Italgraniti Group | Green Approach | Sustainability

Green Approach

“

On the international market, market, our name is synonymous with porcelain stoneware that offers extremely high technical and aesthetic performance.

We transform top quality raw materials into ceramic projects able to interpret the many requirements of a continuously evolving world.

We are a leading light on the ceramics stage because we cultivate a dream: to construct the future. future

Dante Giacobazzi, President at Italgraniti Group

”

Why this publication This publication has a twofold aim: to present our porcelain stoneware tiles from the perspective of sustainability, and to provide a brief overview of the most widely used green certification program which are adopted worldwide for measuring the environmental and sustainability performance of new and existing buildings.

This publication was created by Ongreening in close collaboration with Italgraniti Group | May 2020 2

CONTENTS Italgraniti Group & Sustainability

4

The healthiest choice

5

Green building trends

6

Green building rating systems

7

LEED® Rating system overview

8

BREEAM® Rating system overview

9

WELLTM Rating system overview

10

CAM® Edilizia (Criteri Ambientali Minimi) overview

11

Ongreening & the assessment methodology

12

Sustainability performance and data transparency

14

3

Italgraniti Group & Sustainability At Italgraniti, we are truly committed to creating fine porcelain tiles that are good for both people and planet. We are aware that buildings, and the material used to construct and finish inhabitable spaces, have not only a major impact on the environmental and our planet, they also have a huge influence on people’s health and wellbeing.

Our focus is to ensure sustainability is embedded into our products, from the design of our tiles to the responsible sourcing of the raw materials, to the recycling process at the end of their life as well as paying attention to the protection of our workers, the environment and our customers.

We are proud to be an active member of the Green Building Council Italia, an institution that promotes environmentally responsible building, profitable and healthy places to live and work in.

We also support all the values promoted by Confindustra Ceramica industry association code of ethics, from 100% Italian production to social and environmental responsibility, as well as we work closely with sustainability specialists like Ongreening.

44

The healthiest choice Ensuring the good quality of the air we breathe in the spaces where we live, work or play every day, is vital, especially when considering that we spend around 90 per cent of our time indoors [1].

Building materials, finishes, furnishing and cleaning products are usually direct sources of harmful indoor pollutants, such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), formaldehyde and other toxins which can have health impacts such as allergies, asthma or even more severe diseases.

All our porcelain stoneware coverings are made of VOC-free materials and do not contain vinyl or plastic matters. The tightly sealed surfaces of our ceramic material offer no refuge for micro-organisms or dust mites.

As a result, our porcelain stoneware is an outstanding architectural solution for healthy and green indoor environments.

12

5

Green building trends Global green building market continues soaking up large market share, doubling every three years. A trend that, in very few decades, has become a trillion-dollar industry.

The increasing demand for sustainable and healthy buildings is likely to continue to do so in the future, according to recent studies [2].

Green Public Procurement policies (GPP) and the rapidly dissemination of voluntary green building certification programs for green buildings are among the key drivers that have been underpinning this growth, along with the increasingly stringent carbon regulatory requirements and the greater societal demand for greener and healthier space to live, work and relax in.

6

Green building rating systems Over the last decade, a number of green building rating systems have been adopted to assess the sustainability performance of building schemes worldwide, from design stages throughout construction and operation. The above has driven the rapid expansion of environmentally conscious building practices throughout the world, while enabling an astonishing 2.65 billion square meters of sustainably-driven inhabitable space around the world [3].

Some of the rating systems, such as LEED®, BREEAM® and WELL™, have earned internationally recognition being a mark of excellence in high-performance and sustainability in building.

In this context, all our porcelain stoneware products comply with the most stringent environmental and quality standards and are suitable for green and healthy building applications.

Our porcelain tiles fulfil the requirements of major green building certification systems in use around the world, like LEED®, BREEAM®, WELL™ and others.

12

7

LEED Certified projects by countries between 5 - 49 between 50 - 199 between 200 - 1999 between 2000 - 70,000

LEED® Rating Systems LEED® – Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design – is the world’s most widely used green building certification program.

Developed by the US Green Building Council, LEED®, it is a third-party voluntary system that provides building owners and operators with a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable healthy building design, green construction, operations and maintenance solutions.

Since its inception in 1998, LEED® has grown to become an industry-recognised mark of excellence in high-performance sustainable building and property industry.

LEED® is available for all building types, including commercial, residential and entire neighbourhood communities. The building’s environmental impact and performance is evaluated by using a whole-building approach to sustainability.

LEED® certification is awarded when a building project has satisfied all the prerequisites and earned a minimum number of credit points through the adoption of sustainability strategies in relation to energy efficiency, water conservation, building materials and finishes, indoor environmental quality, location and transportation, site development, innovative approaches and regionally focused priorities. Certification level depends on the achieved final score: Certified Silver, Gold and Platinum. With Platinum being the healthiest and most sustainable building [4].

LEED v4.1 is the newest version of the LEED green building rating systems, which was released in early 2019.

8

“

World’s most widely used green building certification program adopted in more than 150 countries worldwide4

81,000 LEED® certified buildings related to over 700 million sqm of built floor area4

LEED®, it is a voluntary system, developed by the US Green Building Council

71,000 buildings currently pursuing LEED® certification4

”

BREEAM Registered & certified projects by countries between 5 - 20 between 21 - 200 >201

BREEAM® Rating Systems BREEAM® (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) is the world's longest established method used for measuring the environmental and sustainability performance of new and existing buildings.

“

The world’s first comprehensive rating system for new and existing buildings

Used in 80+ countries and 569,000 buildings certified worldwide

BREEAM® is a voluntary system, even if all most of local authorities in UK incorporated the standard as a mandatory requirement for the new buildings

”

Developed by BRE Global, a subsidiary of the BRE Group, in 1990, BREEAM® has reached a strong market recognition and is recognised by construction and property industry as the benchmark for best practice in environmental building design and management.

7

BREEAM® is a highly flexible rating system that is used to assess any building type, from new developments to refurbishments, from fit-out projects to building operations and maintenance.[5] In order to encourage even greater international acceptance, a BREEAM® International scheme and country-specific BREEAM® schemes were developed along the UK BREEAM® rating systems.

BREEAM® assessment uses recognised sustainability metrics and indices to evaluate the building performance across a range of environmental issues, including energy and water use, health and wellbeing, pollution, transport, materials, waste, ecology and management processes. Building are rated and certified on a scale of 'Pass', 'Good', 'Very Good', 'Excellent' and 'Outstanding', with the latter representing the highest level of sustainability in building. Assessments are carried out by independent, licenced, assessors.

9

WELL Registered & certified projects by countries between 5 - 49 between 50 - 499 between 500 -1199 >1200

WELL™ Building Standard WELL™ Building Standard (WELL™) is the first evidence-based system for measuring, certifying and monitoring building features that impact on health and wellbeing of building occupants.

WELL™ marries best practices in design and construction with evidence-based health and wellness interventions.

WELL™ measures the attributes of a building that impact on occupant health by looking at seven areas – air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind. The Standard identifies 100 performance metrics, design strategies, and policies that can be implemented by the owners, designers, engineers, contractors, users and operators.

Launched by Delos, founder of the standard, in October 2014, and administered by the International Well Building Institute (IWBI), the scheme, is informed by a seven-year programme of scientific and medical research, and peer-reviewed studies related to the impacts of the built environment on human health. To date, there are 301 WELL certified projects and 4007 WELL registered projects equivalent to a total of 613+ million sqft built floor area across 72 countries [6].

WELL™ is the first building rating systems to grant certification only after a building has been assessed in operation. To achieve WELL Building Standard certification, the space must undergo a process that includes an on-site assessment and performance testing by a third party.

WELL v2™ pilot is the newest version of the pioneering WELL Building Standard™.

10

“

WELL is the first evidence-based system focused solely on the health and wellbeing of building occupants

100 performance metrics in 7 key areas: air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind

613 million sqft built floor area across 72 countries

”

CAM Edilizia operating territory

CAM edilizia Following the EU policies on Green Public Procurement (GPP), in April 2016 the Italian Ministry of Environment introduced a set of environmental criteria for the building industry (Criteri Ambientali Minimi Edilizia – CAM Edilizia) aimed to facilitate the inclusion of green requirements in public tender documents. [7]

“

Mandatory environmental criteri criteriaa for the Green Public Procurement in Italy

Since 2016, CAM to be included into the construction public tenders

Since then, it is mandatory for Italian public authorities to include CAM technical specifications and contractual clauses into building construction tender documentation, in order to drive the procurement of more environmentally friendly products and services. Through the above procurement policy, public authorities can significantly contribute to the circular economy and sustainability.

The aim is to stimulate purchases that minimise the use of natural resources and energy consumption, help the uptake of renewable sources, reduce the production of waste, pollutant emissions into the air, water and soil, and eliminate hazardous substances in favour of greener goods with a longer life span that promote recycling chain while triggering a voluntary mechanism for continuous and global improvement of the environmental performance of processes and products.

Public authorities can significantly drive circular economy and sustainability in building

”

11

Ongreening & the assessment method About Ongreening® Ongreening® is an independent digital platform dedicated to sustainability-focused practices and material data. Ongreening’s mission is to make green building easier and more assessible to all while driving true data transparency of material data across the supply chain .

The Ongreening® platform combines invaluable resources on green building with an innovative material database, called ProductMAP®, which is geared towards the major green building rating systems.

Since its launch in 2014, the initiative has been joined by a global community of 35,000+ green building professionals including the world’s most renowned architecture and engineering firms.

Further information on credit contribution of Italgraniti’s porcelain stoneware is available at Ongreening.com

12

GREEN PRODUCTS

ProductMAP

GLOBAL VISIBILITY

MARKETING

GREEN BUILDING

Assessment methodology Compatibility of the Italgraniti’s porcelain stoneware with internationally recognised green building rating systems and Italian GPP policies was reviewed by Ongreening.

The assessment aimed to: Verify building product compliance with 35+ green building ratings (i.e.) and Green Public Procurement criteria (CAM): Identify product contributions to LEED®, BREEAM®, WELL™; Provide guidance to advance product sustainability performance; Help communicate product sustainability data transparently.

Product data, supplied by ITALGRANITI, was assessed by using ProductMAP®, the Ongreening’s proprietary data-driven algorithm that uses more than 11,000 sustainability criteria to automatically product eligibility and contribution to 35+ major green building rating schemes.

ProductMAP® underpins an online cloud-based advanced material database that enables design and construction team making product selection decisions based on material performance and sustainability criteria.

12

For its uniqueness and innovative approach, ProductMAP® was recently endorsed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and the New York based International WELL Building Institute, two of the world’s leading authorities of the Green Building Industry.

13

Sustainability performance and data transparency

ISO 14001 As part of our continuous efforts to improve the sustainability performance and quality standards of our porcelain stoneware products, Italgraniti operates in compliance with ISO 14001 standard, a robust environmental management system.

Recycled Content All our tiles are produced by using a high percentage of recycled raw materials.

Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) We use life-cycle assessments to measure the environmental impacts of our products from the extraction and processing of raw materials, to the distribution, use and end of life of the product/service.

Through the Environmental Product Declarations we can deliver transparency information to our customers and end users.

Health Product Declarations (HPDs) In addition to EPDs, we have adopted HPD Collaborative Standard to transparently communicate the material contents of our products and the associated health impacts.

Ongreening Assessment We use the Ongreening’s ProductMAP to evaluate our products potentiation contribution to major green building rating systems, like LEED®, BREEAM® and WELL™.

14

References [1]. https://www.ashrae.org/technical-resources/free-resources/10-tips-for-home-indoor-air-quality [2] WGBC Annual Report 2017-18; Dodge Data & Analytics, 2016; https://USGBC.org; https://Ongreening.com [3] WGBC Annual Report 2017-18 [4] https://USGBC.org; [5] https://www.breeam.com/ [6] https://legacy.wellcertified.com/en 7] https://www.minambiente.it/pagina/i-criteri-ambientali-minimi

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the Ongreening and Italgraniti Group.

12

15

Italgraniti Group SPA Via Radici in Piano 355 41043 Casinalbo - Modena - Italia Tel +39 059 888411 Fax +39 059 848808 www.italgranitigroup.com info@italgranitigroup.com project.department@italgranitigroup.com