Bamboo identified as 2020’s leading eco-friendly material

A recent survey of architects, engineers and construction professionals has identified bamboo as the eco-friendly material that will experience the greatest increase in usage in the property industry this year.

In the survey, which saw 582 AEC professionals interviewed, 74% of participants believed that bamboo was most likely to become a leading eco-friendly construction material in 2020 due to it’s light-weight nature and tensile strength. Bamboo was considered as the ideal replacement for expensive and heavy imported building materials, plus a great alternative to concrete and rebar construction.

The Sell House Fast survey also identified straw bales - a renewable resource that can be used to replace concrete, plaster, wood, fiberglass, stone and gypsum when building walls – and timbercrete - a mix of sawdust and concrete that replaces some of the more energy-intensive components found in concrete - as materials that are likely to have a strong inclusion in 2020 construction projects. Experts further suggested that recycled plastics are likely to experience an increase in construction usage, whilst predicting that cork would be utilised the least this year.

Robby du Toit, Managing Director of Sell House Fast, said: “The property industry is more eco-conscious than ever before. This has led to a surge in the innovation and development of eco-friendly building materials. As professionals become better acquainted with the properties and benefits of different eco-friendly building materials, their adoption rate in construction projects can expect to see a positive increase.”