Natural Stone and the Green Building Movement

The Green Building Movement

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) established in 1993 is a non-profit organization composed of leaders from every sector of the building industry. The Council’s core purpose is to transform the way buildings and communities are designed, built and operated, enabling an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy and prosperous environment that improves the quality of life. The Council is made up of more than 11,000 member organizations and these members, along with a network of 75 regional chapters, are united to advance their mission of transforming the building industry to sustainability.

The Green Building Movement is one of the hottest topics in today’s architectural world. Many architects, contractors and building owners have embraced the notion of environmental responsibility and more are coming on board every day. The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system, developed by the USGBC, is a voluntary, consensus-based national rating system for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. LEED addresses all building types, including new construction, existing buildings, commercial interiors, core & shell, operations and maintenance, homes, neighborhoods and specific applications such as retail, multiple buildings/campuses, schools, healthcare laboratories and lodging. Based on well-founded scientific standards, LEED emphasizes state-of-the-art strategies for sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. LEED promotes expertise in green building through a comprehensive system offering project certification, professional accreditation, training and practical resources.

The LEED rating system is being continually refined, as more producers try to position their products in the Green Building Movement. The USGBC’s move in the fall of 2005 to allow trade associations to join the group was a step in the right direction, as it has allowed experts in various industries to provide input as to how their particular products fit into the LEED rating system. By soliciting this input, more products can be assessed for their environmental attributes, and thus be more fairly represented.

Green Initiatives of the Natural Stone Industry

The natural stone industry is one group with a story to tell about an environmentally responsible product and is working to better position natural stone in the LEED rating system. Since the beginning of civilization, natural stone has been used to build our homes, educational facilities and commercial buildings—its beauty and durability are unmatched in the construction world. Leading the effort is the Natural Stone Council (NSC), a collaboration of businesses and trade associations joined to promote the value of using Genuine (natural) Stone (as opposed to the various man-made products that attempt to sell themselves as “stone”) in commercial, educational and residential applications. By pooling resources, their goal is to increase the understanding of, preference for, and consumption of Genuine Stone. Trade associations affiliated with the NSC include Allied Stone Industries, Building Stone Institute, Elberton Granite Association, Indiana Limestone Institute, Marble Institute of America and the National Building Granite Quarries Association. These groups provide an excellent cross-section of the natural stone industry, and their members represent various natural stone products used in a wide variety of applications.

The natural stone industry has already taken several important steps to better understand and further position Genuine Stone as a preferred sustainable building material. First, the establishment of an external advisory committee of respected individuals knowledgeable about green building and environmental issues to advise the NSC is a key to success and will provide much needed insight and guidance. Second, the establishment of a sustainability committee—the Green Committee, as they are already known to many in the stone world—made up of key industry members will elevate the issue of sustainability within the industry and will provide a body responsible for planning and implementing initiatives. Finally, the NSC has contracted with the Center for Clean Products at The University of Tennessee (UT) to evaluate—and ultimately improve—the environmental performance of the industry. The UT/NSC research plan includes a life-cycle analysis of the environmental impacts of certain stone products, the development of strategic sustainability goals for the industry, and a plan for outreach to the environmental and Green Building communities.

At present, the Green Committee and UT research team are in the early phases of conducting on-site reviews of the environmental impacts of natural stone quarrying and fabrication processes. From these reviews, a data collection tool will be developed to gather information from as many stone quarries and fabricators as possible. This information will become the foundation for establishing the baseline environmental footprint of the stone industry and form the building blocks for creating life-cycle data and assessments of stone compared to other building materials. By next year, the team hopes to have accomplished the following:

• Completed the benchmarking process for key manufacturing and quarrying operations during the production of natural stone products;
•  Identified stone industry best practices;
•  Established effective communications and outreach efforts both to internal and external groups;
• Developed and distributed life-cycle inventory datasets for key materials and operations; and
• Created environmental specification sheets for several natural stone materials.

The result of these efforts will not only lead to the establishment of the stone industry’s sustainability profile but may also provide a map of additional potentially-applicable LEED credits for Genuine Stone products to go along with those already identified. Most of these credits would likely be related to their inherent durability as a building material as well as the regional availability of Genuine Stone products and the ability of those products to be recycled. While a comprehensive analysis of the applicability of LEED credits to Genuine Stone products has not yet been completed, this endeavor is at the crux of the investigation currently being performed by UT’s Center for Clean Products. However, a study at an Italian university provides some justification. After conducting a 40-year comparative life-cycle assessment between 1m² of marble flooring tiles and of single-fired ceramic flooring tiles using ISO 14000 standards, it was concluded that marble—the Genuine Stone product—possessed a less destructive environmental profile. In fact, the life-cycle score for marble tiles was half that of the ceramic tiles, mainly attributed to the relatively low impacts during the production stage of marble tiling.

Benefits of Greening the Natural Stone Industry

As efforts to increase environmental awareness in the natural stone industry continue, comparative case studies like the one above are rare. This places The Green Committee in a unique and exciting position to pioneer the establishment of Genuine Stone’s environmental profile and to do so in a transparent fashion. Truthfully, it is to the Natural Stone Industry’s benefit to develop the data, practices, and information to establish its sustainability profile before it is ill-defined from outside the industry. This is a daunting process for any industry, as it requires recognizing and embracing potentially environmental drawbacks as well as benefits. However, by taking a proactive approach, the industry stands to gain on a number of fronts. These encompass:

• Increased Business Opportunities
• Stronger Customer Relationships
• Public and Marketplace Recognition
•  Formation of Strategic Partnerships
• Enhanced Product Marketing
• Stronger Employee Relationships
• Greater understanding of products and processes
•  Increased Profitability

Future of the Green Marketplace

The environmental movement is no longer a fringe consideration for industry. Through the 1980s, “green” products were defined in marketplace by such issues as acute human toxicity, carcinogenicity, and recyclability. However, the conventional thinking held that environmentally friendly products were neither cost competitive nor good performers.

There has since been a fundamental shift in the marketplace. The merits of green products are no longer debated—they are accepted as a critical part of a sustainable society. Rather, today’s dialogue is centered on defining “what constitutes a green product?” Environmental products can be defined according to a number of approaches, such as a life-cycle focus, a precautionary approach, closed material loops, and sustainable production. Each approach has its pros and cons, and they are not mutually-exclusive. But they all point to the same conclusion—the marketplace will continue to demand green materials and products, and will be increasingly shrewd about expecting transparency and validity of materials and product information. There does not appear to be a slowing of this trend. As such, it is now time for Genuine Stone to further define itself as an environmentally conscious and proactive entity. With the implementation of a comprehensive sustainability plan, the natural stone industry can become a model industry for core construction products in the United States.

In closing, while natural stone qualifies at present, for LEED credits in some areas of the program, and while many natural stone projects have attained LEED certification, the work described above will further establish the product as an environmentally responsible choice for designers, installers and building owners alike. After all, what could be more natural, and indeed more environmentally friendly than genuine, natural stone?