Environmentally smart
If you are one of the growing number of consumers, design professionals and builders seeking ways to incorporate "green" products into your home and projects, you will find Teragren an experienced partner and valuable resource.

From the moment the company was founded in 1994 (under the name of "TimberGrass"), they have been committed to developing and manufacturing beautiful bamboo products that:

• Reduce dependence on dwindling timber resources
• Rely on renewable-resource materials
• Adhere to stringent, environmentally sensitive specifications
• Promote green building
• Help neutralize the company's environmental footprint

Teragren products, green building and LEED^® credits
As a pioneer in the bamboo flooring industry, Teragren has championed strict environmental standards. They have worked with the U.S. Green Building Council to promote their LEED^® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System™, a system that has become the national standard. Because bamboo is a rapidly renewable resource, all of our products contribute to LEED^® v3 certification under MR Credit 6: Rapidly Renewable Materials. All Teragren traditional bamboo flooring, panel and veneer products made with our proprietary no-added-urea-formaldehyde adhesive, and our formaldehyde-free bamboo countertops/table tops, comply with IEQ Credit 4.4: Low-Emitting Materials-Composite Wood and Agrifiber Products. Teragren Portfolio and Synergy™ solid-strip strand bamboo flooring, stair parts and trim, as well as our strand panels and veneer qualify for LEED^® v3 IEQ Credit 4.4 because they are manufactured using a phenol-formaldehyde adhesive that emits an average of 0.01 ppm of formaldehyde.

Teragren delivers peace of mind by complying with the highest quality, environmental, and health standards. Our floors are the first in our industry to earn FloorScore®-certification, the highest air quality standard in the world. The FloorScore® program rigorously tests products for 78 different VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds). Certified products qualify for use in high performance schools and offices and are recognized as contributing to good indoor air quality in order to ensure human health. All Teragren floors qualify for IEQ Credit 4.3: Low-Emitting Materials-Flooring Systems.

All Teragren panels and 1/8" veneer are SCS Indoor Advantage™ Gold certified. This standard ensures individual VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) do not exceed one-half of the defined CREL (Chronic Reference Exposure Levels) threshold. Those certified panels which are made with no-added-urea-formaldehyde adhesive contribute to LEED^® v3 IEQ Credit 4.4: Low-Emitting Materials-Wood Composite and Agrifiber Products.

Sustainably harvested Optimum 5.5® Moso bamboo
For Teragren bamboo flooring, stair parts, trim, panels and veneer, we use only Optimum 5.5® Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens) known for its dense fibers and grown in the Zhejiang province of China. We also require that the bamboo is sustainably harvested at maturity, every 5-1/2 to 6 years. With these specifications, we avoid product performance problems like cupping and warping associated with young, soft and often inexpensive bamboo that is harvested too soon. As a result, Teragren products are exceptionally durable and our source plants remain vigorous and healthy, harvest after harvest.

Carbon sequestration: cleaner air, carbon offsets
In addition to relieving pressure on degraded forests, bamboo contributes to efforts to reduce global warming. Bamboo's leafy canopy releases 35 percent more oxygen than a comparable cluster of hardwood trees, especially when you consider that the bamboo re-grows and reproduces a canopy many times in its lifespan. In the renewing process, the plant grabs carbon from the air and holds it within its stalk and root system where, in nature, it is not released until the soil in which the plant decomposes is turned. Products made from bamboo take that carbon out of circulation. Teragren bamboo products harvested and manufactured correctly can last for many generations, keeping carbon locked up over the life of the products and helping to offset carbon usage that occurs in shipping our products to market.

Environmentally conscious specifications
Teragren specifications protect the environment around the world and in your home. The durable factory finish on our flooring is water-based and solvent-free. Teragren's proprietary manufacturing adhesive emits less formaldehyde than allowed by U.S. OSHA, European E0, CARB Phase 1 and CARB Phase 2, and Japanese JIS/JAS emissions standards. As a company, we are moving swiftly toward exclusive use of adhesives that comply with LEED IEQ Credit 4.4 in all our products.

Positioned to do things right
As a manufacturer, not simply an importer, we control our production process from harvest to distribution. For 10 years, we have partnered with a single factory group in China that shares our commitment to quality, environmental responsibility, safety and sustainable business practices, including fair wages and safe working conditions. Our factories are ISO 9001:2000 and 14001-certified and FSC-certified. The production process includes 11 quality-control inspection stations as well as spot checks by a quality control engineer.

Teragren is a member of Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). We follow the principles of The Natural Step program that focuses on applying basic concepts of sustainability. Every effort is made to reduce, reuse and recycle what we can. For example, we sell unused portions of each bamboo culm to manufacturers to make other bamboo products and we use shavings from our own milling process as fuel in other parts of our factories.

Measuring our environmental footprint
A core component of the Teragren mission is to measure our company's environmental footprint and work toward mitigating - and ultimately neutralizing - its environmental impact. This arduous process has been completed at our Bainbridge Island office, which is now carbon neutral, and is underway at our factories in China.