Project: Benchmarking the Performance and Environmental Impacts of Dimensional Stone Products
Approximately one year ago, the Center for Clean Products (CCP) partnered with the Natural Stone Council (NSC), the main trade association for natural stone suppliers, to help define the industry's position in the rapidly-growing green building movement. The goal of the CCP-NSC collaboration is to characterize the environmental profile of the stone industry, identifying best management practices and communicating the value of these practices to industry members. CCP researchers have spent the past summer touring stone quarries and fabrication facilities across the country in order to better understand industry operations.
Based upon the knowledge gleaned during these visits and through discussions with industry experts, a data collection tool has been developed that will be distributed to quarries and fabricators at the beginning of the new year. This survey will be used to evaluate the environmental impacts of the stone industry and to identify the operations that mitigate these effects. Working together, the CCP and NSC aim to develop a proactive sustainability plan that can become a model for other core construction products in the United States.
Outcomes of this research project will include:
- Life-cycle data sets of key operations in both the quarrying and primary processing of natural stone materials including limestone, marble, and granite.
- Identification of data gaps and environmental improvement points of emphasis to inform life-cycle management efforts.
- Development of material-specific environmental fact sheets for use and distribution by industry in product-specific literature and marketing materials.
- Identification of best operational practices throughout the natural stone industry that maximize performance while minimizing environmental impact.