NATURAL STONE
REDUCING YOUR FOOTPRINT
The Stone Federation of Great Britain discusses how natural stone can help to minimise the carbon impact of a project.
As specifiers become increasingly aware that a ‘business as usual’ approach to the carbon impacts of architecture and construction is no longer an option, there is a fresh drive to consider and reduce the ‘whole-life carbon’ impact of a building.
What is ‘Whole-Life Carbon’?
In short, whole-life carbon includes both embodied carbon and operational (in-use) carbon. It includes the material extraction or creation and transport as well as lifetime emissions from maintenance, repair, replacement and disposal of the materials. Whole-life carbon assessments are as much about resource efficiency as they are about carbon emissions. This makes the results extremely relevant to tackling two key environmental problems: global warming and resource depletion.
Stone vs Ceramic
There have been a number of studies comparing the whole-life carbon impact of different construction materials including natural stone. One of these research projects compared the life-cycle assessments of a number of different materials used for both public and commercial flooring. The results showed that the use of natural stone for flooring causes a significantly lower environmental impact in production, installation and use when compared with large-format ceramics, carpets, PVC, laminates and parquet.
When comparing the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of natural stone tiles with ceramic, parquet, large-format ceramics, PVC, laminate and carpet alternatives, natural stone was the best performer by a clear margin. The GWP figures showed that, for example, large-format ceramic tiles have a 74% higher global warming potential than natural stone.
Inherently Sustainable Natural stone is a material that, when extracted, is almost
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complete as a building material in its natural state. No energy is needed for its creation, which is a trait not found in many of its competitors. The only energy consumption is during its processing and transportation. The share of energy costs for the gross production value of natural stone is extremely low at just 3.3%.
Natural stone flooring has an impressively long lifespan with examples in almost every town of a natural stone floor or pavement that has lasted for centuries. What’s more, stone flooring products can be widely reused at the end of the structure use phase and contain no pollutants so can be easily inserted back into the natural material cycle.
For architects looking to specify materials that minimise carbon impact, natural stone is a fantastic option, delivering sustainability in both its extraction and whole- life value.
A+ Green Guide Rating
The Green Guide to Specification, which is part of BREEAM, sets out an A+ to E ranking system for the environmental performance of a material. The factors evaluated include climate change, mineral resource extraction, waste disposal and fossil fuel depletion. In a case study project carried out by the Building Research Establishment (BRE), almost half of all natural-stone- related components achieve either A+ or A and the majority of the remainder score a C or above.
There is an increasing awareness among specifiers that materials must earn their place on a specification and, in light of the results shown, natural stone is most definitely justifying its inclusion.
The Stone Federation of Great Britain is uniquely placed to connect architects, interior designers and clients with the right natural stone for their project and can provide them with a wealth of technical resources around the sustainable procurement.
www.stonefed.org.uk www.tomorrowstileandstone.co.uk
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