At Bambienti we supply home and lifestyle products that are all made using Bamboo. A fast growing, naturally sustainable plant that can be grown without the use of harmful pesticides, fertilizers or excessive amounts of water.

When we started out in 2008 we chose Bamboo as our principal material for a hand carved range of furniture, interiors and accessories. We chose Bamboo because we wanted to offer a viable and naturally sustainable range of alternatives to tree based wooden products.

Before we began trading we asked ourselves what kind of business we wanted to be. For us shopping is a fundamental part of our lifestyle and as our awareness has changed we have started to question the way we shop and a need to change our lifestyle. Bamboo allows us to stop supporting the excessive logging and deforestation in Asia and other parts of the world? It also allows those who may carry out illegal logging to survive by working with a material that is naturally sustainable.

It became clear to us when we carried out our initial research that illegal logging is a complicated issue with practical, financial and cultural factors that all play a part. Someone who carves handicrafts from their home in the country has very little chance of accessing FSC or other similar certified hardwoods. We also feel its not fair that they have to leave their family and go to work in a big factory in a city to be able to work with such externally certified materials. Bamboo and other naturally sustainable plant based materials offer them hope of striking a balance between their own and their family's needs and those of the local and global environments in which we live.

When we add a new product we always consider if the material used is sustainable and if toxic chemicals were used to create the end product. Another key consideration is whether the people who actually made the product were paid a fair wage and provided with a safe, comfortable environment in which to be creative. All of our products and the processes used are outlined clearly in the product description.

Fuel consumption and carbon emissions are also important factors to us but we also like the idea of supporting rural communities and artisan production overseas. We don’t want the UK to become a closed shop. To strike a balance we offer some products that are produced in the UK and where a product comes from overseas it is only ever delivered to us along with a huge number of other containers of items by sea freight to keep the carbon footprint of each product to a minimum.

Bamboo will always be our favourite and special material because it offers so many options to so many people. But we are always learning about other plant based and naturally sustainable materials so if this is something you are interested in please sign up to our newsletter for news about product launches.