Northern Stone Supply Goes Double Platinum Green

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OAKLEY, Idaho Northern Stone Supply Inc., a natural-stone wholesale company producing quartzite and granite building-stone products, received platinum certification in sustatinability last month for both its quarrying and fabrication operations - the highest certification available.

The certifications were awarded by NSF International, an independently certified public health and safety organization, after extensive documentation review and an on-site audit conducted according to the ANSI/NSC 373 standard published by The Natural Stone Council.

“While natural stone in and of itself seems intuitively sustainable, the process in which it is quarried and fabricated in preparation for its end use may not always be,” said Greg Osterhout, Northern Stone Supply vice president. “Northern Stone Supply is among a growing number of natural-stone quarries and fabricators to have voluntarily certified our quarry and fabrication processes. We are very proud to be the first company to certify to the ANSI/NSC 373 Platinum level in both our quarry operation and our fabrication facility.”

Northern Stone Sustainability Team Leader Brae Beck said, “The building-stone industry is raising the bar when it comes to sustainability, and at Northern Stone we are leading, innovating, and propelling a time-old industry into the 21st century.”

To receive this certification, Northern Stone Supply had to document and demonstrate the highest standards and practices, and future plans for improvement, in the following areas:

Water - Inventory, usage, recycling and reduction.
Custody and Transportation - Chain of Custody certification, transportation management program.
Site Management - SiteMaps, Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan, ecosystem boundaries.
Land Reclamation - Post-closure reclamation plan, community involvement, completed site closures.
Corporate Governance - Prevention of discrimination, employee participation, fair hiring, social-accountability plan.
Energy - Inventory, management program, usage reduction, carbon management, alternative energy sourcing.
Management of Excess Process Materials and Waste - Inventory, reuse and recycling, reduction.
Chemicals Management - Inventory, management plan, elimination of chemicals of concern.
Human Health and Safety - Safety plan, documented procedure, management of air quality, air emissions inventory and management plan.
Innovation - Waste reclamation or reuse, reduction or elimination of greater than 10 of emissions to air.
Northern Stone Supply is a leader in quarrying, fabricating and marketing a wide range of quartizite and granite products from two world-class quarries near Oakley and Park Valley, Utah, with more than 60 years of doing business internationally.