Oct 17
2024

Representatives from 10 national natural stone associations came together at the NSSA meeting in Verona. Front row, 2nd from left: Sarah Gregg (Natural Stone Institute, USA), to her left: Fabio Cruz (Centrorochas, Brazil), 5th from left: Flavio Marabelli (Confindustria Marmomacchine, Italy). Second row: 3rd from left: Jim Hieb (Natural Stone Institute, USA). Third row, 4th from left: Nelson Cristo (Assimagra, Portugal). Photo: NSI

At Marmomac, stone associations from ten western nations came together and founded a “Global EPD Collaboration Initiative”

The Natural Stone Strategic Alliance (NSSA) brought to life a “Global EPD Collaboration Initiative” at Marmomac 2024 in Verona. This group of stone associations launched a way to create region-specific Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) to promote natural stone as a building material with a low carbon footprint, the Natural Stone Institute informs in a press release.

An EPD is a collection of scientifically compiled data, e.g. on the amount of energy or water consumed in the production of a material. Indirectly, it also provides an overview of the release of the greenhouse gas CO2 (carbon dioxide) via the construction materials in a building.

In addition, an EPD also contains data on the life cycle of the edifice, i.e. what happens to the materials after demolition.

Important preparatory work for the meeting in Verona had been done by Sarah Gregg, sustainability leader from the Natural Stone Institute. She commented: “By pooling our resources and expertise, we can establish the quantified data sets and messaging needed for stone to be recognized as a solution for reducing the embodied carbon of building projects worldwide.”

For example, not every architect or interior designer knows that natural stone consumes zero Gray Energy because it is naturally available and does not need to be manufactured.

At the meeting in Verona, representatives from 10 Western countries committed to participate in the Global EPD Collaboration Initiative. They were, in addition to the representatives from the Natural Stone Institute (USA), Confindustria Marmomacchine (Italy), Centrorochas (Brazil), and Assimagra (Portugal): Stone Federation (UK), Kivi (Finland), Aegean Mineral Exporters Association (Turkey), Greek Marble Association, Deutscher Naturwerkstein-Verband (Germany), as well as – from Spain – Cluster del Granito, Marmol de Alicante and Centro Tecnológico del Mármol.

As several of the participating organizations already have experience with environmental reporting, the NSSA is in a good position to develop procedures for the collection of EPD data, member company engagement and effective marketing strategies.

The next steps are to approach associations from other countries and encourage them to participate in the initiative. The aim is to have a global natural stone EPD report by the beginning of 2026.

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(17.10.2024, USA: 10.17.2024)