Sustainability issues for natural stone
The market for natural stone is growing. It is used for floors, kitchen worktops, gravestones and cemetery monuments, pavements and building façades. Until recently, natural stone was largely obtained from European countries, but now it is more cheaply sourced from low-wage countries, such as Brazil, China and India.
What are the issues?
- heavy, dangerous work in quarries, with high temperatures and excessive dust
- Access to health care and social security
- Excessive working hours
- use of child labour, mainly in manual cutting of cobblestones
- poor housing for migrant labourers
- illegal mining in protected environmental areas
- adverse impacts on water supplies and the landscape
The problems are not always present, nor do they occur everywhere to the same extent. But their existence is reason for natural stone companies and sector associations to take action to prevent them. A number companies are already endorsing the code of conduct in cooperation with their suppliers.