Star Bamboo Singapore

I’ve met a lot of interested and enthusiastic customers in Singapore whose budget unfortunately couldn’t stretch to accommodate bamboo flooring.

After spending a large sum of money on the property, many people didn’t quite leave enough for the renovation.

As a result, they have to settle for cheaper alternatives like laminate flooring. Laminate floors might be cheap, but it lacks the warmth and cosiness of natural wood.

That is a real pity. After all, flooring is usually the first thing that people notice about a new home, office or shop. The look and feel of the flooring sets the tone for the entire room.

Just imagine how much more elegant your place will be with natural bamboo flooring instead of cold ceramic tiles or artificial laminate floors.

Now, there are a few reasons bamboo flooring is priced at a premium here.

Firstly our bamboo flooring comes pre-finished with Treffert UV-finished polyurethane coating, and uses low-formaldehyde glue from Finland in its construction.

Secondly, the installation of pre-finished bamboo flooring requires technically skilled workers. It is different from say, teak parquet floors, which are site-finished. Such floors are more easier to install, so the installation cost is lower.

So now you have two choices of bamboo flooring from Star Bamboo:

1. our premium pre-finished bamboo flooring and;
2. a more affordable site-finished bamboo flooring.

It is surprisingly affordable!

So contact us for more details today, you won’t be disappointed.

[Update:  check out our follow-up article here.]

Do you remember the cartoon series on Singapore television in the early 1990s, Captain Planet and the Planeteers?

Narrator: Gaia, the spirit of the Earth, can no longer stand the terrible destruction plaguing our planet. She gives five special rings to five special young people. From Africa, Kwame with the power of earth. From the North America, Wheeler with the power of fire. From the Soviet Union, Linka with the power of wind. From Asia, Gi with the power of water and from South America, Ma-Ti with the power of heart. With the five powers combined they summon earth’s greatest champion.

Captain Planet!

The 5 kids: Go Planet!

Yes, I thought you would find that familiar.

Gaia, the name of a goddess from Greek mythology, is the embodiment of the ailing Earth’s spirit, and Captain Planet is the world’s favourite eco-champion. Some might say he’s the Al Gore of the cartoon world.

Now, Gaia is back on Singapore TV.

Coming just 2 weeks after the Live Earth concerts, Saving Gaia is a new documentary series set to première tonight at 830pm on ChannelNewsAsia. It examines environmental problems in various Asian countries.

For example, here’s tonight’s synopsis (from MediaCorp’s TV guide):

When the ground gives way beneath their feet, sometimes it hit them with a ferocity that takes away all they hold dear. Sometimes it is such a quiet process that millions go about their lives, unaware that their homeland is sinking. Saving Gaia – When the cities go under – explores the problem of land subsidence in Bangladesh, Shanghai and Vietnam. What the millions in these places are doing, are not doing, or are not able to do.

The good thing about being a broadcasting monopoly in Singapore is that you can get everyone to sing the same message.

Check out the Saving Gaia web site and you’ll find the TV, radio, newspaper and magazine arms of MediaCorp all involved in this effort.

There’s not much information on the web site, beyond asking you to sign a pledge to commit to the 3R’s.

There’s even a freebie reusable shopping bag for you if you’re among the first 5,000. Rather handy you know, with more and more places charging you for plastic bags.

Curiously enough, “purchasing images from photolibrary.com” is listed as a Useful Resource. I’d thought it’d be better under the “Brought to you by” section.

The pledge is a nice idea but I wonder why they would need our NRIC number. Surely a contact number would suffice?

Privacy is a very real concern these days. I can access a lot of confidential information about a person on governmental web sites, with just his name and NRIC number, even more if I know his birth date as well.

Anyway, if you’re free tonight do tune in to the Saving Gaia series. I think it’ll be a nice change to get an Asian perspective on the global warming issue.

I came across bamboo kitchen utensils that are “made from 100% organically grown bamboo”. That got me intrigued because I’ve not heard such a claim before.

I’m not doubting the authenticity of this manufacturer, but it got me thinking: Can bamboo be certified organic?

Well, what does it mean to be organic?

According to Wikipedia, to be certified “organic” involves a set of production standards for growing, storage, processing, packaging and shipping that include:

• avoidance of synthetic chemical inputs (e.g. fertilizer, pesticides, antibiotics, food additives, etc) and genetically modified organisms;
• use of farmland that has been free from chemicals for a number of years (often, three or more);
• keeping detailed written production and sales records (audit trail);
• maintaining strict physical separation of organic products from non-certified products;
• undergoing periodic on-site inspections.

The vast majority of bamboo products originate from China and they are not organic – there’s too much paper work to be done. At the most, we could call it “free of fertilizers and chemicals”.

Which is not such a big deal now because many bamboo forests currently don’t require chemicals.

But as increasing demand puts pressure on the supply, more and more companies may be tempted to resort to artificial means of speeding up the growth even more.

I usually tune in to Lush 99.5 when I’m working in the office. It bills itself as the “sexy, sensual, smooth” radio station.

So when you hear a radio spot proclaiming eco-consciousness and bamboo clothes to be the latest trend in fashion, you know that businesses have finally seen the light.

But just how eco-friendly is bamboo clothing?

Bamboo clothing is usually made a mix of bamboo fibres and other material, such as 55% bamboo and 45% polyester.

Before weaving into clothes, the bamboo fibres has been chemically processed into a form of rayon.

Rayon is a form of manufactured fibres made from cellulose (that’s basically wood pulp).

So bamboo fibres is rayon made from bamboo material. You would still need the chemicals in its production, but at least it reduces the need for wood pulp, and that’s always a good thing as bamboo reproduces much faster than trees.

This is also bamboo clothes feels and wears pretty much the same as other types of clothing.

Some also say that it makes a greener alternative to cotton, which typically uses way too much pesticides in its cultivation.

Overall I would say that bamboo clothing is moderately eco-friendly as a replacement fibre.

So go ahead and make a green statement with your fashion choice.

Hi everyone, welcome back to the new and improved Star Bamboo web site! Here’re some of the changes:

Site integration: If you’re a regular visitor here, you will notice that the blog (previously hosted at http://starbamboo.wordpress.com/) has now been fully integrated with the corporate web site.

Easier navigation: This means you can now find information on our products much more easily. Instead of having to access a different web site, just start with the links at the top.

Different start page: The default page for the web site is our home page. To read the latest blog posts, simply click on the “Recent posts” section to start.

Design and colour scheme: There is also a whole new look, a timely revamping of the design. We have gone for a clean, sleek look. You can even change the colour scheme yourself using the switcher button at the upper right hand corner of the site – available colours are green, red, and blue.

I hope you will like it. Comments and suggestions are most welcome!

I found out more fascinating facts about bamboo today:

• Bamboo produces 13 tonnes of wood an acre, as against seven for lob lolly pine, a major source of timber in the US.
• Bamboo can store “four times the carbon dioxide of a stand of trees of similar size.
• And it releases 35 percent more oxygen.

I can’t think of any plant that’s greener than this.

Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants in the world, taking just 4-6 years to mature for use in bamboo flooring. After harvesting, the new shoots grow up from the underground clumps without any replanting needed.

Even so, the booming market for bamboo products has caused severe pressure on the supply. The forest that we harvest from is monitored by the local government to ensure that there is no over-harvesting. This restricts the supply even more.

You might think replanting new forests would be a cinch. Ironically, it turns out that bamboo is one of the hardest plants to grow from seeds, because they flower only every 60 to 120 years before dying.

The race is on to find the fastest and most cost-effective way to reproduce bamboo from tissue cultures. This would allow much faster replanting.

Hopefully that would help ease the supply crunch and lower the costs for manufacturers.

I headed down to One Fullerton at 7pm on 07/07/07. I parked further away at Market Street as I was expecting a big crowd to turn up.

There were crowds indeed, but for the National Day Parade rehearsal at the floating platform just across the bay. The driveway at Fullerton Hotel was also packed with cars and guests for one of the many wedding dinners happening all over the island.

Volunteer helpers greeted us with markers at the pledge board, so I penned a short message:

“Save our Trees” (I should really improve my handwriting):

The live telecast of the Live Earth concerts were broadcast on a projector screen at a nearby marquee. The rows of plastic white chairs were mostly vacant, people were checking out the sponsor booths instead:

I suppose if they had wanted to just watch the concert, they could have done so in the comfort of their home.Flyers and freebies were being handed out.

I got a card that proclaimed “Vegetarianism – The Noble Way of Living”. Found out later it was some sort of spiritual cult, so into the bin it went.

Otherwise the event was pretty quiet. Perhaps the crowds would come after the NDP show is over but I had to rush off for a dinner appointment.

Caught the fireworks finale while cruising along Benjamin Sheares Bridge, what a lovely sight. The traffic police with their flashing sirens stationed along the road shoulders added to the spectacle.

So Live Earth came and went over the weekend. I don’t know if anything has changed, or if people treat it as a mega-party.

At the very least, there is definitely greater awareness of climate change and that can only be a good thing.

The big day is fast approaching, and there has been a lot of comments and discussions about Live Earth.

Not everyone supports the concert. The Today newspaper helpfully published letters from both sides of the debate.

Tan Chee Sean questions:

Beamed across eight cities, this concert will be watched by more than 2 billion people. At the same time, millions of television sets will be turned on for up to 24 hours, so viewers can watch their favourite artistes. Ironically, wouldn’t this contribute to even more global warming?

In an attention grabbing-ly titled letter, Eugene Tay (pdf link) asks us to:

Give up hope. Because when hope dies, action begins.

What he actually meant was that saving the environment starts with personal action and responsibility. We shouldn’t hang on to the wishful thinking that someone else will do the job for us.

The blogosphere is buzzing too. Below are just some of the varied responses from Singaporeans I came across:

Scott Thong is more annoyed at MediaCorp’s Live Earth “We are not exaggerating” advertising campaign than the event itself. I haven’t seen the TV advertisements myself, but hey Scott, don’t mistake the messenger for the message.

Ordie helpfully points out that Mediacorp is encouraging Singaporeans to wear green to show how much we love hugging trees. Not very imaginative but definitely easy enough.

Sharp-eyed Liang Cai noted that the language one gets on the Live Earth official web site when clicking on the Singapore flag is… Malay. Well yes, it is our national language but not many of the non-Malays here actually speak it. One of the little ironies of Singapore.

No matter your personal sentiments about it, Live Earth is indeed going ahead. So why not make the most of it and see how we can use this unique opportunity to raise awareness about climate change?

Question: What do the following names have in common?

1. Madonna
   
2. Sheryl Crow
   
3. Alicia Keys
   
4. Kayne West
   
5. Faith Hill
   
6. The Smashing Pumpkins
   
7. Kelly Clarkson
   
8. Black Eyed Peas
   
9. Bon Jovi
   
10. Red Hot Chilli Peppers
    
11. Beastie Boys
    
12. John Mayer
    
13. Foo Fighters
    
14. Kylie Minogue
    
15. James Blunt
    
16. Snow Patrol
    
17. Lenny Kravitz
    
18. Jennifer Lopez
    
19. Snoop Dogg
    
20. The Police
    
21. Duran Duran

Answer: They will all be performing at the series of Live Earth concerts.

Actually, there are another 130+ names but I don’t recognise them.

I was just thinking that it’s such a marvellous idea having 7 concerts held across 7 continents (Shanghai, Sydney, Johannesburg, London, Hamburg, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, and New York – OK technically, Tokyo and Shanghai are both in Asia but who’s nitpicking?).

Yes, it is a truly global event.

But the best part that you can feature all these big-name artistes under the same banner and give each of them the limelight and attention they want. After all, who would merely want to be a supporting act?

And none of the singers would have to perform under a hot blazing sun, because each venue is in a different time zone. Although to a television viewer in, say Singapore, the concerts would be tightly synchronised to appear as a single event.

If you can’t stand the blazing hot sun expected on Saturday at One Fullerton, you can always catch all the action live on Channel5.

Catch Madonna performing at the new Wembley stadium, London.

p.s. It was just a throw-away comment about 07.07.07 being the perfect wedding date, but it’s apparent that many people take it very seriously indeed.

Do you remember Eco Action Day event that I blogged about a few weeks back? Ricoh was the supporting organisation. The Eco Action Day post-action ceremony was held last Friday but unfortunately I couldn’t make it.

To my pleasant surprise, I got a phone call from Ricoh saying that we’ve won a lucky draw prize. Assuming it was some small commemorative item, I popped down over to their Heeren office on Monday.

Ms Masayo Hada, a very nice lady, greeted me there. The prize turned out to be a business colour printer (a very welcome addition to the office), along with other small goodies:

1 colour printer, 2 folders, notepads, staplers, and LOADS of pens.

I was most intrigued by this little gadget. At first I thought it was some sort of hole-puncher, but testing it on recycled paper yielded the following result:

ah-ha! It’s a staple-less stapler. The flap created holds pieces of paper together without the need for consumable metal staples.

It’s a clever idea but I don’t think external organisations would appreciate this as it is not as sturdy as normal staples. Would try using it in the office though.

Thanks, Ricoh!