette became fascinated with structural materials and engineered wood. For his final project, he performed an analysis on engineered bamboo for structural applications, and became passionate about the material.

In 2007, Schuette, successfully petitioned the American Society for Testing and Material (ASTM) to revise their standard, D5456, to include the evaluation of laminated veneer bamboo for structural use. He now serves as the Chairman of D07.02.03 at ASTM International.

As a result of his educational background, Schuette’s natural target market is architects, who can specify Lamboo in their building projects. They can then order products from Lamboo’s nearly 30 partners, who offer high-performance bamboo windows, doors, curtain walls, tables and countertops, structural systems, moveable glass doors, and interior and exterior panels. Lamboo’s partners span many sectors, and include NanaWall, Kolbe, Solarlux, Western Structures, Inc., Oversee Yachts, Dover, and Redbud Ridge.

Lamboo also sells panels and finished grade components directly to general contractors and carpenters.

One of Lamboo’s most notable clients is Pier 1 Imports, who has refitted close to 100 of their stores’ entryways with Lamboo bamboo awnings and doors (through partnership with Kolbe). The company plans to update 800 of their 1200 stores with the product.

Benefits of Lamboo Bamboo

Bamboo is a rapidly renewable material, meaning that its harvest cycle is 10 years or less. In fact, Lamboo has hand-picked 6 of the 1600 species of bamboo, which it believes are the best for both high performance and sustainability. These species have harvest cycles of 6-8 years, and is considered to be a low embodied energy material with an excellent life cycle as compared to other materials such as plastics and fiberglass. In comparison to a traditional forest, a bamboo forest produces six times the amount of material per acre per year and sequesters 35% more carbon.

In comparison to traditional wood, bamboo is ten times stronger in tension and over three times stronger in general mechanical properties. However, it has the same thermal properties of wood, meaning that in glass applications, it is more energy efficient than aluminum, vinyl, plastics, steel, and other alternatives.

Additionally, the materials has low VOCs and formaldehyde, making it ideal for indoor air quality.
 
LEED Credit Overview

According to the LEED for New Construction 2009 rating system, Lamboo bamboo can contribute to the following credits:

• Materials and Resources (MR) Credit 6, Rapidly Renewable Materials (1 point):

This credit requires that 2.5% of the total value of building materials are rapidly renewable, which means that they can be harvested in 10 years or less.

• Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) Credit 4.4, Low-Emitting Materials - Composite Wood and Agrifiber Products (1 point):

This credit requires that composite wood products, agrifiber products, and laminating adhesives contain no added urea-formaldehyde.

Lamboo could also potentially contribute to the Innovation in Design category as an Environmentally Preferable Material and/or Life Cycle Assessment/Environmental Impact.

(Read more)

(Excerpt of article by Claire Moloney of Green-Buildings.com. NOT AFFILIATED WITH LAMBOO)

For questions regarding Lamboo, our products, or to schedule an interview please
visit our website at www.lamboo.us or contact us at info@lamboo.us 866-966-2999

"MAKING INNOVATIVE THINKING A STANDARD" - Lamboo Incorporated

 

Blog by: Dustin Dennison

Green Building Materials

Attributes that help determine if a building material is “green” include whether the product is - natural - renewable - non-toxic - made of recycled materials - produced locally - reusable - certified sustainable. A material does not have to have all these attributes to be considered green, but, in general, the more of these attributes it does have the better.

BAMBOO

Bamboo is one of the earth’s fastest-growing plants and can be grown without the use of fertilizers or pesticides. While most trees typically need decades to grow before they can be harvested, bamboo requires only four to six years. Bamboo has also been reported to sequester 35% more carbon than trees, making it attractive in the battle to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Because of these qualities, bamboo has become a popular material for use in a variety of green products.

Not all bamboo is the same. Luke Schuette, president of Lamboo®, Inc., notes, “there are nearly 1600 species of bamboo worldwide. Some are soft while others are very dense.” To engineer a laminated bamboo product suitable for structural use in buildings, including horse barns, Lamboo, Inc. uses five species of bamboo that are harder than wood. “The structural capacity of Lamboo,” says Schuette, “is over three times stronger on average than wood.”

In addition to considering the strength of a material used in a horse barn, it is essential that any building material used in your barn is safe for your horse. “It’s really important to be wary of what may be marketed as ‘green’ substitutes for wood products to be sure they aren’t toxic, either in the material itself or the binding agents, and how it does or does not splinter if chewed since horses will nibble on whatever’s within reach,” notes Blackburn. According to Schuette, testing performed by Lamboo concluded it is safe for animal consumption, and horses are less likely to nibble on bamboo compared to wood.

An added benefit of Lamboo is that it burns more slowly than wood due to its increased density, making it less of a fire risk.

 (Read more)

(Excerpt of article by Josh Englander of HolisticHorse.com. NOT AFFILIATED WITH LAMBOO)

For questions regarding Lamboo or our products please visit our

website at www.lamboo.us or contact us at info@lamboo.us

"MAKING INNOVATIVE THINKING A STANDARD" - Lamboo Incorporated

 

Blog by: Dustin Dennison

 

Lamboo: Bamboo Made Better?

The idea behind engineered wood products (EWP) is to make wood stronger and more flexible in terms of design applications like long-spans and curved beams. Bamboo is already a highly regarded, sustainable wood species, and now one company is trying to make it better by turning the best kinds of bamboo into an EWP.

Made of thin layers of bamboo held together by adhesives, Lamboo is an engineered, high-performance bamboo product for exterior and interior applications such as beams, trusses, panels, awning systems and more. Choosing from 1,600 different species of bamboo, the company has isolated four with the strongest cellular structures to compose its Lamboo product, which is reported to be ten times stronger in tension, three times stronger mechanically, and twenty percent more stable in moisture and temperature changes compared to its wood counterparts.

And then there are the inherent advantages of bamboo itself, one of the fastest growing plants in the world. It’s an easily renewable resource and a building material that offers some of the highest strength and stability ratings. Bamboo has a warm and soft texture that has won many fans in the remodeling world. So the question is, can Lamboo improve a wood species that’s already excellent in terms of performance and sustainability? I’d like to know.

You can request a quote or order samples from the Lamboo website.

(Read more)

(Excerpt of article by Josh Englander of HGTV Remodels. NOT AFFILIATED WITH LAMBOO)

For questions regarding Lamboo or our products please visit our

website at www.lamboo.us or contact us at info@lamboo.us

"MAKING INNOVATIVE THINKING A STANDARD" - Lamboo Incorporated

 

Blog by: Dustin Dennison

NanaWall Systems Lamboo Laminated Bamboo

Glass wall technology with laminated bamboo frames

NanaWall Systems, a leader in opening glass wall technology, introduces a folding door system featuring custom-crafted frames of Lamboo laminated bamboo. The Energy Star-Certified NanaWall folding door system incorporates an ecologically responsible wood-alternative material.

Lamboo laminated bamboo was introduced at the American Institute of Architects Convention May 12-14 in New Orleans.

NanaWall Systems has achieved Energy Star ratings and Dade County Hurricane Certification. NanaWall also offers Triple Glazing and OrniluxBird Protection Glass.

“We chose Lamboo because our customers requested more ecologically responsible material to use in LEED certified projects,” says Ebrahim Nana, president of NanaWall Systems. “We already offer FSC wood but Lamboo takes the concept one step further and is recognized as a rapidly renewable resource by the U.S. Green Building Council.”

Lamboo products meet criteria for 2011 "CALGreen" A4.405.4 (Use of building materials from renewable sources) and contribute to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification under MR Credit 6 - Rapidly renewable materials, IEQ Credit 4.4 - Low-emitting materials; ID Credit 1 - Innovation in Design (Environmentally Preferable Material), and ID Credit 2 - Innovation in Design (Life Cycle Assessment / Environmental Impact).

Lamboo is available with NanaWall’s WD65 wood-framed system and WA67 aluminum-clad wood-framed system.

Lamboo is an engineered bamboo product that is not only structurally stable but aesthetically pleasing as well. The production process uses 15 percent less embodied energy than that of engineered wood and 300 percent less embodied energy than aluminum and steel. Lamboo on average is 20 percent more stable than wood in moisture and temperature changes, ten times stronger than wood in tension and three times stronger mechanically. Bamboo sequesters 35 percent more carbon than its tree counterparts and also produces 30 percent more oxygen than a like-sized timber forest area.

(Read more) 

(Excerpt of article by WorshipFacilities.com. NOT AFFILIATED WITH LAMBOO)

NanaWall Lamboo system at 2011 AIA (Video)

For questions regarding Lamboo or our products please visit our

website at www.lamboo.us or contact us at info@lamboo.us

"MAKING INNOVATIVE THINKING A STANDARD" - Lamboo Incorporated

 

Blog by: Dustin Dennison