| In an age where green sells, marketers are quick to | | | | is as strong as steel but is a great deal more pliable, |
| add the popular labels including "eco-friendly" and | | | | making it ideal for creating design. And bamboo adds |
| "organic" to make their items far more appealing to the | | | | to green credibility on the resort by offering other |
| public. Unfortunately, there's a lack of measurable | | | | environmental advantages: it actively works to convert |
| standards in many industries and though many firms | | | | carbon dioxide to oxygen at a higher rate than |
| talk the talk, there's minimal action to back it up. | | | | traditional hardwoods and it serves as an amazing |
| On the other hand, a luxury resort in Bali is striving to | | | | erosion controller in moisture-rich Bali. |
| walk the walk by developing the world's first entirely | | | | On a grander scale, Wetterlind sees the untapped |
| ecological five-star villa estate, the Green Village at | | | | potential of bamboo as a replacement material for |
| Ayung River. Developer and real estate broker Nils | | | | traditional hardwoods and being a way to end the |
| Wetterlind was inspired by the Green School in Bali | | | | devastating plague of deforestation. Each year the |
| and partnered with PT Bambu (builders of the Green | | | | Earth loses swaths of forests as big as Panama for |
| School) to develop a resort that combines ecologically | | | | agriculture and logging needs and this loss devastates |
| conscious style tactics with organic, contemporary | | | | habitats for thousands of species and drives climate |
| architecture. | | | | change. And with the current rate of deforestation, |
| For Wetterlind, this is really a personal goal reached | | | | some experts estimate that the world's rain forests |
| after a little soul-searching and significant frustration | | | | could disappear inside of 100 years. Wetterlind himself |
| with the hypocrisy of some builders. | | | | estimates that inside of ten years, there will be no |
| "There are numerous hotels which have something | | | | forests left on Indonesia unless a viable alternative is |
| ecological but only a tiny part and then call themselves | | | | discovered for making and material use. |
| ecological. That is the same as talking about a clean | | | | Bamboo with its outstanding growing speed and many |
| energy coal power plant - that merely does not exist. | | | | uses can be a viable solution for the problem of |
| You pollute or you do not; if it's only an element - then | | | | deforestation. Bamboo shoots in tropical countries |
| you are not green," explains Wetterlind. "And when I | | | | grow up to 30 meters within six months, which directly |
| say the world's very first 5 star eco resort I actually | | | | shows the potential of bamboo to substitute slower |
| mean it, 'cause there actually is no such resort which is | | | | growing wood species in terms of annual yield, reports |
| completely neutral on this planet yet." | | | | Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. |
| Bamboo is the go-to material for this five star resort. | | | | And although there's a measurable outcome of |
| The amazingly versatile plant will provide everything | | | | beautiful villas and local farmers cultivating bamboo, |
| from beams for the constructing to planks for the | | | | there exists also the less tangible but equally significant |
| flooring to fibers for woven mats. | | | | benefit of true eco-friendly marketing and leading by |
| Although some may be nervous sleeping in a villa | | | | example. |
| made of bamboo, there is no need to worry. Bamboo | | | | |