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Answers / Decisions

Is Coffee Wood Marble an ethical or sustainable choice?

Marble is a quarried natural stone with a long service life, and the honest comparison is with the material it replaces rather than with other stones. It is non-combustible and it does not need replacing, but quarrying is quarrying, and we do not claim more than that.
A row of roughly six squared stone blocks standing in the sand at the foot of a quarry, each one cut flat and marked with a red number on its face. Behind them the quarry is cut into benches up the hillside, and wind turbines stand on the ridge above under a blue sky.
The cutting floor at the quarry, with the sawn blocks standing in the sand.
A quarry face with the beds marked up by hand in coloured paint. Reading from the top the marks say: 1 white vein, 2 elegant black, 3 grey wood grain, 4 coffee, 5 elegant black, 6 elegant black, 7 black and white, with the red outline around the overburden at the top of the face. Coffee Wood Marble is the fourth bed down.
The face of the quarry with the beds marked in the field.
Marble slabs standing upright on wooden frames inside the open back of a shipping container, strapped and ready to load
Slabs loaded for shipment.

Reference photographs. They show the material and the finish; they are not photographs of goods we made, and the colour on screen is not a colour-match.

The figures, and where each one comes from

Coffee Wood Marble A wood-look porcelain or a timber floor
Origin A quarry in Guizhou, cut in Guangdong A factory, or a plantation
Service life The stone lasts; the finish is restored A coating wears out; a tile is replaced
Fire Non-combustible Combustible, or a rated system
The honest part Quarrying is quarrying, and we do not dress it up

Why it behaves the way it does

The sustainable argument for this stone is not that it is green. It is that a wall of it does not need replacing in twenty years, does not need a fire-rated system behind it, and does not need a maintenance regime that involves the material being consumed. That is a real argument, and it is smaller than the marketing around it.

What these figures are, and what they are not

We hold no sustainability certification for this stone and we do not claim one. The natural stone industry has its own standard for sustainable production, and it is not something we have published here.

If you are specifying this

We have not published products against this question yet. Send us the process, thickness and quantity and we will quote it against what we can actually form, rather than against a catalogue.

Send a specification Ask for a sample

Marble is a quarried natural stone with a long service life, and the honest comparison is with the material it replaces rather than with other stones. It is non-combustible and it does not need replacing, but quarrying is quarrying, and we do not claim more than that.

The figures

Coffee Wood Marble A wood-look porcelain or a timber floor
Origin A quarry in Guizhou, cut in Guangdong A factory, or a plantation
Service life The stone lasts; the finish is restored A coating wears out; a tile is replaced
Fire Non-combustible Combustible, or a rated system
The honest part Quarrying is quarrying, and we do not dress it up

Why

The sustainable argument for this stone is not that it is green. It is that a wall of it does not need replacing in twenty years, does not need a fire-rated system behind it, and does not need a maintenance regime that involves the material being consumed. That is a real argument, and it is smaller than the marketing around it.

What these figures are, and what they are not

We hold no sustainability certification for this stone and we do not claim one. The natural stone industry has its own standard for sustainable production, and it is not something we have published here.

Where this applies on this site