Planting a Sustainable Future
by Diandra Rizcallah
Originally published in Business in Focus magazine
Deforestation occurs at a heavy pace - billions of trees that can take a hundred years to grow are chopped every year to make products that may only take sixty seconds for a consumer to discard. EcoPlanet Bamboo Group, the world's largest commercial bamboo plantation company, offers a certified and sustainable fiber alternative to timber harvesting.
The world's natural resources represent the building blocks of our planet and form the very foundation that facilitates human life. Since the twentieth century, humanity's rapid consumption of these resources threatens the health of our environment and jeopardizes the needs of future generations. According to the Global Footprint Network, we have exceeded Earth’s capacity to meet the unprecedented levels of resource demand over the past forty-plus years.
The rapid growth of development of the global economy has brought a new set of challenges for the twenty-first century. The global demand for timber products has led to a magnitude of production that threatens the existence of forests. From its base in Chicago, Illinois, EcoPlanet Bamboo operates commercial bamboo plantations in Central America, Western Africa, and Southern Africa.
Troy Wiseman, a renowned entrepreneur with a long track record of success, co-founded EcoPlanet bamboo in 2010 and has served as the company's CEO since its establishment. Wiseman started his first business at the age of twenty and, within the span of six years, turned it into a $120 million International clothing giant with manufacturing facilities in almost twenty countries.
