issues . please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . february 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message this article relies too much on references to primary sources . please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources . february 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message learn how and when to remove this template message bamboo bike project industry non profit founded 2007 founder david ho john mutter headquarters palisades ny products bamboo bicycles slogan made in africa for africa website http www.bamboobike.org the bamboo bike project was started by two scientists at columbia university s lamont doherty earth observatory ldeo david ho and john mutter with initial funding coming from the earth institute at columbia university . the project s goal is to help local investors start factories that make low cost high quality locally produced bamboo bikes to be widely distributed in sub saharan africa . contents 1 history 2 goals 3 impact of bicycles 4 benefits of bamboo frames vs. steel frames in africa 5 ghana production facility 6 see also 7 notes 8 external links history edit in 2006 david ho now a professor of oceanography at university of hawaii at manoa 1 won 25 000 in a seed funding competition from the earth clinic 1 2 to determine the feasibility of using bamboo bicycles to provide improved transportation in sub saharan africa . in the summer of 2007 ho and his colleague john mutter using the seed money from the earth clinic paid for craig calfee to join them on a trip to accra ghana to determine the feasibility of building bamboo bikes using locally sourced material . 3 after a successful trip the bamboo bike project teamed up with the millennium cities initiative in 2008 to help establish bamboo bike building factories in kumasi and elsewhere . 4 the project also added marty odlin who was a product design and development engineer at k2 sports . 5 2008 also saw the release of a kpmg authored report that examined the feasibility and investment opportunity of implementing a bamboo bicycle production facility in kumasi ghana . 6 this was followed a year later by a similar study for kisumu kenya by graduate students at columbia university s school of international and public affairs sipa . 7 goals edit the listed goals of the bamboo bike project are to build a better bike for poor africans in rural areas . to stimulate a bicycle building industry in africa to satisfy local needs . to set up systematic bamboo cargo bike building training . to set up a supply chain of necessary parts and supplies . to scale the effort so that it makes an impact . impact of bicycles edit experiments done in africa uganda and tanzania and sri lanka on hundreds of households have shown that a bicycle can increase the income of a poor family by as much as 35 % . 8 benefits of bamboo frames vs. steel frames in africa edit bamboo is an excellent material for building bicycle frames . bamboo frames are lighter and stronger than poor quality steel bicycles typically imported from china or india which are currently available in africa . the production of bamboo bicycles requires much less equipment energy and capital than steel frames . bamboo is grown throughout africa and is a readily available cost effective material . the manufacturing of bamboo frames does not require a reliable electrical source making it possible to manufacture these frames at a large scale in impoverished areas lacking the infrastructure to support traditional manufacturing facilities . the use of local bamboo also provides employment in the production transport and final use of this material . the use of this material promotes economic development and environmental sustainability while providing cost effective transport . 9 ghana production facility edit in january 2011 the bamboo bike project bbp held a two week training program designed to teach local workers in kumasi how to build bamboo bicycles . it is the project s first large scale bamboo bike production facility in the world . this facility is controlled by bamboo bikes limited bbm a ghana based company owned by investor kwame sarpong . the training program was used to begin the production of 750 bamboo bicycles which were to be distributed to ngos located throughout ghana . the production of these bicycles was to provide the managing company bbm an opportunity to evaluate the facility s capacity for large scale production and provide adequate experience for the workers to begin large scale production . with the completion of the training program and the production of these first 750 bicycles the plant became the first facility capable of mass producing bamboo bicycles in the world . it is projected that this facility will be capable of producing up to 20 000 bamboo bicycles a year . manufacturing at this scale will provide employment keep costs low and make available cost effective transport to the local people . 9 see also edit bicycle poverty reduction bikes not bombs pedaling to freedom with my own two wheels world bicycle relief notes edit a b conversation david ho environmental scientist with a new spin on bikes . cogito december 18 2008 . retrieved on november 11 2011 . seed funding competition year 2006 2007 the earth institute columbia university . earthinstitute.columbia.edu . retrieved on november 11 2011 . bamboo bike project . bamboobike.org june 16 2007 . retrieved on november 11 2011 . millennium cities initiative bamboo bike project . mci.ei.columbia.edu january 24 2011 . retrieved on november 11 2011 . bamboo bike project blog . bamboobikeproject.wordpress.com . retrieved on november 11 2011 . bamboo bike project blog . bamboobikeproject.wordpress.com . retrieved on november 11 2011 . bamboo bike project blog . bamboobikeproject.wordpress.com . retrieved on november 11 2011 . bicycle the unnoticed potential . bicyclepotential.org . retrieved 2011 11 11 . a b production starts on sustainable bamboo bikes in ghana . earth institute columbia university . retrieved 2011 11 11 . external links edit bamboo bike project official website bamboo bike project blog article in the economist article at the columbia record video of one of the bamboo bikes being assembled ghanian bamboo bikes make world wide impact . allafrica.com infocus . retrieved 2014 10 26 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title bamboo bike project & oldid 729480571 categories road transport in africacolumbia universitynon profit organizations based in new yorkcycling organizations in the united statesappropriate technology organizationsbamboohidden categories articles needing additional references from february 2012all articles needing additional referencesarticles lacking reliable references from february 2012all articles lacking reliable referencesuse mdy dates from november 2011 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages edit links this page was last modified on 12 july 2016 at 13 47 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization 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