We're replacing old flooring with bamboo, which we're really happy with. It has a lot of the same qualities as hardwood, but it's more sustainable...
I love the look of bamboo as well, but what makes you think that bamboo grown in China and shipped to the U.S. is more sustainable than local, ubiquitous oak or maple? I certainly understand the preference to avoid tropical hardwoods, but they tend to be very anti-Mustachian in terms of price anyway, without even delving into their ecological impact (which varies by species).
That's a completely fair point actually. I was considering purely from a growing standpoint. And I stand by that, especially compared to those tropical hardwoods (which aren't even a consideration).
Bamboo gets a lot of accolades because it is harvested more quickly than domestic hardwoods. However, that is hardly the whole picture. All you are measuring with the ideal economic rotation age of a perennial crop - whether that crop is bamboo, eucalyptus, pine, or hardwood - is the point at which an additional year's growth of the crop falls below the average annual growth gained over the entire life of the crop. In forestry, we call this the maximum mean annual increment. This varies by species, region, genetics, etc.
A shorter time to maximum mean annual increment generally indicates a faster growing crop, but not always. Brazilian eucalyptus grows to economic maturity in about 6 years, but produces more biomass per acre per year than bamboo harvested on a 2-year rotation. It is technically a "tropical hardwood", but the company that grows and markets Brazilian eucalyptus as hardwood flooring under the brand name "Lyptus" does not clear native hardwood forests - rather, they have claimed areas that were managed for 100+ years as sugar cane plantations. In my opinion, Lyptus has a much stronger claim for being "sustainable" than bamboo, yet people seem to be inherently wary of any wood product that comes from Brazil.
More to the point, I don't believe a product cannot be described as anything other than sustainable as long as it is managed sustainably. In other words, even if it takes 50 years to regenerate a mature oak forest, there is no problem with harvesting and using oak as long as we are not using more than we are growing. On the other side, you wouldn't say that cotton is a more sustainable fiber than bamboo simply because we can harvest cotton in 6 months, would you? That is a very small part of the big picture. The primary enemy of our domestic forests is not the forest industry, but the development of land for other uses - namely housing and commerce.
So for us, it's a deliberate decision, and I would still not hesitate to recommend it as a decent option if someone is purchasing new material.
I have no qualms at all with your decision. I think that bamboo is a great choice for a floor in terms of durability and sustainability. I was simply trying to point out that bamboo is not an inherently better choice than the equally durable and sustainable domestic hardwoods.