In March the PNA | Pietra Naturale Autentica (Authentically Natural Stone) network – created in 2018 to promote and valorize knowledge about, and protection for, authentically natural stone in various ambits – concluded the sector’s first environmental analysis of the stone product life cycle in order to quantify the environmental impacts of 1 square meter of slab with a 2-cm thickness. The analysis utilized Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology based on the ISO 14040-44 standard, according to European Commission guidelines.
The LCA study refers to the entire slab production process, from natural stone extraction to sawing it into blocks and subsequently finishing the surfaces of 2-cm thick slabs, including the energy and products consumed and the waste generated during all work phases.
Taking part in the project were some of the leading Italian companies belonging to the PNA network, which concentrated their own analyses on multiple materials extracted and processed in Italy, providing data about their own quarry production and subsequent processing stages. The results of the study show that the average climate-change impact of a stone slab is 7.9 kg of CO2 per equivalent square meter (https://www.naturalstoneisbetter.com/en/lca/).
In coming months the goal of the PNA network is to draft an EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) for the sector, environmental certification that will make it possible to objectively – and according to codified criteria – communicate the environmental performance of Italian authentically natural stone.
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