A simplified method for the indirect evaluation of the “embodied pollution” of natural stones (marble) working chain to be applied for achieving the Ecolabel brand of the product
- Authors: Capitano C.; Cirrincione L.; Peri G.; Rizzo G.; Scaccianoce G.
- Publication year: 2022
- Type: Articolo in rivista
- OA Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10447/561283
Abstract
The constant push toward higher energy and environmental quality buildings makes the acquisition of excellence marks for products and materials, of which the building envelope is constituted, increasingly urgent. The recent European (EU) Commission Decision 2021/476 is applicable to marble used in construction. It sets out criteria that companies producing marble have to accomplish to obtain the EU Ecolabel brand. Unfortunately, some criteria such as, for example, those that refer to the application of the Environmental Management System, ISO 14001 and EMAS certifications, or those that concern the ISO 14067 as well as the Product Environment Footprint procedure, are difficult to apply for companies in the marble extraction and processing sector. These companies, in fact, are usually family-run and find it difficult to adhere to such complex schemes. This difficulty obviously limits the number of companies and products that can aspire to an environmental excellence label. On the other hand, the new Decision seems inadequate to identify the environmental impact of the transport of material between the different workstations of the same company; aspect that would be important to consider to evaluate in a broader and more detailed way this impact in the framework of the attribution of an environmental excellence label. To provide a contribution to overcome these difficulties for the companies and to open a debate on the criteria that lead to the assignment of the EU Ecolabel brand, here an alternative simplified method for the indirect assessment of pollutant emissions from the work chain of marble companies, which also includes the contribution of the transport phase of the semi-finished material between the different workstations of the company, is proposed. The method simply starts with an evaluation of the type and quantity of energy sources used in the work cycle and the emission factors of the main pollutants emitted. In this way, a sort of material impact sheet is obtained that contains not only the embodied energy of the marble but also the “embodied pollution” associated to it. The method, besides being easy to use, could be adopted in the criteria that lead to the attribution of the EU Ecolabel brand to companies that work marble.