Study to assess life-cycle impacts of building stone
Like a handful of other natural building materials, stone is coveted both by high-end buyers wanting to make a statement about luxury and timelessness and by environmentally conscious buyers who are attracted to material cut straight from the earth. There is very little data available, however, to rigorously evaluate the environmental impacts of processed natural stone as a building material.
Hired by the Natural Stone Council, a collaboration of the nation’s major stone trade associations, the Center for Clean Products and Clean Technologies at the University of Tennessee–Knoxville has embarked on a three-year research project to gather information and data supporting life-cycle assessment of natural stone in buildings. “BEES has nothing on stone,” said Jack Geibig, PE, director of the center, referring to Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability, the software tool from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology that assesses economic and environmental performance through a product’s whole life cycle. “There is just no information on any of these products out there,” he explained, “and the stone industry recognized they wanted to be more informed and they wanted to engage in an honest way with the green building industry.”
John Mattke, president of Cold Spring Granite Company, based in Minnesota, and a representative of the Natural Stone Council and its environmental committee, said that the group initiated its research due to the growing influence of the green building movement. “Member companies want to market to green buildings, but they’re not quite sure what to do,” he said, also noting that “the majority of architects that we talked to feel that the product is green, but they don’t have such a great perception of the extraction process.”
The research team is visiting a variety of quarries to familiarize itself with the industry and to begin to develop environmental and economic benchmarks. It will also survey the more than 1,000 companies who participate in the Natural Stone Council through its various trade association collaborators. The survey will collect data on water and energy consumption, yields from raw material, recyclability, and other measures that will feed life-cycle assessments. Later in the project, the research team will collect data on transportation energy use and develop information on the natural stone supply chain: where stone is extracted, how it is transported, where and how it is processed, and where it is sold. The team will also conduct life-cycle assessments comparing building stone with other materials in applications such as exterior façades. Data developed through the research will be available for tools such as BEES.
Although “the quarrying really concerned me,” Geibig said that so far, “I’m incredibly impressed with the quarrying operations I’ve seen.” While noting its impacts, such as habitat loss and energy consumption, both Geibig and Mattke distinguish stone quarrying, in which large blocks of stone are removed from the earth, from aggregate quarrying and mining. The latter tend to take place on a much greater scale, and mining in particular often concentrates certain elements, creating toxic byproducts and runoff.
The research is funded by the Natural Stone Council, but Geibig stressed that his team is working independently to serve an industry eager for an honest assessment. “We have ambitious goals,” he said, but “we’ve had broad and overwhelming support.”
For more information:
Natural Stone Council
Hollis, New Hampshire
800-210-3916
www.genuinestone.org
Center for Clean Products and Clean Technologies
University of Tennessee–Knoxville
Knoxville, Tennessee
865-974-8979
eerc.ra.utk.edu/ccpct/index.html |
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