header image

The Grass is Greener, by David Campbell

Posted by: | May 5, 2014 Comments Off on The Grass is Greener, by David Campbell |

Like any new technology, green technologies and innovations depend on market demand for success.  However, there are limited opportunities to patent or otherwise obtain intellectual property rights over inventive uses for natural resources.[1]  The financial reward of exclusivity that accompanies such rights and incentivizes innovation is accordingly limited in the bamboo industry.  In other words, growth in the bamboo market depends on demand for freely-manufactured products.  Luckily, strong consumer demand has created enough profitability incentive for manufactures to develop the innovative bamboo products we and the planet enjoy today.  But developers must continue to rely on growing demand to pay for their ongoing efforts in finding new and beneficial uses for bamboo because competitors are free to copy their ideas.  As demand for and consumption of bamboo products continues to grow, so will innovation, the bamboo market, and a more sustainable environment.

Consumers play a primary role in ushering change and implementing sustainable practices.  Buying bamboo products is only one of the ways consumers can be heroes and help sustain the environment for future generations.  But it is a good way.  As James Clever, President of the Pacific Northwest chapter of the ABS put it:  “Like life we get what we care to see and experience.”  So, if you care to see a sustainable world for future generations to experience, remember:  You, too, should buy bamboo.


[1] Ryan M. Fountain, Green is a Way of Thinking, Not an Industry:  The Only Thing Holding Back Green Technologies is the Same Thing Holding Back Any New Technology, 4 Landslide 10 (2011).

Additional works consulted:

Peyton White Lumpkin & Deborah Bovarnick Mastin, The Latest in Green Development:  Advising Your Client on the New Standard for Real Estate Projects, 85 Fla. B.J. 32 (2011).

Michael Allen Wolf, Yellow Light for Green Zoning:  Some Words of Caution about Incorporating Green Building Standards into Local Land Use Law, 43 Urb. Law. 949 (2011).

Elizabeth B. Partlow, Greenwashing:  Deceptive Claims of Environmentally Friendly Products, 24 S.C. Law. 40 (2013).

James A. Kushner, Affordable Housing as Infrastructure in the Time of Global Warming, 43 Urb. Law. 179 (2010–2011).

Margaux J. Hall & David C. Weiss, Avoiding Adaptation Apartheid:  Climate Change Adaptation and Human Rights Law, 37 Yale J. Int’l L. 309 (2012).

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6

under: Business, Climate Change, International, Natural Resources
Tags: , ,

Comments are closed.

Categories