Setting the Sustainability Standard in Stone

One of the main commonalities Geibig says he found is that while quarrying did have environmental impacts, they were small compared with the function the stone serves.

“We kept asking ourselves, what would be the alternative if we didn’t use stone?” he explains. “When you go through that mental exercise, stone compares very favorably to other materials that would have to be grown or produced.”

Click photo to enlargeWhile that’s the good news, Geibig says people who are concerned about green construction are probably asking other questions in an attempt to compare one product with another.

“They’re asking questions of all building-material producers,” he says. “They want to know that it not only was produced in a sustainable way, but also that it won’t be introducing toxins into the environment as part of its production. In that sense, stone has to compare favorably with materials outside the industry if it wants to have an important part of the marketplace.”

Geibig also points out that while LEED is probably the best-known program for rating the “greenness” of a new or remodeled building, it’s not the only one. He cites the Cascadia Green Building Council (a charter member of the USGBC), which is developing its own criteria based on how materials are produced.

Additionally, there’s the Living Building Challenge, developed by one of the founders of the Cascadia Green Building Council and now administered by the International Living Building Institute™.

“Its basic concept is that, regardless of where you build, a building should be able to exist within that environment without negatively impacting the environment,” Geibig explains. “For instance, if you were to build in the desert, your energy demands would be irrelevant if you put solar collectors on the building and design the building properly – but the water restrictions would become extremely tight.”

RAISING THE BAR

While it would be good for certain U.S. quarriers if LEED’s 500-mile radius reigned as the only green standard, much of the stone used in this country is imported … and a global perspective is necessary.

Helping provide that to the NSC’s efforts is Stephanie Vierra, president of the Gaithersburg, Md.-based Vierra Design & Education Services LLC. Vierra first became involved in the educating people about “green” stone for Veronafiere, the producers of the Marmomacc trade event in Verona, Italy.

“They were ahead of the game comparative to NSC at first,” she says. “They knew this market was being driven by green, and so they started developing education and research programs to address those issues.”

As interest in marketing stone as a green product grew in this country, Vierra was asked to coordinate efforts between the various stone entities, including NSC and the Marble Institute of America. Today, she says a lot of her efforts go toward educating the architectural community about the sustainable characteristics of stone, and the questions they need to ask stone suppliers.

“I talk a lot about the life cycle of stone, including the steps along the way, from the quarry to transportation, and where the environmental impacts can take place,” she explains. “And, we talk about how they, as architects, can minimize them.”