Every week of every year, we lose a million acres of forest around the world. That's a pretty alarming figure that's making many people rething what they buy and use. After all, wood is an important resource.

A tree sixty feet long can take as many years to be replaced once it's been cut down - forests aren't renewing themselves quickly enough to meet demand. By comparison, a piece of sixty foot bamboo can be replaced on a bamboo farm in just sixty days. One of the planet's fastest growing plants, bamboo is an excellent substitute for wood in many uses.

Bamboo can be as strong as steel under the right conditions, and is used to hold up concrete in place of rebar in some Asian countries. It also makes excellent flooring, and saves many trees that might otherwise have been converted into hardwood and laminate floors.

Bamboo flooring feels a lot like wood, is just as easy to clean, and has the same low tendency to harbor allergens. It's just as easy to install, and has a warm and natural look. Bamboo flooring is a lot more environmentally friendly and sustainable, however, with a particular look to it that's like nothing else available.

A lot of the bamboo flooring on the market is compressed bamboo - solid planks of bamboo pressed together - though you can also find bamboo laminated around pressboard, just like hardwood laminate flooring. There are lots of options for installation, and bamboo flooring is almost always pre-finished. Just be sure you know what it is you're buying and what's required for installation.

Make sure you learn a little bit about the flooring you buy, since not all bamboo is as sustainable as it could be. When bamboo is grown properly, it doesn't need much in the way of chemical fertilizer or pesticides. Not every grower takes the time and effort to grow it the right way, however.

Remember to look into the manufacturing processes that your flooring has undergone, since that can affect quality, health factors and sustainability. Toxic glues, cheap bamboo and wasteful processing can produce a flooring that's inexpensive, but not all that eco-friendly. Talk to the manufacturer when possible.

If you'd like to have a new floor in your home, and you want to make sure you do as little damage to the environment as you can, bamboo is a real possibility. When it's grown the right way, it pulls carbon dioxide out of the air, decreases erosion, and can even clean up contaminated soils. Add in its fast growth, and bamboo is a viable alternative to wood.

Many different colors and styles area available, according to how the bamboo is treated and how the flooring is made. That means that you'll be able to find the color and look that fits best with your home. Remember that darker bamboo isn't as tough as lighter bamboo, since the heat treating used to color it also softens the material.

If you want a great new floor that offers everything wood can, plus some real environmental benefits, it's time to take a long look at bamboo. It's beautiful, easy, nice to look at and environmentally friendly, too.

Bamboozle is WA's major supplier and manufacturer of Bamboo Flooring, with both compressed bamboo and their own Bamwood product - specially manufacturered for the harsh Australian weather conditions to avoid cupping and warping.