Thinking green and in an environmentally-responsible way needn’t only include strict natural resources preservation, in favor of using manmade materials and solutions. Sometimes going natural all the way is more beneficial that trying to fabricate artificial materials, the process which often requires much energy and raw material, not to mention the environmental footprint. One of such examples is the use of natural stone in construction. The process of stone exploitation can be sustainable if the procedures are eco-friendly.
What Comprises Sustainable Natural Stone Exploitation
Earth-friendly process of producing natural stone can be explained through three principles. The first involves optimized exploitation of raw material and resources, the second presumes minimal energy consumption in the process procedure and the last but not the least, using natural stone for multipurpose energy-efficient solutions.
How Natural Resources Benefit
Modern mining technologies and integrated systems utilize green solutions in natural stone exploitation. By using sustainable stone fortification agents, the waste and byproducts are significantly reduced, while breakage of raw stone, which ultimately leads to increased waste is insignificant. Production and processing procedures take advantage of water-based agents and sustainable epoxy resins in order to minimize emission of volatile organic compounds. What is more, sustainable natural stone procedures often take advantage of fast-carving equipment that reduces dust emissions and the amount of waste, while maintaining the high usability ratio of natural stone.
Savings in Energy
Although sustainable natural stone exploitation mainly relies on environmentally -friendly processes and procedures, one of the significant aspect is the maximized energy efficiency, mainly through reduces electricity consumption. While keeping high production levels, green stone production aim to reduce the energy consumption along the whole length of the process. That aside, smart engineered products like natural stone with thermal power storage properties or self-cleaning stone surface automatically imply higher energy efficiency when finally installed in the construction of new homes and business buildings, reducing the need for heating systems.
Budget-Friendly Option
There is another, unmentioned aspect of environmentally-friendly stone production that is often underestimated, mainly because it has nothing to do in reducing CO2 emissions and waste, but it is equally important. One of important aspects of sustainability is the economic feasibility or, competitive prices on the market. The increased popularity of these sustainable natural stone production procedures has caused a steady drop in prices of raw stone and stone based products.
As a result this situation helped increase market competitiveness and creatinga healthy economic climate in that industry. According to Sydney-based suppliers of quality pavers, the price of new natural stone products will keep dropping, but the quality and standards of the final product will remain high, as the technologies and procedures used guarantee even higher resistance to mechanical damage, bacteria, dust and temperature changes that reduce its durability.
Social Benefits
The final benefit of sustainable natural stone production is the impact on housing and the quality of living. The aforementioned properties like self-cleaning and increased thermal energy storage make natural stone products like pavers and tiles suitable for homes. The construction industry will benefit from improved architectural designs and optimized household energy efficiency. In addition, the new stone products will help stabilize internal temperature fluctuations in homes. Finally, the greater versatility of use of natural stone and wide applicability lend themselves to increased aesthetic aspect of this sustainable material.
Undoubtedly, natural stone is one of the most widely available building resource. It is characterized by long life, durability and many positive construction properties. With the introduction of sustainable natural stone production methods, the whole industry made an upward swing towards preserving the planets raw materials and energy resources.