David Ball-www.davidball.net" I have recently become involved with the NSF Joint Committee on Natural Stone which has the goal of developing a sustainability standard for natural stone. This is a consensus committee of multiple stakeholders that, with the assistance of NSF International and Ecoform, will develop an ANSI Standard that is intended to offer the following benefits to the stone industry, as stated in a recent press release from The Natural Stone Council:
Establish a set of well-defined environmental and human health metrics recognized by the green building movement as an indicator of leadership sustainability performance.
Provide an important opportunity to educate key members of the green building movement, government, and environmental advocacy groups about the production of stone products.
Create a mechanism that rewards natural stone companies that demonstrate environmental leadership through commitment to sustainable operations and continued innovation.
Proactively address potential stone-related environmental and human health concerns in a multi-stakeholder science based forum (i.e. radon, dust, etc.).
Harmonize national and international environmental requirements for stone quarrying and production.
Encourage transparent chain of custody reporting in support of LEED credits for locally produced materials.
Create parity between stone and other competitive products covered by existing certification programs.
Please click on the highlighted link for a copy of the kickoff presentation for the Consensus Standard for Dimensional Stone NSC 373
Completion of the standard is projected to be early Spring, 2012.
Establish a set of well-defined environmental and human health metrics recognized by the green building movement as an indicator of leadership sustainability performance.
Provide an important opportunity to educate key members of the green building movement, government, and environmental advocacy groups about the production of stone products.
Create a mechanism that rewards natural stone companies that demonstrate environmental leadership through commitment to sustainable operations and continued innovation.
Proactively address potential stone-related environmental and human health concerns in a multi-stakeholder science based forum (i.e. radon, dust, etc.).
Harmonize national and international environmental requirements for stone quarrying and production.
Encourage transparent chain of custody reporting in support of LEED credits for locally produced materials.
Create parity between stone and other competitive products covered by existing certification programs.
Please click on the highlighted link for a copy of the kickoff presentation for the Consensus Standard for Dimensional Stone NSC 373
Completion of the standard is projected to be early Spring, 2012.
