Natural stone lasts for thousands of years
There is probably no natural building material that lasts longer than natural stone. The Pantheon in Rome still exists today - and was built almost 2,000 years ago.
There is growing attention to sustainable building methods - among architects as well as developers. Particularly the use of natural stone can help preserve the environment, as it causes significantly less carbon emissions than, for example, construction with precast concrete elements. Our vision is clear: the construction industry must become greener.
How natural stone is helping to realize green buildings
Less CO₂ emissions with natural stone facades
In order to compare the CO₂ emissions of natural stone with precast concrete elements and artificial stone, we supplied the Gabi4 life cycle assessment software with corresponding data.
This includes, for example, key figures from production, transport, repair and maintenance, but also presumed recycling potentials. For a facade area of 800 square meters, the results show that natural stone saves building owners around 43 - 59 % of C02 emissions.
The production hardly requires any energy
Natural stone is created by natural processes and is stored in the quarry as a "finished" product. So no energy is needed for the production itself, only a small amount is needed for quarrying and further processing.
Natural stone is reusable - in a number of ways
If a building is demolished, the natural stones can usually be reused easily - for instance as window sills, masonry stones or pebbles
Natural stone contains no hazardous substances
Unlike artificial stone, natural stone does not contain any environmentally harmful substances and can be returned to the raw material cycle without any problems.
LEED®-Zertifizierung
Natural stones pave the way for LEED® certification
Natural stone achieves very good results in the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The LCA provides information on the environmental impact of a product over its entire life cycle. Only buildings with excellent LCA values can receive the Green Building LEED® certification - which has a positive effect on the market value of a building. The U.S. Green Building Council's LEED® program is the leading program for the design, construction, maintenance and operation of high-performance green buildings.
Learn more at usgbc.org/LEED.