Marble - Is it sustainable?

Many would admire the natural patterns of marble slabs that adorn kitchen tops, bathrooms walls, internal flooring and even the cladding of external walls. The way the colours weave through the ancient stone is both attractive and very difficult to replicate. And there is nothing like the real thing for an ego-boosting house interior. Man-made marble? yeah, right....

When choosing materials that would adorn your home in Tanarimba, we should investigate the ecological impact of the chosen material. Ecological impact is not only the CO2 emitted by industries to convert or make that material fit for use, it is also the impact on biodiversity and the community. All that and something that doesn't burn a hole in our pockets. To those not following the plot, that is how one would define sustainability today.

Yes, it is undisputed that almost everything that we do and use as a resource will have a negative impact to the overall ecology. Human's existence in today's numbers is itself detriment to Planet Earth. It is almost impossible to be totally green today and in this parallel universe that we exist. What choice have we, really? Then again, being the smartest creature on Earth (sometimes I wonder), we inherently carry the responsibility to intelligently minimise our impact. We can't leave the task to the Chimps or the Elephants. That is why we need to ask that question when we build our house in Tanarimba (and similarly in almost everything else that we do) - Is that material affordable, has minimal ecological impact, benefits the community and has minimal CO2 emissions? Once you tick all the boxes, we have done our part to be sustainable.

So, the material of relevance today is marble. I will set out my thoughts in the next article. In the meantime, have a look at where made-in-Malaysian Marble predominantly comes from -