Bridging Housing and Climate Needs: Bamboo Construction in the Philippines

Timo Bundi, Luis Felipe Lopez, Guillaume Habert and Edwin Zea Escamilla ()
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Timo Bundi: Chair for Sustainable Construction, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
Luis Felipe Lopez: BASE-Bahay Foundation, Makati 1231, Philippines
Guillaume Habert: Chair for Sustainable Construction, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
Edwin Zea Escamilla: Chair for Sustainable Construction, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 2, 1-25

Abstract: The Philippines faces a significant shortage of affordable housing, and with the growing urgency brought by climate change, there is a pressing need for more sustainable and affordable building solutions. One promising option is cement bamboo frame buildings, which blend traditional bamboo building methods with modern materials. This approach is already being implemented in social housing projects in the Philippines. Dynamic lifecycle assessment (DLCA) calculations show that these bamboo buildings can effectively reduce overall CO 2 emissions. Before a building’s end of life, biogenic effects offset approximately 43% of its total production emissions, while the temporary carbon storage afforded by these biogenic materials further reduces total emissions by 14%. In comparison to concrete brick buildings, bamboo constructions reduce emissions by 70%. Transforming an unmanaged bamboo plantation into a managed plantation can potentially triple the capacity for long-term CO 2 storage in biogenic materials and further reduce net emissions by replacing concrete with bamboo as the main construction material. Thus, bamboo construction offers a potent, economically viable carbon offsetting strategy for social housing projects.

Keywords: bamboo; biogenic; dynamic; CO 2; LCA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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