Filipino-American Entrepreneur Is Building Bamboo Bikes to Improve the Planet - NBC News

Kudos ... Bryan Benitez McClelland for creating a social,  craftsman job creation WOW  #startup

Filipino-American Entrepreneur Is Building Bamboo Bikes to Improve the Planet - NBC News: "Filipino-American Entrepreneur Is Building Bamboo Bikes to Improve the Planet
by ERIK ORTIZ

The frames of the bikes are made out of the tubular material, which grows in towering green thickets far outside urban Manila. Exploiting the abundant and natural resource, then turning it into a blooming business, was the brainchild of Filipino American Bryan Benitez McClelland.

With his master's thesis focusing on sustainable development in impoverished communities, McClelland hooked up with a group called Gawad Kalinga (meaning "to give care"), which seeks to empower Filipinos out of poverty.  The 32-year-old Connecticut native introduced his line of bamboo bicycles — Bambike — nearly six years ago with $20,000 in seed money.

Bryan Benitez McClelland, founder of Bambike, shows off one of his company's bamboo bikes in Central Park, New York. Jon Sweeney / NBC News

But in 2009, his plan got a kick-start when he had a bamboo bike builder from Africa come to the Philippines to advise him and two others from Gawad Kalinga in design."I THOUGHT I WOULD JUST BE THERE FOR SIX MONTHS. BUT I REALIZED THAT I COULD HAVE A BIGGER IMPACT ON SOCIETY IF I STAYED."

All About Bamboo

"What it does is it absorbs the road chatter and the road buzz," he said. "The whole frame kind of just eats it up."

McClelland became entrenched in the world of bamboo. He realized it took just three to five years for poles to mature — a lightning pace compared to other trees.

Bamboo is also considered eco-friendly, releasing more oxygen and absorbing more carbon dioxide than other plants.

Social Entrepreneurship

After perfecting the building of a bike frame, McClelland launched his own business, employing members from Gawad Kalinga who learned how to manipulate the material into various sizes.

Today he has about 15 employees, and they polish off 30 frames a month. A complete bike, including the wheels, can cost about $1,700 — not inexpensive, but McClelland sees his prime customers as the middle- and upper-class market, as well as the export business.

In 2011, the enterprise got a huge boost when the Philippine ambassador presented President Barack Obama with a Bambike as a gift.



McClelland hopes to expand his company — Bamb Ecological Technology Inc. — beyond just bikes, with housing, flooring and construction of bamboo products still another phase of green building not yet the norm in the Philippines.
http://bambike.com/

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