The Natural Stone Council’s environmental initiative is nearing the end of its second year! Over the first 24 months, significant work was accomplished to gather accurate data characterizing the environmental impacts of the natural stone industry. Information learned from this study is now available.
Life-cycle datasets To accurately assess the environmental profile of Genuine Stone® products, impacts over the entire life cycle of these products must be identified. Information characterizing stone fabrication was amassed through a rigorous survey of the industry, and life-cycle datasets have been established for granite, limestone, and sandstone quarrying and processing operations. The datasets can be downloaded from the University of Tennessee Center for Clean Products’ website: http://isse.utk.edu/ccp/projects/naturalstone/results_pubs.html. Version two, which is projected to include additional sandstone data, a marble dataset, and partial transportation data, is currently in development and is projected for release during the summer of 2009.
Best Practices The Natural Stone Council is committed to supporting sustainable initiatives and innovations at all levels of the production of Genuine Stone products. As such, best practices of the industry have been identified and these guidance documents created to provide assistance in implementing environmentally-preferable operations.
Best Practice: Transportation (expected June 2009)
Case Studies Genuine Stone products inherently have some environmentally-preferable characteristics. The case studies highlight these positive attributes of stone and its application as a green building product.
Case Study: Solar Reflectance of Natural Stone (expected June 2009)
Material Fact Sheets Designers are more frequently being asked to identify green building materials but do not always have the needed information. Using the life-cycle data, material fact sheets describing several stone types are being generated to provide useful information in this selection process, among other information. The one-page (double-sided) documents will summarize the current market for stone, regions of deposits worldwide, physical properties, applicable ASTM standards, as well as environmental data and human health considerations. These will be provided here as they are made ready.
For questions regarding the datasets, please contact the University of Tennessee Center for Clean Products at 865-974-4583 or cleanproducts@utk.edu. To learn more about the efforts of the NSC Committee on Sustainability, please contact John Mattke, Chairman, at 320-685-3621.
