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| 2009 Quarterly Activity Report | Quarter Three
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| Below please find the third quarter update from the Natural Stone Council (NSC) including updates on branding, sustainability, funding, online resources and speaking engagements.
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| The NSC branding campaign continued in the following publications:
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Publication: Architectural Record
Circulation: 232,594
Impressions: 612,824
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Publication: BuildingStone
Circulation: 17,000
Impressions: 34,000
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| Total Q3 Impressions:
1,079,364
The term "impression" refers to the number of times an ad is potentially viewed.
As a reminder, the NSC encourages the use of the Genuine Stone logo. The logos are currently available in various sizes and colors on the website at GenuineStone.org, under the Promoting Genuine Stone tab.
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Another year has sprinted by in the NSC's journey to brand natural stone as a leading green building product. Steady partnership with the University of Tennessee Center for Clean Products (UT) has resulted in a seamless outflow of research and information, substantiating the environmental advantages of employing natural stone and prioritizing future goals for sustainability endeavors. As this quarter draws to a close, reflecting on the tasks accomplished underscores the distance the industry has traveled in just two years.
While the first year of the NSC's efforts culminated in the most extensive data collection effort to-date of natural stone industry operations, the second year has focused on interpreting and communicating that information. Case studies, best practices, and material fact sheets have been developed to share this wealth of knowledge. These documents are freely available on the NSC website at www.GenuineStone.org.
Environmental claims about products are being made everyday, but without credible data to support them, these claims are simply dubious. The NSC's case studies set out to demonstrate the advantages of natural stone products with thorough research and analysis. Topics for the case studies were chosen based on input from stone industry and design community members. These span the following list:
· LEED[1] credits that may be earned by using natural stone
· Salvage and reuse opportunities for natural stone
· Advantages of natural stone flooring in high traffic areas
· Solar reflectance index of natural stone
The case studies can be downloaded from the NSC's website at www.genuinestone.org/env_researchandresults.php.
Equally important to characterizing stone's high points is determining where the most improvement is needed. By understanding shortcomings, the NSC can prioritize efforts that will work to enhance the environmental profile of the industry and best position stone as a green building product. Results of the 2007 data collection initiative coupled with multiple discussions with industry members pointed to four key improvement areas. These are as follows:
· Water conservation and reuse
· Quarry maintenance and closure
· Solid waste management
· Transportation in the stone industry
While some companies excel in one or more of these areas, others may need some guidance. To provide such help, the NSC has released best practices for each of the improvement areas. The best practice documents discuss habits that facilities can adopt to move closer to achieving the triple bottom line--economic profitability, environmental conservation, and social equity. All four best practices can be downloaded from the Genuine Stone website at www.genuinestone.org/env_researchandresults.php.
The stone industry has not been the only group to ask for assistance when it comes to understanding the sustainability profile of natural stone products. An attentive ear to the architectural and design communities has lead to the discovery that while designers want to specify stone, they have difficulty finding a quick reference that concisely communicates general physical, environmental, and other information about natural stone products. To eliminate this data gap and help promote the stone marketplace, the NSC has developed fact sheets for individual stone types, namely granite, limestone, marble, sandstone, and slate. Similar to best practices and case studies, these fact sheets can be downloaded at www.genuinestone.org/env_researchandresults.php.
Even more exciting, a comparison of stone's environmental footprint to that of its competitors is now underway. The NSC has commissioned UT to perform a life-cycle assessment (LCA) of cladding materials. LCA is a widely-used method for evaluating the environmental impacts of a product over its entire lifetime, from raw material extraction through its end-of-life. The ultimate goal is to understand how natural stone stacks up to competing materials when it comes to environmental impact. Data to feed the stone LCA was collected by an extensive NSC industry survey conducted in early 2007. Thank you to all those who contributed information to this effort!
In the past two years, the NSC has brought organization and clarity to the natural stone industry's sustainability movement. A pathway to environmentally preferable industry operations is now illuminated by the best practices, and the environmental benefits of natural stone products have been confirmed through detailed case studies. Soon, the LCA will quantify the industry's environmental impact and compare it to those of competing products. Now that the baseline has been drawn, the stone industry is equipped to plow forward, measure growth, and emerge as a leader in the green building arena.
The NSC and UT would like to thank everyone who has participated in this vital effort to position natural stone in the green building industry. To learn more about the initiatives of the NSC Committee on Sustainability and to download available documents described herein, please visit www.GenuineStone.org or contact John Mattke, Chairman of the NSC Committee on Sustainability, at 320.685.3621.
[1]LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a green building certification offered by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). It is currently the most widely renowned green building certification program in the United States.
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In recent months, the NSC has sent a number of communications out to members of the stone industry to explain its activities and initiatives. The NSC board has also sought input to evaluate whether or not industry members support the NSC to the degree necessary for these initiatives to continue. We would like to thank those of you who have invested the time to express your thoughts and concerns in a constructive manner. It has been very helpful and has led us to conclude that an industry unified around common goals is worthwhile, that building a brand preference for stone versus other materials is desirable and that a focus on positioning stone within the green building arena is an imperative. There may be differences of opinion on how to accomplish these things, but the primary initiatives undertaken by the NSC are valued by most industry members.
Funding, on the other hand, has been a contentious issue and has resulted in significantly reducing activity on these other initiatives as well. Throughout the year, the NSC board has reduced spending several times and cut back activity in order to stretch dollars while seeking a permanent funding solution. Based on industry feedback, the NSC fundraising committee has been expanded to include additional stakeholders, many of whom have expressed strong opinions about the check-off solution being pursued by the NSC. This expanded committee, including 15 members in total, has been charged with further investigating funding alternatives (including check-off) and coming to the NSC annual meeting at StonExpo this week with several alternatives and a recommendation for board consideration. Look for additional communications to be distributed after the NSC board meeting at StonExpo.
Also, if you plan to attend StonExpo this year, join the NSC for a discussion of the NSC and the future of these initiatives on Thursday, October 22 from 12:00pm to 12:30pm in the StonExchange presentation area on the show floor.
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The NSC, in partnership with the University of Tennessee's Center for Clean Products, has developed a series of life-cycle inventories including granite, limestone, sandstone, and now slate quarrying and processing operations which are all available online - http://isse.utk.edu/ccp/projects/naturalstone/results_pubs.html#datasets. These reports characterize the environmental profile of natural stone industry operations by providing an estimate of embodied energy, water consumption and material resource utilization per ton of stone extracted and produced as well as identify areas of improvement.
Other Life-Cycle Inventories available at no charge on the CCP website include:
· LCI Dataset: Granite
· LCI Dataset: Limestone
· LCI Dataset: Sandstone
Additionally, a comprehensive Life-Cycle Assessment comparing stone to other types of cladding materials will be available later this fall.
The NSC's material fact sheets are intended to serve as reference materials for designers, architects, and even researchers, among other audiences. The beauty of the fact sheets is their brevity - they provide a quick overview of a particular material. The one-page (double-sided) documents are partially fed by the life-cycle inventories and inform the reader about the stone's natural formation, region(s) of deposits worldwide, physical properties, applicable ASTM standards, as well as environmental and human health considerations.
Other material fact sheets that may be found on the NSC site include:
· Material Fact Sheet: Granite · Material Fact Sheet: Limestone · Material Fact Sheet: Marble · Material Fact Sheet: Sandstone Please note that anyone seeking credible information about natural stone can visit www.GenuineStone.com to access information at no cost.
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| Upcoming Conference Presentations
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The NSC's research partner, The University of Tennessee's Center for Clean Products Director Jack Geibig, will be presenting, "Assessing the Sustainability of Stone as a Green Building Material" at StonExpo. The session will explore the use of stone materials in building applications as well as describe the activities of the NSC to assess the sustainability of stone.
Jack Geibig will be presenting the tentatively titled "Exploring Life-Cycle Methodology as a Tool for Communicating the Environmental Performance of a Product" on Wednesday, November 11th from 4-5:30 pm at GreenBuild. This will be a joint session with Adam Cone, an independent structural engineer consultant. The session will focus on the strengths of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in communicating environmental product information, how information is communicated in LCA and present the results of an LCA involving stone building materials.
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| Copyright © 2009 GenuineStone.org. All rights reserved.
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