November 11, 2009 8:16 AM CST

Natural Stone Council Continues Building Online Resource Library

By Masonry

The Natural Stone Council (NSC), a collaborative organization representing business and trade associations serving the natural stone industry, has announced the addition of a Life-Cycle Inventory and fact sheet for slate on their website – www.GenuineStone.org.

The NSC, in partnership with the University of Tennessee’s Center for Clean Products (CCP), has developed a series of life-cycle inventories including granite, limestone, sandstone, and now slate quarrying and processing operations which are all available online - www.genuinestone.com/env_researchandresults.php. 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 Genuine Stone website include:

• LCI Dataset: Granite


• LCI Dataset: Limestone


• LCI Dataset: Sandstone


• Life-Cycle Inventory: Slate

Additionally, a comprehensive Life-Cycle Assessment comparing stone to other types of cladding materials will be available 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


• Material Fact Sheet: Slate

“The NSC listened to our colleagues in design and architecture regarding the information they wanted when considering natural stone for projects,” said John Mattke, Chairman of the NSC’s Sustainability Committee. “Our LCI data sets and material fact sheets enable us to fulfill their expectations and further establish Genuine Stone as a green building material through our research. Adding this data to our online library continues to allow anyone seeking credible information about natural stone to access it at no cost.”

In addition to these two new resources for slate, visitors to the site will find a variety of case studies, best practices, information on green building standards, and general information about natural stone and its benefits. Access to the website is free and does not require any log in.

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About the Author

Masonry, the official publication of the Mason Contractors Association of America, covers every aspect of the mason contractor profession - equipment and techniques, building codes and standards, business planning, promoting your business, legal issues and more. Read or subscribe to Masonry magazine at www.masonrymagazine.com.