The U. S. construction industry is a diverse, fast paced and enormous division of the economy. It both directly and indirectly causes a considerable amount of the annual environmental damage. Timber is a material that is in high demand and plays a major role in the U. S. construction industry. In fact, the U. S. leads the world in soft wood consumption and production. Timber currently takes 10-50 years for both soft and hard woods to reach a harvesting age. As a result of this time frame, humans are consuming timber faster than it is being renewed. Due to the rapid expansion of cities and suburban growth, agricultural and forestry land is becoming too valuable to remain off limits to growth pressures. One solution for this problem is an alternative construction material that is more sustainable and can be grown rapidly and manufactured locally. Bamboo has many positive construction properties, such as high flexibility, low weight, high strength and a low purchasing cost. In addition bamboo also has many positive sustainable properties, including fast growth rate, rotated annual harvest, the ability to generate more oxygen than trees, water control barrier qualities, the ability to grow on marginal agricultural land and has the capability to restore eroded lands. With these qualities bamboo has the potential to assimilate and has a large impact on the timber and construction industry. However, a complete system of growing, processing, and using bamboo as a building material does not exist in the U. S. This paper reports results of a study that focuses on the possibility of bamboo to be used in the United States construction industry as a sustainable and cost effective material, primarily on flooring. This paper also compares the production, manufacturing and transportation costs/benefits of bamboo as a flooring material produced in the black belt region of the Southeastern United States vs. produced and imported from Asia.