The launch was attended by Stone Federation Chief Executive Jane Buxey along with many other key people from industry including John Tebbit, Industry Affairs Director at the Construction Products Association (CPA). It was recognised that manufacturers and suppliers, including the Stone Federation, have put huge amounts of time and effort into providing BRE with the most up to date and comprehensive data to ensure the Guide is the definitive work.
John Tebbit stated that “there are areas to work on in future, however, it is important that we all work to a single scheme”. Stone Federation would strongly agree with this view and have already had a meeting with BRE Chief Executive Peter Bonfield to discuss future developments of the Green Guide and how natural stone will feature.
The Green Guide gives manufacturers and producers the opportunity to examine their environmental credentials and gives designers and specifiers online access to a wealth of independent information on whole life environmental performance. Components are rated on a system that reflects the best environmental performance/least environmental impact within a category as A+, with A, B, C, D & E ratings increasing in their environmental impact.
In general natural stone performs quite well across the range of categories in which it is included – with it not always being the natural stone that has the major impact in the assessment of a component. Stone is included in some fifty classifications and components ratings are reflected across the full A+ to E range. Not unexpectedly it is the element of transport that can have an adverse effect on the environmental performance of some materials – examples being stone setts imported from China or India. However, limestone rainscreen cladding generally performs as an ‘A’ rated component and sandstone as an external cavity wall as an ‘A+’ rated component.
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