We all know that wood isn’t unlimited, and yet we need it for almost every aspect in our daily lives – from the chairs you sit on to the walls in your home down to the paper you use to scribble your thoughts. For aesthetic purposes, trees are also cut down to create attractive veneers for walls and furniture. But for every tree we cut down, it could take months to years for a new one planted in its place to grow to the same size!
Luckily, French company FIBandCo has found a new resource for getting its wood – banana plant trunks! As you may know, banana trees don’t require much effort to grow, as long as the soil is fertile and there’s a lot of moisture.
FIBandCo’s Green Blade is a new exotic veneer made from banana plant trunks, which is a cleaner alternative to using conventional wood. They chose the banana plant trunk because it’s not technically a tree but a grass. There’s less risk of deforestation as banana plants are rapidly renewable and they grow to full size every 9 months.
No resemblance to banana trunks, but design-wise that’s a good deal, right?
Green Blade starts off as the decomposed mother trunk of a banana plant after its fruit has been harvested. It’s then harvested and bought from banana farmers. FIBandCo produces all of the electricity it consumes via photovoltaic panels to create Green Blade. And they use neither water nor glue to manufacture the veneers.
Who'd have thought these trunks could end up looking so stylish?
Here are some of their designs:
St. Barth
Havana
Bahamas
Aruba
FIBandCO creates Green Blade for architects and designers to enhance their creations while also making a difference. It’s exclusive, elegant, and best of all, sustainable.
Watch the video here:
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Nothing beats a product that’s both beautiful and sustainable at the same time. For more information on Green Blade, check out FIBandCo’s website at http://www.fibandco.com/
